Nobody Does It The Way You Do

What makes your business truly unique? What makes your business more valuable to your customers than others doing ‘what you do’ in the marketplace?

You may be familiar with terms such as; unique selling proposition (USP), differentiators, success proposition, value proposition, or your ‘How’ (as Simon Sinek refers to it) – all used to determine ‘why you?’ in the mind of your customer. In today’s world of instantly imitated competition, you wouldn’t be the first to find it hard to define what makes your business TRULY unique.

The 3 Uniques? from EOS? (the Entrepreneurial Operating System?) are a combination of the three ‘things’ that your business is/ does that creates a compelling message for your ideal customer and help you to stand out above the competition. 

Working on the premise that if you share a ‘USP’ with another player in your market, the definition of the term would deem it to be non-unique. By having three clear, relevant, and defined uniques, you can elevate your business to be truly unique to the right people. It is not necessary for each to be completely unique in isolation, the power comes from the combination and compounding effect when you put all three together. If you benchmark yourself against ten of your closest competitors, you might share one with many, some with a few, but none should have all of your three ‘uniques’. You will then have your own defined success proposition, your own ‘How’. No one else in your space should be able to do all three quite the way you do. Those three things should be music to your ideal customers’ ears when they hear them from you time and time again.

Have you settled on the three qualities that will truly make your business unique to your ideal customer? 

Your uniques are those things that drive success and results in your business model – ie. your secret sauce and your inside advantage. They give you the ability to lift up your proposition, and save your business from becoming commoditised – as these three things are the reason that people will gladly pay more for your product/ service. Clearly defining your three uniques will give you the confidence to move forward with a stronger, more targeted approach to your sales and marketing efforts. Your team should be able to make clearer decisions knowing that your business is truly and specifically something to somebody (the right kind of somebody) without having to be everything to everybody.

How do you choose your 3 Uniques? 

Asking your current ideal customers is a great place to start. What is it about what you do that keeps them working with you? What made them choose you in the first place? What do they love about what you do and how you do it most? These insights can help to shine a light on the ‘things’ that matter most to your ideal customers. You may be able to identify a long list of candidates for your uniques, and yet the power comes when you can simplify and pin down the top three most important, most relevant, and most valuable ‘things’ (three is the magic number) – and then wrap a compelling message around them.

How do you use your 3 Uniques? 

Once you have them, use them. Make them unavoidable in your marketing and build them into your culture. Have all of your people able to quickly articulate that simple, single message that becomes ‘How you do, what you do’. Your three uniques should follow you around the universe until you become simply ‘known’ for these three things. They become intrinsically linked to your name and your brand, tying your compelling message directly to your market of ideal customers, helping you to improve the amount of opportunity that you are able to turn in to the right kind of business.

If you are looking for new ways to improve your business in 2019, check out the 3 Uniques?, part of the Vision/ Traction Organiser? (V/TO?) one of the foundational tools of the Entrepreneurial Operating System?. EOS? is a simple set of practical tools that is used by tens of thousands of entrepreneurs and leadership teams worldwide to clarify, simplify and achieve their vision.

Next Steps:

• Unlock the EOS Toolbox? and gain free access to the Vision/ Traction Organiser? (V/TO?) www.eosworldwide.com/eos-toolbox

·      How strong is your company? Find out for free in a simple 5-minute Q&A on our Organisational Checkup? www.organisationalcheckup.co.uk from EOS Worldwide.

Dean is the MD of Grow or Die based in the South West, helping Entrepreneurs & Leadership Teams to realise their company’s full potential as a Certified EOS Implementer? in the UK www.growdie.com | [email protected]