Differentiating Your Business (Entrepreneur.com)
Opunimi Akinkugbe
Nigerian Ambassador to Greece (2021-2023) Founder Bestman Games, Money Matters with Nimi Author “A-Z of Personal Finance”
Some of the most successful #businesses in the #world have made their mark by articulating their unique capabilities. Businesses need this kind of unique #selling proposition (USP) to stand out from the crowd. It's a way to lure prospective #customers in your door and away from #competitors. It's also a tool to help you avoid the slippery slope of competing on #price alone and thereby eating into the margins you need to #earn more than a subsistence #wage.
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Here are some suggestions for helping you answer that question.
Analyze the #competition. What do they do well? Where do they fall short? What don't they offer that you do? Where are they geographically located in comparison to you? Look for holes in the #market that will help you define your #niche.
Determine what sets you apart. If you have no differentiator (and many startups don't), invent one – something that makes your own #brand unique.
Identify consumer pain points. When all else fails, list the main frustrations of consumers in your #industry and devise a USP to blunt them.
Offer a guarantee. Again, focus on offering a cure for common customer frustrations – customers value this a lot.
Be specific and concrete.
Never make a claim you can't fulfill.
Once you've established your USP, your #job is to condense it into a few words and then communicate it at every touchpoint from your Yellow Pages ads, letterhead and #marketing collateral to your website, signage, #sales calls and beyond.
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