Developing your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) requires some very focused brainstorming and creativity – this is what I call “Brand-Storming.” Pay attention to how other companies use their USPs to their advantage. This process requires careful analysis of your unique message and your most ideal clients. When you analyze in detail what you have to offer, not just your products or services, you can learn a great deal about how to distinguish yourself from the competition.

You must develop a statement that clearly defines what your brand promise is all about, and what makes your message clearly stand out. Now that may sound easy, but it can be a very challenging message to define. The reason why is because you are so close to your own business that you can’t easily see the most obvious things someone on the outside may see. It takes an outside perspective on your business to come up with a message that clearly defines what your business has to offer and what makes you unique in a matter of seconds.

Put yourself in your prospects’ shoes

Too often, experts fall in love with their product or service offerings and forget that it is the customers’ needs, not their own, that they must satisfy. You need to step back and carefully scrutinize what your customers really want. Pricing is never the only reason people don’t buy. If you are having a hard time standing out because competitors are beating you out on price, you probably have a problem with your value message. You must communicate your marketing message in the form of value-driven benefits. Respond to the questions below and be brutally honest with your answers.

• What benefits do you bring to your customers that your competitors do not?
• Why is your program, system, or services more innovative, unique, or special?

Motivate your prospects’ behavior and buying decisions

Effective marketing requires you to be an amateur psychologist. You need to know what drives and motivates prospects to turn them into buyers. You must touch their emotional buttons. Reasons for emotional buying could be that they are feeling some type of pain in their business and/or professional life; another big reason may be they are not getting the results they desire and other experts have not fulfilled their needs.

Stop selling and start listening. How are you going to motivate your prospects to buy if you don’t know what they really need? Your marketing message won’t sell unless it makes a connection. Once you start asking your prospects and existing customers what their needs are, you’ll be surprised how honest they are when you ask them how you can improve your service or offerings.

Create a new marketing prospective and shop your competition. Clear your mind of any preconceived ideas about your product or service and be brutally honest with yourself about what you are about to see. If your business is just starting out, you won’t have a lot of customers to ask yet. Therefore, the best way to know what prospects are looking for is to “shop” your competition online. Do some extensive research and find out who your competition is. Pay close attention to what they are using to make themselves stand out. Then go one better!

Don’t get discouraged with the process. It takes concentration and a clear focus to develop your unique marketing message. Start out by making a list of all the benefits and solutions you provide for your customers. Then write out numerous messages using these benefit-rich words and solution-oriented results until you can finalize your message down to a 3-15 word results-driven statement that is also rich in benefits. Make it simple for your prospects to understand and quickly relate to.