You won’t need to be told how competitive the business marketplace is, regardless of what sort of company you run, which is why you need to focus on your USP in order to gain an edge over your rivals.

It is good to keep your finger on the pulse of what is going on in the world of commerce and you can do that by visiting sites like businesstrex, for instance, and knowing what others are up to will also help you to identify what USP’s you should be focusing on.

Here are some pointers to consider.

Understanding what a USP is

A good starting point would be to appreciate exactly what a unique selling point (USP) actually is and how it can transform your business prospects.

In basic terms, a USP is the aspect of your business that sets you apart from your rivals, whether it is an exclusive product range, top-rated customer service, or something else that you tend to better than others.

Highlighting your USP to customers gives them a solid reason to buy from you.

Helping you move away from the pricing conversation

One of the key ways to take advantage of your USP is to change the focus away from how much you charge.

What tends to happen when you have a strong USP is your customers are less concerned about your pricing structure, or they are prepared to pay a premium for access to what you do well.

Once you have clearly established exactly what it is that your customers like about you that’s the golden ticket that you need to exploit, it’s your USP.

A USP can transform your marketing results

The good news is that once you have clearly established exactly what it is that customers love about your business and why they buy from you it becomes a whole lot easier to use that intelligence to formulate a marketing campaign around that USP.

It is just as important to remain focused on what you do well and remains consistent in your approach, otherwise, you could easily end up damaging your USP.

For example, if you are open longer hours than your competitors, changing your opening times will instantly detract from the very thing that makes people like your business.

Developing a USP

Even if you don’t currently have a USP that makes you stand out from the crowd it is never too late to work on developing one.

One way to work on creating a USP would be to take a good look at current trends within your industry and see what it is that others are doing and whether your rivals are meeting the needs of customers in that sector, overall.

This informative research can often help you identify services or products that customers would want to buy but can’t currently access because no one is offering them.

Always work on testing your USP with regular customer feedback and refine any details that need changing so that you stay ahead of your competitors.

By Chakraborty

Dr Chakrabarty is the Chief Innovation Officer of IntuiComp TeraScience. Earlier she was Assistant Professor of Delhi University, a QS ranked university in India. Before that she has held research positions in IIT Mumbai, IIT Chennai and IISc Bangalore. She holds 2 patents and over 20 research publications in her name which are highly cited. Her area of research is in smart technologies, integrated devices and communications. She also has a penchant for blogging and is an editor of Business Fundas.