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    How do I develop a clear unique selling point?

    Defining the unique selling point (USP) of your business is a crucial step for any leader. Not only does a clearly defined USP help to differentiate you from the rest of the market and thereby attract customers, it also helps determine growth targets for your business and gives employees the clarity they need to excel in their roles.

    Ways to help you deal with it:

    Action plan

    Defining your USP

    Effort: Medium
    Impact : High
    It’s harder than ever for businesses to stand out. Defining your USP allows you to quickly communicate what makes you different.

    ACTION PLANS are a structured list of steps designed to help you approach tackling a particular business challenge.

    • We explain why each step is important
    • Customise by setting your own completion dates and assign tasks
    • Helpful tools are provided for certain steps
    • A downloadable PDF version of each action plan is available

    Action plan

    Embed your USP in your company culture

    Effort: Medium
    Impact : Medium
    If you’ve developed a unique selling point (USP) and want to ingrain it in your culture, our five-step action plan will help.

    Action plan

    Create a marketing plan for a new group of customers

    Effort: Medium
    Impact : High
    Targeting a new group of customers? Our five-step action plan explains how to adapt your marketing strategy.

    Action plan

    Build stronger relationships with loyal customers

    Effort: Medium
    Impact : High
    Developing a plan for building stronger relationships with long-term customers will make sure your business prospers.

    Action plan

    Leveraging research to understand the business landscape

    Effort: Low
    Impact : Medium
    This action plan looks at how business leaders can use different types of research to build a better understanding of the business landscape.

    Guide

    An introduction to developing a clear unique selling point

    What makes your business different to everybody else in the market? Answering this question is the essence of a clear unique selling point (USP).

    GUIDES break a challenge down, providing important context and real-world experiences.

    • Based on SME experiences, not corporate jargon
    • Filled with real-world stories
    • Achievable steps every business can take

    Other support that's available

    Understanding unique selling points

    Understanding unique selling points

    Find out how to set yourself apart from the competition with this helpful guide to USPs from Shopify.

    Standing by your USP

    Standing by your USP

    Mind Tool’s guide to USP analysis will help you identify your competitive edge in four simple steps.

    How other businesses have tackled something similar

    Real business story

    How ethical values helped this Cornish surf brand make waves

    Tom Kay, the founder of the Cornish surf brand Finisterre, wanted to build a business that worked with and not against nature. He soon found that this ethos gave Finisterre its unique selling point (USP).

    Real business story

    Keeping loyal customers is the key to long-term success

    Finding new customers is expensive and time consuming. Despite this, many companies focus resources on customer acquisition, rather than retention.

    Real business story

    Comprehensive research is the key to creating a hyper-relevant offering

    Evolving your business alongside the needs of customers and the development of the market is a must for ensuring its future. If you’re not forging ahead, you’re retreating backwards – there’s no standing still.

    The questions lots of businesses are trying to answer

    What issue is keeping you awake at night? A bit of targeted support is often all you need to overcome those challenges.

    Select a topic

    Digital

    How can I improve the digital presence my business has? How can I streamline and automate some of our business processes? How can I understand what digital tools or support my business needs? How do I effectively seek external digital support? How do I know if my technology is robust enough for growth? How do I assess and choose the right technology to improve business operations? How do I work out the best digital sales channels to use? How should I best budget and plan for new technology investments? How should I go about collecting data to improve my business? How should I use the data I have to improve decision making?

    Leadership & Strategy

    As a leader, how do I learn to trust others within my organisation? How can I balance short-term needs with long-term targets? How can I reflect on my own strengths and weaknesses as a leader? How do I learn to become a better leader? How do I improve the communication in my business? How do I apply learnings from other businesses to my own company? How do I get better at noticing and reacting to warning signs? How do I get staff interested in our vision and values? How do I give my team autonomy and get better at delegating? How should my role as a business leader evolve with the company’s growth?

    People & Team

    How can I develop career paths for my staff? How can I develop the skillsets of my workforce? How can I improve my hiring and onboarding practices? How can I increase staff engagement and motivation? How can I keep my best members of staff? How can I reduce employee turnover? How can I run a better appraisals process? How do I deal with a challenging member of staff? How do I manage an effective remote workforce? How should I performance manage my staff?

    Planning

    How can I balance ambition with setting realistic goals? How can I get staff interested in the financial situation? How can I work out what required skillsets are missing in the business? How can I define and communicate my vision for success? How can I get better at looking internally at my business? How can I make my business more resilient to change? How do I ensure my business can navigate a dip in trading? How do I better inform my business plans? How do I know when to invest in my business? How do I know when to scale up my business?

    Sales & Growth

    How can I get a better return on investment from my marketing? How can I identify new customers to target? How can we better serve our most loyal customers? How can we develop new products and services? How do I create targets and KPIs for my staff? How do I benchmark my business against competitors? How do I build a network to support my business? How do I develop a clear unique selling point? How do I financially plan for new opportunities? How do I make sure my team and processes are ready for growth?
    All