It can be quite surprising how many businesses fail to realize what their USP is.

First, what is a USP?

Your USP is what you want your customers to know you for.

What do your customers see you as? When someone thinks of what your business sells, does your name even come up in the equation?

Do you even know what your USP is?

Here are some examples of some companies and their Unique Selling Propositions.

Amazon: Everything from A to Z. It’s even in their logo. Everyone knows that they can get anything they want on Amazon and that is specifically what Amazon set out to communicate and their Unique Selling Propostion.

Dominoes: Get your pizza in 30 minutes or less.

Fed Ex: When your package absolutely, positively needs to be there overnight.

Southwest Airlines: Lowest airfare prices. People don’t even price shop Southwest anymore because of this USP.

Being identified in this market all relies on your USP. Otherwise you’re just  business going through the day to day motions.

Are you struggling? Are you unsatisfied? Do you feel you’re fighting a losing battle? Your USP is where you must start. You can’t even begin to market correctly without your Unique Selling Proposition as your message. This is what sets you apart from your competition. This is what makes people want to do business with you over the thousands of competitors you may have.

So here’s a 10 minute exercise for you to figure out what your USP is.

Look at your 3 largest competitors no matter who they are.

What do they do better than you?

What do you do better than them? Maybe you offer better customer service, a better product, a better experience, lower prices, etc.

These things that you do better than your competition equal your USP. Write 3 sentences about each thing you better than your competition. Then incorporate those things into your marketing, into your brain, into your employee’s brains. This is who your business is. This is what you do best!