RR#099 - How To Create A Competition Destroying USP

Mar 10

I almost never say that entrepreneurs can transform their income overnight. Because there are only a couple of moves that actually do provide that kind of difference.

But one of them is creating a competition destroying unique selling proposition (USP).

Your USP is what makes you stand out in a sea of sameness.

It’s the thing that makes you meaningfully different to everybody you would otherwise be competing with.

And it’s what makes your ideal client walk into a room full of similar service providers and say, "I can clearly see that you are the absolute best service provider for me.”

In 2024, more and more people are joining the movement to package and sell their expertise online.

To put that in context, LinkedIn grew by 64 million users last year, now up to 770 million. That’s a lot of potential competition .

So it has truly never been more important to clearly define your USP than it is today.

But here’s the kicker: people are surprisingly bad at constructing their own USP. Everyone thinks they have one, but few actually do.

I see USP’s like this all the time:

A fractional CFO who has an “ability to think beyond the books” and “provide strategic input.”
A sales consultant who has “15 years in the industry and an MBA.”
A B2B marketer who has worked “with a huge range of clients in their 10 years in marketing.”

These are cool, but they’re not USPs. Because USPs have to be, well, unique.

And the above examples? There are hundreds (thousands?) of other service providers who can say essentially the same thing about themselves.

Everybody seems to get ‘good’ and ‘unique’ confused here.

In fact, a client and friend of mine, Robin Robins, runs this exercise with her IT clients. She asks if anybody has a USP. Someone will inevitably stand up and say, "Our network is up 99% of the time, we have great customer service," and so on. But when she asks who else can claim that, everyone's hands go up.

That's not a USP; that's a commodity.

A strong, clear USP gives you pricing power, exclusivity, and a competitive moat. It deters others from even trying to compete with you.

6-Steps To a Competition Destroying USP

1. Start by auditing your competitors. List 20 people selling similar services to yours. Visit their website and check out their marketing materials.

2. Write down what they are claiming makes them different. You’ll usually see it in the About or Featured or Why Us pages on their website.

3. Evaluate that list for two things:

(a) What is everyone saying makes them unique? Avoid.

(b) What is not being claimed? Make a note.

4. Audit your business. List all the strengths you bring to the table.

5. Cull that list by asking: what on that list is most valuable to my clients?

6. Cull it one more time. Ask: what is truly unique about my business? And I mean truly unique. In other words, what could nobody else could claim on their website?

Ideally, the unique strengths you’ve identified are strengths you can provide evidence for. Social proof. Verifiable numbers. Case studies. And so on.

When I created my my USP, I leaned into having run the small and midsize business unit for the world’s largest business federation. My experience as a CEO operator for investor groups. High profile clients like Dan Martell. And generating more than a million dollars from a remote Mexican beach, with my family, in a tank top.

I didn’t claim that the thing that made me different was 20 years sales experience. Because it’s not unique.

Planet Fitness is a prime example of a business that leveraged its USP. Instead of competing for the 20% of Americans who have gym memberships, they targeted the 80% who don't.

And their USP was that they were ‘the gym for people who didn’t like the gym’. They created a no-judgment zone, with equipment and pricing that appealed to their target market. It’s been a critical part of their success.

So, what makes you different? How can you ensure that when your ideal client walks into a room, they know you're the one for them? If you're not sure, developing a strong USP is a great place to start.

If you're looking to dive deeper into this topic, I've recorded a video that breaks down how to create a competition-destroying USP.

Watch full video