7 Steps To Creating The Most Powerful Statement You Can Make

Here is a story of two brothers who ran a business to put themselves through college. The business wasn’t doing well and one brother wanted out.

Big Mistake. The brother who stayed with it created one of the biggest pizza chains in the world, and became a billionaire. And he did it with 10 simple words.

Yes, words. We all need to develop one sentence that answers the question, “Why should I do business with you versus any other option?”

This is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

My clients often struggle with creating this powerful and business-changing statement. So I came up with a simple way to help you develop one for your business.

But first, let me tell you a story to help illustrate how powerful this can be.

Tom Monahan took a simple proposition — a benefit for his customer — and provided a bold guarantee. He didn’t bother with the quality or years in business or any of that stuff because people don’t care about all of that. What they do care about is what BENEFIT they really want to get from doing business with you.

And fortunately, none of Tom’s competitors were paying attention (and it’s very likely that your competitors aren’t, either). His customer wanted pizza delivered fast. Tom created the USP of “Fresh, Hot Pizza Delivered In 30 Minutes Or Less, Guaranteed!”

Those 10 words created the Dominoes Pizza empire. Do you think a strong Unique Selling Proposition can help your business? You bet.

So here are the simple 7 Steps To Creating Your USP:

1. Don’t rush it, think it over for a bit – realize that this takes time and careful thought (but it’s EXTREMELY worth it!). Put aside some time for yourself in a place where you won’t be interrupted.

2. Talk to your clients and find out what they really like about you, why they chose you in the first place and what else they may want from your services. And don’t be afraid to ask what they don’t like about your business, too.

3. Find out what they like and don’t like about your competitors, too.

4. Make a list of all these points.

5. Narrow these lists down to 1 to 3 major points.

6. What you’re looking for is a “positioning gap.” That means something that you have or do (or can do) that others don’t — one single important benefit that people want most in your market.

7. Now put that into one concise and memorable statement that tells your target market what you will do for them.

For example, here is my USP of one of my businesses:

“I’ll Cut Your Yellow Pages Bill By Up To 80% And Get You More New Customers Than Ever Before…GUARANTEED!”

Do you think this works better than just saying, “I’m a marketing consultant?”

You bet it does. And a powerful USP will work for you, too.

So get started on creating yours right now.

If you have a great one, post it in the Comments area below.