How to Compete and Dominate the Market with Your USP
95% of all companies spend time and effort trying to find out their strengths and weaknesses, but without success. Even more don’t know how to communicate why their product or service is better than the competition. How can an unprepared sales team do well?
Customers are drawn to USPs by the uniqueness of it. They are drawn to brands for what sets them apart from all the other options out there.
A strong positioning will help you build a strong brand for growth and success, but it’s not enough on its own. You also need an effective marketing plan that delivers your message, builds trust, and attracts leads
A Unique Selling Proposition is your USP. It is the one thing that sets you apart from the competition.
It’s not an easy task to come up with a unique selling proposition, but it’s not impossible either.
There are many ways that you can find out what your USP is for your business or proposal. Here are just a few examples:
1) Brainstorming — go through all of the things that you offer and see if any of them stands out among other businesses in your industry.
2) Reach out to your customers, ask them what they value most about working with you and take note of their suggestions
3) Create a list of traits or qualities that are most important to customers when shopping for products like yours.
4) Conduct surveys
It’s worth figuring out your position on the market so you can improve it.
What specific market niche or industry should your company focus on? Figure this out by analysing the skills you have and what unmet needs your targeted prospects have. Then, come up with a product or service to fill those needs.
The more specific your USP is to your company and what you do, the more valuable it will be.
Your USP should answer these questions:
- What are you selling?
- Who are you selling to?
- Why should they buy from you?
- How do they buy from you?
Domino’s main strategy used to be feeding hungry college kids with their fast, hot pizzas. Starbucks is increasingly becoming popular among people who are looking for the perfect drink that makes them feel good.
Know your Target Audience’s Pain Points& What They Want to Find Value in Your Product/Service
You can differentiate yourself from your competitors by promising to complete certain tasks in the time allotted or at no cost. Domino’s Pizza, for example, offered free pizza if they couldn’t deliver it in 30 minutes. This was to be their primary advantage and the needs of their new customer — edgy and hungry college kids who wanted food now.
Decide which model of business you want to have.
What are you going to do for this strategic position and promise that you have in place that is dominating your market? What changes, if any, need to happen to your business in order for it to be more accurate in fulfilling the promises it has made? Domino’s has a really good business model that enables you to get your pizza quickly. It’s always fresh and hot, too!
They were forced to create a supporting business model where they built plain vanilla stores strategically located near college campuses. They had to hire extra delivery drivers to stay on standby and since college kids are a captive market on campus they were ready.
By using a range of innovative approaches, you can consistently stay ahead in your chosen market.
Determine Your Secondary Market Dominating Position.
What competitive advantages does your shop provide which you think will ensure that customers see your business in a different light? Domino’s would offer different pricing and assorted sizes which might appeal to some people.
This is your market dominating position statement, which might be used as an elevator pitch
This is a simple statement you can create by combining the information that you determined in steps one through four of this process. An “elevator pitch” helps you to state unequivocally what differentiates you from your competitors to your targeted prospects and customer, in the time it would take you to ride in an elevator with a prospective client or business partner.
Domino’s slogan “fresh hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less, or it’s free.” sums up its market-dominating position quite neatly.
An expanded version of this pitch might say:
“Domino’s provides busy customers with fresh hot pizza and other food items within 30 minutes or less. Our assorted pizza offerings combined with our value pricing makes Domino’s affordable to everyone.”
Keep Your Competitive Edge with Just 1 Powerful Idea
One powerful idea is all you need to keep your competitive edge and stay ahead in the game. And that one idea can come in many forms:
- A new product that solves a customer’s problem
- A new way to communicate with your customers
- A new way for employees to work together more efficiently.
How To Avoid Relying On Your USP In The Long-Term?
USPs are often intended to make you stand out in the marketplace. But, they can also get you stuck in a corner if you rely too much on them.
A USP is not enough. You need to take it one step further and build your brand instead of relying solely on your USP to do all the work for you.
Building a brand is crucial for long-term success — people will always be looking for something new and fresh to consume, and they won’t find that with an overused USP.
The problem with most brands and their USP is that it’s always the same: strong, bold claims about what they can offer with little or no backing evidence — this will only wear thin fast!
Successful brands are always innovating. They are always on the lookout for new opportunities that might help them grow their market share. One of the best ways to achieve that is by using your Unique Selling Proposition as a strategy for business growth.
This is best illustrated by the following example of successful brands who used their USP as a strategy for business growth:
- Apple’s “Think Different” slogan turned into “Think Differently” with the addition of an apostrophe. This helped them to differentiate themselves from other companies in their space, and it also helped them stay on top of the game with all the new technological advancements coming out.
- IKEA’s “Know Where You Live” slogan gave people a sense that they were living in a home and not just renting one temporarily.
-Crossfit focuses on training for all sports with emphasis on high intensity, full body workouts. The goal of this concept is to improve the participant’s mental and physical health.
Zinio, which is an app that offers digital magazines, and Daycareer, which is an online platform where people can find daycare options near them.
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