The Importance of a Unique Selling Point

How do you differ from your competition? Why does two companies of similar size in the same industry perform so differently? How can you penetrate your target market better than the next company? Just a few questions which you may have thought about from time to time and if you have it may be because you have not thought through properly what makes your company so different?

What is your Unique Selling Point?

Every company has a unique selling point, why do their customer’s go and purchase from them instead of their competition, chances are they do a number of things better than the competition and some of what they do well may be unique (they are the only ones doing it). Why is it important to know what your unique selling point(s) are? What I tell my clients is that if you can identify your unique selling point you can then start developing a clear message to your target market about why they should choose you over your competition. Once this message has been developed then other areas can be added to this message that will reflect well on your unique selling point; like the look of the company, the wording and information on websites, presentations, sales literature and business cards and can / will affect the type of staff and their skill set / experience that you employ.

How Can I Identify What My Unique Selling Point Is?

This process can be relatively simple or may require a bit of home work depending on what it is you are selling. If you build the only widget in the world that can turn stone to gold (I wish, that will be the Scotsman coming out in me …. always thinking about money ) then your unique selling point is easy; if you own a corner dairy then your unique selling point may be a little bit harder to identify.

It is important to note that a unique selling point needs to be unique in the eyes of the customer not you, this means you can talk to your potential market about anything concerning your business and as long as it resonates well with them and your competition isn’t talking about the same thing it is unique. Take a look at the following steps, they are not definitive but they should help :

• What do I bring to the business? – Maybe you have 20yrs oversees experience in your industry and can bring fresh new ideas to the industry.
• What skills and experiences do my staff have? – Again their accumulative knowledge and experience could make the difference.
• Does my company structure stand the business out from the rest? – I have one business that I work with where the owner is able to visit the clients at their premises because of the way the company is set up, the staff can manage when he is not around. In this particular industry it is unheard of, needless to say they are doing very well.
• Does the environment in which the business conducts it’s business effective? – There are more and more office environments that utilise games areas and time out areas to ensure their employees don’t burn out and actually have fun at work making them far more productive than the traditional office layout.
• How good is your after care service? – Often it is the attention to the client after the sale has been completed that stands a company out from the rest of the competition.
• Is the equipment used to achieve the result for the customer the latest and greatest? – Often this can be the major difference between your business and that of your competitors, having the newest equipment can often mean jobs can be done more productively and often you can produce results for your clients that the competition can’t.
• Is there something that I can talk about within my business that my competition haven’t? – This could be a well known process within your industry that no one else talks about but if it has benefits to the customer that they can relate to then use it!!

Remember think about your unique selling point through the eyes of your customers, often to do this it may mean asking two or three of your best customer their views on your product / service. Of course you will also need to do a bit of research into what and how your competition do things, what messages are they projecting to the market place, how do they deliver their product to the client, how have they priced their products or services are they more expensive or do they always under cut you? Combine what you know of your competition with what you know about your own company, note the differences and in there your unique selling point(s) should be easily identified, once that is done it is then a case of working out how to get that message to your chosen market.