“Why should I do Business with you, above any and all other options,
including doing nothing, or whatever I’m doing now… regardless of price”
What is Unique about your store?
Why should I buy from you?
How are you any different from anyone else?
…And no, it’s not cheap prices. It’s not good service. And it’s definitely not because you’ve been in business for 89 years and 5 generations.
What is your emotional, compelling reason that is going to jump out and grab me, practically forcing me to come in and see you? How are you different and better than your competitors?
Most of us have a really poor answer to this question.
Usually answers are tied to things we, the business owners, care about. Vague and general statements. Statements that are totally incapable of making an emotional connection that cause people to want to do business with you.
A USP Must
The USP must also force your prospect to say
“Oh really…How do they do that?”
If your prospect doesn’t have to stop and think about that, your USP isn’t doing its job.
Here are some examples of what a USP is not…
“Just do it™”
“We try harder™”
“Service so amazing you’ll be blown away”
“We help people make their dreams come true”
“We really care”
“We help our customers get exactly what they want, at a price they can afford”
Lets look at probably the best Unique Selling Proposition of all time from Dominoes Pizza…
Here are a few examples of USP’s that a furniture store could use.
I'm always astounded when somebody tells me that there's really no difference between them and their competitors; if that's true, in my opinion, they should fold up their tent and call it quits.
The blunt truth is, when you have trouble enunciating a USP, you have much bigger business problems than advertising alone might solve.
And ad pros do clients an enormous disservice when they try to disguise the absence of a USP or a valid reason for existence with clever advertising, emulating the magician's principle of distraction.
There is no ad campaign or promotion that can make up for missing this core business principle. Now think about this…
It is typical for business owners to look at things and say I don’t offer anything that much more unique or…or different than my competitors. This is a difficult process for most business owners. So I’m going to give you three shortcuts to developing the USP:
There’s a story I often tell… there was a plastic surgeon in California, and as you know in California for every person there’s a plastic surgeon.
They advertise with a lot of print ads in magazines and they’re big and glossy and expensive. This particular surgeon was finding was that he was losing money because the market was becoming saturated and everybody was advertising the same way.
So, he positioned himself by saying “Hey, I’m going to provide you with the 8 steps you should know before you get plastic surgery.”
This totally changed his business. He was still obviously a plastic surgeon. That didn’t change about his business. But what he did was he re-positioned himself by saying, “I’m an expert and I’m a consumer advocate. I’m going to give you information so you can make a good decision before you do business with anyone.”
In the information you provide you give them good quality information, but also you do a good job of explaining what you do as well. So it’s a little bit of a sales pitch on your end.
Use a monthly newsletter to keep in touch with your top 20% clients! Build this relationship.
Put your name on all advertising messages.
Tools To Create the USP:
Survey your customers, find out from the best source possible, “Why DO people do business with us?”
“What makes us different from other retailers?
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“Why do our clients continue to support us, and not other retailers?”
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Why do clients leave us? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What do other retailers, or even other completely different businesses do to differentiate themselves, and set themselves apart? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What do we do better than the competition? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What is our Sales Story? (Why are we in business? How did I get in business? What do I believe in?) ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
What would be so Crazy, so Wild, So Completely out of the box for a furniture retailer to do that would make me totally unique. (Look at other industries, A drive up window for furniture retail? Movie Theater in the showroom?)
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USP Quick Check:
Is it Specific?
Is it Clear?
Is it Unique?
Is it concise?
Is it Emotional?
Does it talk about a benefit to your buyer?
Does it explain “Why should I do Business with you above any and all other options, including doing nothing, or whatever I’m doing now…regardless of price”
Last Words…
BE PATIENT WITH YOURSELF!
This will not happen overnight. It may take several months to really develop a USP you can take to the bank.
If you are having trouble coming up with it by yourself, the best way to get insight is to ask your customers. Ask them the questions above. Ask your staff, and delivery team. Have them talk to customers when they deliver. This source of information will really help you to develop the USP.