A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is your way of telling people why they should do business with you rather than any of your competitors. Your USP answers the following question that your prospective customer always asks, even if subconsciously: “Why should I buy your product or service versus anyone else’s products or services?” If you do not have an answer for this question, then you have ignored one of the strongest and most basic pillars of your business.
Why is a USP so important? Let’s look at an example. Once upon a time, two guys in college needed to make some money and bought a little pizza place that was going out of business. Neither one of them knew anything about making pizza, let alone running a business, but they slowly figured it out. What they also figured out was that they were going to quickly go out of business if they didn’t start selling more pizza. They decided to deliver the pizza and that helped a little, but not enought to hold off the inevitable end. One of the partners lost his nerve and sold out to the other guy. Now the pressure was REALLY on and Tom had to figure something out fast. Although he did not know that it was called a USP, he came up with a compelling reason (did you catch that word? compelling) for people to do business with him. Here’s what he came up with: “Fresh, hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less. Guaranteed.” That right, this was Tom Monaghan, the founder of Dominos Pizza. And because of this USP, he went on to open thousands of stores and make millions of dollars. All because of a compelling USP.
So how do you come up with a compelling USP? Let’s get started…
Step One: Gather Information
First, make a list of every word or phrase that you can think of that describes your art. Notice that I have given you a lot of room to write. Take your time and come back often:
Second, survey anyone that has bought from you and grill them on all the reasons why:
Third, look at your competitors and write down all the reasons that people would buy from them. Put yourself in the shoes of your competitor’s customers:
Fourth, write down every reason why people should buy from YOU that is NOT on your competitor’s list.
In Lesson 2, I will show you how to take this information and craft a compelling USP.
Chris O’Byrne
http://OnlineArtsMarketing.com
