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you are quicker and smarter (if you are a consultant or professional), you have a wider range, you clean up the mess after you (if you are a trades person), etc. There is no limit as to what a unique selling advantage can be. But, you must use this unique selling advantage in all your advertising headlines, and letters to your customers. You must tell everyone what makes you so special and why they should shop from you.

Principle 3: Ask your customers what they want.

Sadly, this is so often overlooked. What need, want, or desire are you filling in your customer's mind? Have you ever asked yourself what they are really wanting or needing in the product or service you offer?Most businesses have no idea. We often hear business owners say "all the customer wants is price - and sometimes service". Wrong. If people only wanted 'best price', there would be no Mercedes-Benz or Jaguars out on the roads, no Gucci or Versace clothes, no big mansions, etc. As for service, most businesses cannot define what this service that they offer consists of.

How do you find out what your customers really want and what is important to them? Just ask them! I guarantee the answers might surprise you. For a supermarket it may be home-delivery and easy parking, rather than 'price'. A wholesale garden centre's customers reportedly wanted on-time delivery, plants that would last in the sun, and availability. Price was the last thing on their list. Why? Well, imagine this scenario: you are a landscaper and you have five men, two trucks and a crane on site. All you need is the damn plants. Every hour delay cost you hundreds of dollars. You are tearing your hair out.

What do your customers really want from you? Why don't you go and ask them. They will love to tell you about how you can solve their problems.

Principle 4: Tell your customers the "Reasons Why".

Whenever you make an offer, ask for a sale, reduce your price or make any other proposition to your customers, you must always tell them the 'reason why'. Why is your price cheaper than your competitors? Is it because you have a lower overhead, or because it is a line of product you no longer carry? Will you still give me the good service? Is there something wrong with the product? Your customers want to know why? Tell them.

A used car sales woman, always told her prospect up front why she would knock a few dollars off the sticker price: "The engine has a minor oil-leak, and you will notice that the paint job is starting to faint ever so little."

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