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Whether you work for a global corporation, a growing regional enterprise or you are the sole proprietor of a home-based business, you must help your potential customers answer one definitive question: why should they do business with you?

The answer you provide to this question is what sets you apart from your competition. This becomes your Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

Building a USP requires you to:

#1 ask assessment questions of yourself, your staff, your customers

#2 review your total business operation

#3 develop a message that you pass along to your target market (your prospective customers)

#4 evaluate results

#1 Assessment Questions

Asking questions is a proven method for uncovering useful information. To build a USP, you might use the following questions:

What needs do I/we solve in our business for customers?

What service do I/we really provide?

If you're a tax preparation business, you're not really offering help preparing taxes. You're offering people a speedy way to get their refund. This makes you a "money tree," for example.

What personality do I/we convey and how does this attract people?

A good example is the informal, congenial atmosphere of Southwest Airlines by dressing flight attendants in casual clothes. The way the airline employees conducted themselves was unique and set them apart from other airlines.

Why do we provide this service? What were the principles that led to the founding of our company and do they hold true today?

Do I/we provide any innovation or unique services?

A global telecommunications company I know had their people tell me, "innovation is our soul."

But this could work with a local real estate agent as well who specializes in a particular niche business and helps provide a network of vendors to solve the needs of families moving from one house to another.

What do we say about ourselves when we're on the phone is this different from what's in our sales or marketing materials?

Is our business our passion? If so, why? If not, why not?

#2 Review your total business operation

I've encountered an interactive agency that has achieved what many other web development companies could never achieve the ability to service and deliver complex projects to the satisfaction of clients. They've build a solid team with a clear internal process so project coordinators, designers and programmers all know what is expected on a project.

This internal process uniquely sets them apart from many other similar service providers.

How do you service clients? Your

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