To run and maintain a sustainable business with the right amount of profit and sales you need to have some sort of differential from all your competitors and also have something unique that will capture your consumers and keep them coming back to your store.

You can get this right by having a Unique Selling Point or USP and there after effectively sell your  Unique Selling Point to your target market via your marketing efforts and business performance.

A Unique Selling Point is almost the most crucial part of business if you’re operating in a highly competitive market.

What Is An Unique Selling Point?

Your USP is the one thing that makes your business different and sets it apart from your competitors. It’s a number of factors and basically  Advantages you bring to your customers that differentiate you from your competitors.

The success of your business is built around your USP, and so you must be able to explain your Unique Selling Point and fulfill it honourably and effectively in your business. In terms of the benefit it delivers to your customers its always good to explain and stand by your USP.

“What’s the one thing that makes your business unique and different your competitors  from ? Why should people buy from you and not from your competitors? Do you promise great value, benefits or services?”

Advantages could include factors like a broad range of product selection, superior customer service, highest quality, best prices, and so on.

Here’s how to uncover your Unique Selling Point and use it to power up your sales:

3. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes.

Entrepreneurs tend to sell their product to themselves first before thinking about their costumers, your customers should fall in love with your product more than you do. You should take the time to find out what your customer really wants and what product will they really fall in love with. Suppose you own a gourmet food restaurant . Sure, customers come into your gourmet place for food. But do customers only come there for your food?  What could make them come back more often than not and ignore your competition? The first answer might be quality, convenience, reliability, friendliness, cleanliness, courtesy or customer service, the important essentials of any business specially in the food market.

Remember, price is never the only reason people buy your product. Once your competition is beating you on pricing because they are larger, you have to find another sales feature that addresses the customer’s needs and wants and then begin to build your sales and promotional efforts around that feature or features.

2. Know what motivates your customers’ behaviour and buying decisions.

To have an effective marketing strategy you need to be an unqualified psychologist for a few days or so. You need to know what drives and motivates your customers. Look beyond the traditional customer demographics that define the perfect customer such as age, gender, race, income and geographic location, that most businesses collect to analyze their sales trends and loses. For the gourmet restaurant example, it is not enough to know that 75 percent of your customers are in the 18-to-25 age range that doesn’t help you understand the kind of customer your business attracts. You need to look at their motives for buying your gourmet taste, peer pressure, convenience and perfect service or perfect selling point and so forth.

Cosmetics and liquor companies are great examples of industries that know the value of psychologically oriented promotions. People buy their products based on their desires (for the ladies, it’s luxury and to enhance their beauty), not on their needs.

1. Uncover the real reasons customers buy your product instead of a competitor’s.

As your business grows, you’ll be able to ask your best source of information: your customers. For example, the gourmet entrepreneur could ask them why they like his burgers over others, then ask them to rate the importance of the features that he offers over his competitors, such as taste, size, ingredients, atmosphere and service. You will be surprised how honest people are when you ask how you can improve your services and what needs changing in the business.Any customer would be more than happy to improve the experience they have with your business.

If your business is still a new born in the industry then of course you won’t have so many customers to ask, so instead go check out the competition. Many business owners routinely drop into their competitors’ stores to see what and how they are selling and at what price they are selling it at and basically what makes them unique. If you’re really brave, try asking a few of the customers after they leave the premises what they like and dislike about the competitors’ products and services, this will be of great use for your business.

Once you’ve gone through this three-step market intelligence and research process, you need to take the next step: clearing your mind of any preconceived ideas about your product or service and and what your customer really wants  then eventually being brutally honest with yourself. What features of your business jump out at you as something that sets you apart from the rest? What can you promote that will make customers want to patronize your business and try out the products that you are offering? How can you position in your business  highlight your Unique Selling Point?

Don’t get discouraged by negative feed back, use it and work on all the negatives of the business. Successful business ownership is not about having a unique product or service; it’s about making your product stand out and bettering it with the years even in a market filled with similar items.

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