A three-wheeled car is certainly unique, but also impractical and dangerous.
Your business questions have been answered with James Harris
Last time we answered a question about starting a business without a business plan, we suggested that we omit the long, detailed document and instead start it when you could briefly answer the following four questions:
What are you going to sell (product)?
Who will you sell it to (target market)?
Why should they buy it (single sale proposal)?
How will you let them know you exist (advertising channels)?
This led several people to ask for a more detailed explanation of what a single sale proposal (USP) really is. This is a great question and getting the right USP is so critical to the planning and long-term success of any start-up that is worth spending time on.
As we noted, USP is traditionally defined as the reason a consumer should buy your product or service. However, this is an oversimplification and thinking in terms of unique singularity can lead you down the wrong path. A better way to understand your USP is that it is what your product or service does for customers that covers a need or solves a problem that interests them in a different way than your competitors do.
If we break it down, the first thing we can see is that your USP should cover a need or solve a problem for customers. Basically, these are the only two reasons why people will exchange money for what you are offering. Needless to say, if you can mentally move your point of view a bit, you’ll realize that covering a need or solving a problem is the same thing; the difference comes down to the customer’s perspective and how you frame your communication with the customer.
For example, “I want to lose weight to look better (fill a need)” and “I need to lose weight or have a heart attack when I’m 50 (solves a problem)” the potential customer to buy your smoothie product dietary. So, ideally, you can present your product or service in a way that convinces customers that you will do both, but you should check at least one of these boxes convincingly.
The second criterion for a solid USP is that the need you are filling or the problem you are solving is something that your potential customer is seriously concerned about. You can build the best mousepad in the world, but someone who has no problem with the mouse will never buy it.
The third criterion is that you have to fill a need or solve a problem in a different way than your competitors. This is where singularity really comes into play. Just because the customer has a need or problem, and is important to them, doesn’t mean they buy from you. And why should they do it when there is a world of competing products and services that will offer them what they need?
Your challenge is to show that your product or service offers in a way that none of your competitors do, and that difference makes what you enter into the customer a better option than what your competitors offer.
As you think about what your USP might be, remember that uniqueness in itself is not really the basis of a successful USP. For example, most cars have four-wheelers, but you want to make a three-wheeled car. Sure, it’s unique, but anyone who has driven a three-wheeled car will tell you that they are impractical and dangerous, so your uniqueness will not translate into a valuable USP from the customer’s perspective.
If you have any questions about starting a business or managing your existing business, we’d love to hear from you because we’ll select a new question to answer here every two weeks. You can send your question to james@qsb-consulting.com using the subject ‘CQToday’.