This article will not only show you why a Unique Sales Proposition and Guarantee are critical to differentiate you in the market, it will give you an overview of key questions you must answer to create your USP&G. Finally, at the end of the article, you can download an awesome AI Prompt to help you create your USP&G, your Elevator Pitch and your Tagline!

And there's more - in the next week or so, I will send you at least 3 more great other Prompts to help you with your messaging and marketing!

What is a Unique Sales Proposition and Guarantee (USP&G)? It’s a persuasive proposition that removes risk and compels your ideal customers to do business with you instead of your competitors because you’re different than all the rest.

Why is the USP&G important? The USP&G is basically a conversion rate strategy, and it’s actually the best thing you can do to improve your conversion rates from lead to customer. It will help you identify exactly what makes you different from your competitors and articulate this difference in a compelling and powerful way.

What is the difference between your Unique Sales Proposition and your Value Proposition? For some reason, a lot of online resources suggest these are the same thing, but they are, in fact, very different. In very simple terms, the USP is brand-level and the Value Proposition is product- or service-specific. Going a bit deeper, you can have multiple Value Propositions for each product or service depending on how many decision-makers you might need to address in the sales process. If you have multiple offerings, you will have a single USP and many Value Propositions.

Your USP&G forms the core of your 'message' to the market. When combined with your 20-30 second elevator pitch and your business tagline, you have compelling options to highlight what you do and what differentiates you. Imagine you meet someone, either professionally or personally, for the first time, and they casually ask you what you do. Now also imagine you know nothing about them but they asked first. Let's say you own a small but growing heating and air conditioning business that focuses on residential and light commercial work. If you say just that: I own a small HVAC company, it might or might not start a conversation. Instead, you might say something like "I provide year-round comfort to home owners." The objective is to get them to say something like "that's interesting - tell me more." By having a clear and unambiguous USP&G, elevator pitch, and tagline, you can adapt and adjust your message in every circumstance, from in-person meetings to social media posts to website information and more. If you look and sound like your competitors without any differentiation, (oh and by way, everyone offers free and no obligation quotes so quit using that as a core part of your message), your success at finding new clients is a hope and a prayer and not a strategy with associated intentional tactics.

Here are the steps you should follow to create and communicate your USP&G. Note some of these are not easy to answer and might take a lot of thought and reflection. One good approach is to review all the testimonials and reviews you have received and see where there are consistent comments, themes, and the like.

Step 1 - What are the core products or services you offer? If you have multiple product lines, provide those high-level lines or categories.

Step 2 - What are the key outcomes or results you deliver to your clients/customers? List as many as you can.

Step 3 - What key pain points do you solve for your clients/customers? Be as specific as possible. Don't just focus on problems; we all have all kinds of problems. Unless the problem is causing us some type of pain, we are not going to do anything about it. When someone tells you they have a problem, learn how to ask one key question: How does that make you feel? As an example, I tell you that "my air conditioner is getting old and uses way too much electricity". When you ask me "how does make me feel?" and I answer "it is what it is, so maybe in a few years when we think about replacing it we will find a more efficient model", do you really think I am going to even listen to your 'pitch'? Not likely because the problem is not causing pain..yet!

Step 4 - What is your Bold Promise and/or Guarantee? You do not have to have both, but you should have one or the other. Service companies can often blend the two together with something like 'we fix it right the first time or you don't pay until it is fixed". Some industries find it incredibly difficult to give any types of guarantees, whether performance or outcome, or financial, so in that case they should have a strong Bold Promise. The simplest way to describe a Bold Promise is something that aligns with overdelivering or your expression of commitment to your participant's results.

Step 5 - What are the top 2 or 3 false beliefs or concerns your Ideal Clients may have with your type of business, product or service? For example, as a Coach, I constantly hear coaching is too expensive or does not work.

Step 6 - What differentiates you from your competitors? Why should someone buy from you and not them? Note this is very high level and brand specific, not related to an individual product or service unless you only offer a single product or service. Your Bold Promise or Guarantee should be a differentiator; if you offer exactly the same as your competitors, then it is not a differentiator even though you still have to have one or the other.

Step 7 - What is your Ideal Client Profile? You can have more than 1 ICP, so if you do, be sure to list all of them individually. If you have more than one, which ICP aligns with which of your products or services or product or service lines? I will do a separate article on creating your ICP(s), but for now you must accept that the idea that you can serve or sell to anyone and everyone is farcical! This exercise is all about creating your core message, and the second piece of the equation is figuring out who to deliver that message to, and that is your ICP. The more focused and niched your ICP is, the better your results will be. Dean Graziosi's definition of marketing is 'attract your Ideal Client and reject everyone else' so you do not waste time, energy, and money on people or businesses that will never buy from you!

Once you have all these questions answered, download the AI Prompt, fill in the blanks as indicated and watch the magic happen.