James Malinchak’s Ways To Establish Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Setting up a business was not a problem for Gloria. All of her life, what she had wanted to do was to create a take-away lunch shop like the one she remembered from the corner of the street she was living as a child. She had finished her catering education and had taken a variety of business management courses to give her the confidence to own her own business. However, there was a problem she had not considered. There was now a multitude of lunch possibilities for the working population of her area.

The explosion in the fast food market suggested that the competition was fierce and so Gloria thought about her options. She could either let go of her business plan or do something else with her catering/business background. On the other hand, she can come up with a plan which will give her an advantage over her competitors. With her catering experience, she suddenly realized what she can offer over the other sandwich and doughnut outlets; in addition to the original lunch options, she can offer a home-made equivalent of a TV dinner, a meal that could be popped in the microwave for a quick hot meal.

Meals in Minutes would be her unique selling position - her USP. A price list delivered to all the local businesses proclaimed the benefits of eating a nutritional meal daily, and promising them that her "meals in minutes" will give them exactly that minus the fuss of shopping and cooking - they could even email their orders in to her and collect them at lunch-time.

Along side, the baked potato and sandwich menu, she created a small menu of meals that could be either eaten on the day, or put in the freezer and frozen as an emergency stand-by. As she made every meal from a number of components, hungry shoppers had a choice of potatoes, rice or pasta, to accompany their choice of meat, fish or vegetable main dish, and a selection of 2 vegetables. She prepared the food the day before and cooked it on the morning that it was sold.

In the beginning she was uncertain if the idea would fly with customers and so just prepared small quantities of the food products necessary for the meals, but every day she sold out in just a couple of hours, and within a month of opening she was employing additional staff. To her surprise, she found that she was earning almost as much on the meals as she was on the lunches. Customers began to buy 2 and 3 meals at a time, busy mothers and wives happy to be able to serve up freshly cooked meals to their families. Her unique selling position had paid off, and not just that, she had a thriving business which was soon being expanded into a number of other locales.

How many people do you know who sell pretty much the identical service or product as you do? There are likely thousands of sales people who all have the same prospect list as you. Why should that prospect pick you over them? That's where the value lies in discovering your unique selling position.

The word unique implies that this must be something that you can offer that no-one else has until this point. Bear in mind they'll copy it if it's successful. You should think about your USP on a regular basis and stay ahead of the pack. Your USP is something that will set you apart from the crowd. So what can it be?

Think about your product or service for a moment. Now think about the prospect. What can you do that will make your product stand out as being more attractive to the prospect?

A unique selling position may cause extra work in some manner - but it'll be worth it when you see the more sales you generate as a result of publicizing your USP. Offering a free replacement of a piece of equipment while a broken one is fixed, is a good USP because being without the equipment can often mean a loss of business for the client. However, it's possible that your USP isn't anything extra at all. It could be no more than looking at what you already do from a different perspective. For instance, whenever you meet with a prospect, don't call it a meeting at their office, call it an in-house consultation.

Your USP might be to offer free consultations to discuss how your products could increase a client's profits - same meeting but implies something more than just a sales discussion. Imagine your sales brochure "Printing Solutions for All Situations - Call us today for a FREE In-House Consultation on How We can help You do Better!" If you provide a service, offer to let them test-drive the service for a few weeks free! "We wouldn't expect you to purchase a car without a test-drive, and we don't expect you to sign up our services without trying us out - sign up for a free test-drive of our cleaning package today by ringing ….."

What you should remember with a USP is that it has to be related to your product, or service, and it should enhance it in some manner that encourages people to want to place their order with you rather than with your competitors. It should also be something you could easily use in your publicity material, so that it stands out amongst the other comparable brochures on a prospects desk. A good USP is going to be one of the most effective weapons you'll have in your sales toolbox. Therefore, invest your time developing one that fits your service or product, and then put it to work!

"You get out in front - you stay out in front." A.J. Foyt

James Malinchak, Showcased on ABC’s Hit TV Program Secret Millionaire, is recognized as by many industry experts as the World’s #1 Big Money Speaker Coach and Trainer. For Totally free Video Trainings concerning how to receive money to speak and ways to be a public speaking, try visit this site and learn more.