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How to Create a Unique Selling Positioning Statement

Without a Unique Selling Positioning Statement (USP), your product/services and marketing strategies will not be competitive in your industry. You must include your USP throughout your business to become successful. Therefore, before anything else, you should develop a USP.

What is a USP?

USP stands for Unique Selling Positioning Statement, Unique Selling Point or Unique Selling Position. It separates you from your competition and guides consumers to choose you over others.

Here are some samples of great Positioning Statements from well-known companies:

Burger King: “Have it your way”

FedEx: "When your package absolutely, positively has to get there overnight"

Domino's Pizza: "You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less -- or it's free."

Qualities for a Successful Positioning Statement Include:

1. Meet the needs and wants of your customers.

2. Offer something that your competition does not offer.

3. Difficult for your competition to copy.

4. Show why the customer should choose you over the competition.

5. Contribute to the company branding.

6. Clear and concise, not complicated to understand.

More on this later.

How do you create a successful USP?

The first steps require research. Then you analyze your research to create your USP.

1. Know your industry.

Become familiar with your industry to understand the research you will later complete. Have an idea of the processes that make your industry work and what is available to the customer.

Example: If you are thinking of creating a website that sells your homemade jewelry, you should understand the types of jewelry available and how it’s made available to the customer. By learning this and becoming familiar with the industry, you make wiser decisions on your USP.

Go to shops or websites of other companies in the industry. Read industry publications and websites.

Make lists of:

What is available to the customer in your industry? In addition, list in what different avenues the industry is providing services/products to the customer.

2. Understand the needs and wants of your customer.

The needs and wants of your customer make your sales. You will not make money selling something no one needs or wants. In addition, it does no good to sell something someone needs but doesn’t want. I really doubt that the best salesperson can “sell snow to an Eskimo.” Therefore, it is important that your Unique Selling Position satisfies a need and want.

Go to websites that post consumer complaints and discover about what customers in your industry are complaining. Is it lack of a certain service like delivery, product choices, etc. or miscellaneous fees? Make a list of mistakes other companies are making.

Find websites where your customer contributes to forums or blogs and discover what they want out of the industry. Also, find surveys on your customer. They may have more information on the customer’s needs and wants.

Make two lists; one of the customer’s needs and another of the wants.

3. Understand your customer.

By understanding your customer, you may find something that you can take advantage of and use in your Unique Selling Positioning Statement and services. You can use this information to make it easier for your customers to do business with you, providing better customer service and creating customer loyalty.

Example: If you find that most of your customers are in college, you can spend your advertising money better by putting ads in college/university publications and websites.

Gather information that includes everything you can find: ages, incomes, where they shop, work, live, and whatever else you can gather.

If you are an existing company, find the characteristics that are common within your customer base and list them.

4. Understand the strengths and weaknesses of your competition.

This, you should add to your business plan under the marketing plan section, and is handy to discover your Unique Selling Positioning Statement.

Make lists of the strengths and weaknesses of your competition. Include what they provide and what are restricted to providing and why. What prevents them from providing better or more services? Their strengths can contribute to their weaknesses and should be listed as well. Also, don’t forget the strengths and weaknesses of the company as a whole, and the employees or staff.

Later, take this information and analyze it to create your USP.

5. Understand your strengths and weaknesses.

If you already have an established company, understand your strengths and weaknesses. If you are just starting, there may be strengths and weaknesses attached to that as well.

Make two lists, one of your strengths and another of your weaknesses. If a strength contributes to a weakness, don’t forget to include it.

6. Now, is the time to analyze your research to discover your Unique Selling Positioning Statement.

After understanding the industry, do you now see or have an idea of a product or service that is lacking? Make a list of your ideas and thoughts.

7. Look at your list of the customer’s needs and wants.

Circle the ones not met by your industry. Is there a common compliant that indicates a lack of service in the industry?

8. Analyze the information you gathered about the customer.

What is common between the majority of customers? Circle them.

9. Find your uniqueness.

In your lists of strengths and weaknesses of the competition and your company, circle what the competition can’t provide and copy from your company due to their weaknesses and possibly strengths (a strength can be a factor that can hold them back from coping you).

Example of a strength holding the competition back: Let’s use the jewelry example again. The competition sells and creates a large amount of jewelry quickly at a low price. Your company sells slowly and sells custom-made jewelry with their names hand painted on the stones and because of the uniqueness of your jewelry, customers are willing to pay more. If you grow your WAHM business bigger, by having a system in place you can hire more hand-painting artists to take over and handle your company growth. However, the competition will not be able to copy your hand-painting feature because they sell at a low price and can’t afford the extra workers.

10. The Final Step.

You have researched with steps 1-5, and analyzed that research with steps 6-9. With the information you gathered from analyzing the research, create a Unique Selling Positioning Statement that does the following:

a) Meet the needs and wants of your customers.

Your USP convince the customer to buy because they will need and want your product or service.

b) Offer something that your competition does not offer.

Your company will serve a niche that the competition doesn’t offer, helping you to achieve dominance over a section of the market. That section of the market will be your target market.

c) Difficult for your competition to copy.

It must be difficult for your competition to copy, because if not, they will try to and then you will have to redo your USP and all your marketing again.

d) Show why the customer should choose you over the competition.

Make it clear to the customer why they should choose you over the competition. If there is no reason to, then they choose the competition if they are cheaper. The last thing you want is a price war.

e) Contribute to the company branding.

Your USP should contribute to or be the inspiration for your branding. Everything from your logo to your product should be consistent, creating a strong brand.

f) Clear and concise, not complicated to understand.

Don’t be subtle in your Unique Selling Positioning Statement, be clear and easy to understand and get your point across. Your Unique Selling Positioning Statement is not the place to be coy; be straight out with it, just say it, be confident.

I hope I gave you all you need to create a successful USP. You may be asking, “Now, what do I do with this?” The answer, “EVERYTHING.” The Unique Selling Positioning Statement is the root of your WAHM business. It is why customers will buy from you versus another company. You need to ensure that EVERYTHING in your business stems from your Unique Selling Positioning Statement, just like every part of a plant stems from its roots.

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