You Need to Find Your Unique Selling Position (USP) in order to Reach Your Greatest Success. I'm sure you don't mean it, but you may be confusing customers with your advertising. Your customers have so many choices in almost every product classification. When they're shopping for a service or product its normal for them to have even thousands of alternatives.



If you doubt me, just jump on the Internet and see how many businesses would love to sell you a pair of shoes or a briefcase or a shirt. My guess is that your alternatives could number in the thousands.

Isn't that how it should be? You're bound to like it if you're the consumer. But those of us who make a living marketing products and services will find it a challenge. What is a marketer to do in order to survive?

Your Advertising Needs to Set You Apart or You've Failed. The number one job of your advertising is to show your customer that you're NOT the same as everyone else. While working with a small business client the other day, we looked in the yellow pages for her business and saw an excellent example of how advertising should never be done.

There were pages upon pages of ads with one thing in common. They were all alike. You could have substituted one company name for another without changing the ad in the slightest and it still would have made sense to the customer.

This was obviously a problem for all those companies--but an opportunity for my client! He (or she) who differentiates--wins!

Without Clear Differences--Price is the Deciding Factor. What do you think happens when consumers are barraged with choices and do not perceive any difference between one supplier and another? They evaluate and make their purchase decision based on the one thing they can measure--price! When there is no other point of differentiation, price becomes the deciding factor. That's not good for you and it's not even the best for your customer--especially if you're in a business where your value is best realized when you have an on-going relationship with your customer. Customers who come to you for the best price will leave you just as quickly as they find a better price. It's like being the fastest gun in the West. No matter how fast you are, there's always someone faster. Don't play that game. It's better to differentiate.

If you can differentiate yourself, you can charge higher prices. Companies who effectively demonstrate their differences from the competition can justify higher prices. The lowest price does not always get the business. Just think for a minute. You don't always buy the cheapest product or service. Even if you're a world champion cheapskate you can differentiate between bruised and fresh produce. You'll pay a higher price for the fresh vegetables. Correct?

Are your customers any different? No. Certainly, you must have a reasonable price, but if you have highlighted an important difference in your product or service, customers will pay extra to have that benefit.

If you want more sales, better customers and higher profits, just find the important attribute which makes you different from you competitors. Then make certain you're telling your potential customers about it.