Want to Stand Out from Competitors? Try These 5 Proven Steps 

As a business owner, you know that standing out from competitors is key to your success and ability to attract potential customers.

You’re likely facing off against countless competitors on a daily basis, all trying to steal your proverbial lunch. Battling to separate yourself from the crowd in the ever-changing seas and winds of the market.

Maybe you’re constantly in a head-to-head dogfight with competitors…

Competing on price in a race to the bottom. Or struggling to hit the first page on Google.

Most business owners I hear from don’t know why sales are down. Why it’s so challenging to keep ad spend low, fend off competitors, and keep their heads above water.

If you’re struggling right now, what can you do about it? What can you do to flip the script? How do you make sure that you are the one that comes out on top?

How do you make sure that your brand stands out from the rest?

It’s one thing have an advantage in a marketplace. It’s another thing to have an advantage that’s truly inherently hard for somebody else to beat.

Why should your customers purchase from you instead of numerous close competitors who provide a very similar product or service?

It can be tough to know where to start.

By the end of this post, I want to equip you with the right ammo to create differentiation and ultimately build a moat around your business.

We’re going to cover 5 steps to make your brand stand out from competitors.

Let’s get started.

Differentiation: What Makes Your Business Unique?

You hear the word “differentiation” a lot in business. But what does it really mean?

In a nutshell, differentiation is what sets your business apart. It’s what makes you unique and helps you attract and retain customers.

Differentiation is hyper-important because it helps you stand out in a crowded marketplace. With so many businesses competing for attention, being different can help you capture and keep customers’ attention and business.

When done right, differentiation can be a powerful tool for growing your small business and help you avoid the constant rat race of slogging it out with competitors.

Differentiation can also help you charge more for your products or services. If you offer something that’s unique and in high demand, you can inherently command a higher price.

It gives you power in every transaction and negotiation. It gives you the power to close deals and handpick customers, instead of being desperate for anyone who comes along.

Simply put, you need to be able to effectively answer the following question: 

“Why should I go with you rather than somebody else?”

Why should they listen to you? 

How can you uniquely solve their problems in a more effective way than any of your competitors? 

We’re going to dig into what makes your company unique and build a marketing campaign around that. Whether it’s a unique product or service, or a customer-centric approach, we need to find a way to stand out from competitors.

When you have a great Unique Selling Proposition, your marketing almost writes itself. Your messages are able to slice through massive clutter in the marketplace and get attention.

Your Unique Selling Proposition and Value Proposition

As we covered, differentiating your business from others in your industry is critical to success.

Every business has something unique to offer. And that’s your USP. It’s what makes you different from competitors and sets you apart in the marketplace. 

A few examples:

• Offering unique products or services that your competitors don’t have
• Having a better customer experience than your competitors
• Focusing on a niche market that your competitors aren’t serving
• Being known for having the best guarantee in your industry

To find your USP, start thinking about your target audience and brainstorm what makes your business special. What do you offer that no one else does?

What can you do better than anyone else? 

But how do you find your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)? How do you determine what it is that makes your business special, and how can you use that information to attract more customers?

First, take a look at your company’s history. What has made it successful in the past? Is there anything unique about the way you do business that sets you apart from your competitors?

Another way to find your USP is to look at your customers:

• Who are they?
• What do they need or want that you can provide better than anyone else?
• What are their pain points, and how can you solve them?
• The answers to these questions could lead you to your USP.

Finally, you can look at your competition. What are they doing that you’re not? How can you do it better?

While there are many ways to set your company apart, it’s important to choose the strongest unique angle for your particular business.

We’re going to spend the next five steps walking through questions to unpack related to potential elements of your unique selling proposition.

This is a working exercise that’s not intended to be completed in a quick passive read through.

This is a process you should take your time with…and keep coming back to. Getting clear on your USP is one of the highest value things you can do in your business. Your competitive positioning strategy can make the difference between being the dominant player in your industry or just being another “me too” business trying to get by.

These are questions you should continue exploring and give plenty of time and energy.

I promise this will be time well spent. These 5 steps will give you the ingredients to craft a killer USP that will give you a massive advantage in your market.

Step 1: Get Clear on Who You Are Serving (Specific Customer Avatar)

This is the first step in any successful unique selling proposition: get ultra clear on who your target market is. This means identifying a specific customer base that you can serve in a unique way. Once you know who you’re serving, you can begin to craft a marketing strategy and sales message that resonates with them.

If you try to be everything to everyone, you’ll end up appealing to no one. But if you focus on a specific customer and what they need, you’ll be able to create a loyal following and keep customers coming.

Is there something specific that’s unique about your ideal customer avatar? Here are some thought starters:

Demographics

• Do you focus on a specific customer demographic?
• Is there an opportunity to tailor your product or service to a particular type of individual?
• Can you specialize for any of the following: education, age, gender, high income, geography, religion, family status, interests, hobbies
• Are there any peculiarities that are common with your best, most profitable customers? Can you customize your offering specifically to be appealing for these types of individuals?

Problem You Solve

• Is there anything unique about the specific problem you fix?
• Is this a one-time problem or something recurring? Does the problem go away?
• Does solving this problem help your customer in other areas of their life? For example, losing weight can make a positive impact on energy, health, confidence, and dating.
• What else have your prospects tried?
• How are you able to solve it differently?
• What makes your solution more effective than anything else out there?

Step 2: Clarify Your Offering

Get clear on exactly what you are selling and what makes it compelling:

• Do you offer products (consumable, physical items, SaaS etc.) or a type of service?
• Are there more effective ways to batch your offerings with existing products or services (upsell/downsell/cross sell)?
• Is there a personal, intangible component to what you sell? How can you show up differently in the market?
• Do you have a key ingredient that potential customers can’t get anywhere else?
• Is there something unique about yourself you can lean into during conversations with prospects? Think about your skills, personality, background, knowledge etc.

Step 3: Refine Your Unique Angle

This section all about positioning and is really where the rubber meets the road. Take your time going through each section below and think about what applies to you.

Are there already unique angles in how you do things that you can start including in your advertising? Are there ideas you can think of starting to incorporate?

Many times we take these things for granted, so go in with an open mind around what might be compelling for your prospects.

Track Record

• Do you have advantages in your track record compared to your competitors?
• Examples: success rate, time you’ve been in business, number of total customers, positive testimonials
• What proof points can you bring into your advertising? Examples include: reviews, media mentions, scientific studies, celebrity endorsements etc.

Presentation / Packaging

• Do you deliver a higher quality product or service that you can justify with data points?
• Is there a unique way that you deliver your product or service?
• Is there anything special about your packaging that stands out (i.e. high end or simplicity and convenience)
• If you have a brick and mortar store, do you have an attractive or unique environment?
• Are your customer facing employees more friendly or knowledgeable than others in the industry?

Unique Mechanism

• What’s different about the way you construct your product or service? Anything unusual about your process or system you use to deliver the result?
• Are there special patents used, faster (if speed is critical), slower (if quality is critical), simpler vs. complex etc.
• Is there anything special about the components or ingredients within product (special technology, secret recipe etc.)?

Ability to Tailor / Customize

• More or less customized vs. competitor offers?
• Can you offer a cheaper, more convenient product/service by using a ‘one size fits all’ offer?
• Do you offer a highly personalized offering that is tailored specifically for the individual?

Customer Experience

• Is your product/service “do it yourself” or “done for you”? Is it worth considering offering a unique combination of the two?
• Is there a superior customer experience you can provide?
• Do you offer the best customer service?
• Are there elements of the customer experience you can tweak to drastically differ from your peers? Examples: speed (faster vs. slower), luxurious vs. simpler.
• Do you have features that your competitors don’t have?
• Do you have a combination of features bundled together that others can’t offer (cheaper vs. buying separately)?
• Pricing: do you have a significantly higher (or lower) price compared to others? Do you offer more flexible payment terms?

Outcome

• Is there something special or unique about the result you are able to provide? Is this something you and only you can provide?
• Are there other quantifiable benefits your customers will receive?
• Can you solve the problem in a faster, simpler, or more thorough way than anyone else?

Step 4: Include a Negative Promise

Think about what you product or service offers compared to your competitors.

How do you better take away pain points, friction, and headaches from the process for your customers? What can you say that is not true about your product or service that can be perceived as a benefit?

• Are there negative side effects or results your product or service prevents?
• Are there any unnecessary, inconvenient, or unwanted aspects to your competitor’s offering that you don’t have?
• What pain and unpleasantness can you completely take out of the experience to comfort your customer? (i.e. upfront fees, contract, long application, restricted payment process)
• Do you competitors have extra steps or unnecessary time/energy/money that are wasted? Do you make the end-to-end experience simpler for your customers?

Step 5: Add a Unique Time Frame and an “Or Else” Guarantee

Add a Unique Time Frame

Is there a timing component that makes you unique in the marketplace? You should be targeting something around your time frame that’s superior to your competitors.

Potential Ideas:

• Can you promise a permanent solution to their problem?
• Can you guarantee your product will work for a longer period of time vs. competitors?
• Is there something positive you can deliver quickly? Can it be faster or more convenient?
• Is there something negative you can get rid of quickly?
• Is there something negative you can help the customer avoid completely? The more painless and easy you can make it the better

Add an “Or Else” Guarantee

What is the most powerful guarantee you can confidently present to customers? What elements of your competitors guarantee can you beat? Do you have a current guarantee that you can make stronger?

Potential Ideas:

• Full refund
• Greater than original refund (could be double your money back)
• Full replacement
• Conditional guarantee – if they take certain action steps
• Full lifetime promise
• Add time dimension to guarantee (i.e. 10 years)

Unique Selling Point Benefits – Examples

At the end of this process, you’ll likely have some great material to work with. Take your time figuring out what’s most impactful and think about how you can integrate this into your marketing and sales material.

Ultimately, the goal is to have a succinct USP that you can now highlight everywhere in your advertising.

To make this real, I’ve come up with a few fictional businesses to provide you with some examples:

• We specialize in eliminating the local New Jersey tick variant (requires customized treatment compared to other geographies), and we do this better than anyone else in the market. Our competitors use dangerous chemicals that can have negative side effects for your pets and children. Our tick removal service is entirely organic, dries within 15 minutes, and will eliminate ticks completely from your lawn, or we’ll re-do the treatment completely free.

• Our family-run electrician services are performed by a father-son team with 30+ years of experience in the local area. We aren’t part of a big corporation like our competitors, who only care about their bottom line. We won’t make you sign any contracts or charge you an exorbitant upfront fee like our competitors. We are the top reviewed electrician in the state, with over 150 5-star reviews on Google. The process of our competitors takes an average of 7 days. We get your project done for you, pain free, within 12 hours, guaranteed. If we don’t get it done it this timeframe, you don’t pay a dime and we’ll even give you $100 extra for your trouble.

• Our SAT instructors have 50+ years of combined experience, and we have a track record of sending 200+ children to Ivy League schools. We don’t rely on ‘one size fits all’ study plans like other SAT prep tutors, and will create a truly customized plan based on your child’s precise improvement opportunities. With our service, your child will increase their SAT score by 100 points in 90 days or less…or your money back! Many of our students see improvements of 300+ points within the first month.

Next Steps – Your Brand Positioning Strategy

This post is all about helping you stand out from the noise in the marketplace.

By now, I’m sure you realize differentiating your business is critical for success and crafting your unique selling proposition (USP) is a key element of that. 

These exercises involve deep thinking around your company’s unique characteristics, how you go to market, and how you can show up differently versus your competitors. Please give it the time it deserves.

If you’re feeling stuck or don’t know where to start, just start brainstorming some ideas. Don’t aim for perfection, and don’t expect to come up with your USP instantly.

These tips should help get your creative juices flowing and spark some ideas for how you can make your brand stand out from the competition.

Once you’ve found your USP, the next step is to use this to attract more customers, and eventually build a moat around your small business. The best way to do this is by embedding it within all of your marketing and advertising. Make sure your USP is front and center in all of your marketing materials, and make sure it’s abundantly clear how you’re different from everyone else.

Keep in mind that differentiation is an ongoing process. As your business grows and changes, so should your differentiation strategy, so I recommend you continue coming back to these 5 steps. By staying ahead of the curve, you can ensure that your company remains one of a kind.

And again – once you’ve got a killer unique sales proposition, be sure to put it front and center in all of your marketing efforts. Shout it from the rooftops!

Let me know in the comments below how it goes for you. I’d love to hear if this post helped jumpstart any ideas for you.