What are your USPs? They are your ‘Unique Selling Propositions’ or put another way, your ‘Market Dominating Position’. This is what sets you apart from your competition.
In many of my previous articles, I have discussed how you can define your business, how you can create better processes and ways of doing business, how to set your direction and purpose. Your USPs or how you define your ‘market dominating position’ will be found in these parts of your business.
To prepare your USPs, first have a look at your competition and see how they define themselves, how they seek to set themselves apart from other similar businesses. What you will find is that most use the same platitudes and promises to appeal to customers – they will say that they are ‘professional, build quality homes, build to your budget, build on-time, value for money and so on and so on.
If you intend to use the same phrases and quotes then why would a customer buy from you and not another builder down the road. What is it that sets you apart and compels a customer to want to build with you?
Most businesses are started up on the premise that there is a demand for what you can provide. In recent years, in the early 2020s, it was pretty easy to see the demand for housing and it will continue be present, however there are around 80,000 builders in Australia, all vying for the same demand. How do you grow your business amongst the sea of other builders?
For new home buyers, what are the key issues and problems they face in getting a house built when there is so much choice, building businesses failing and causing trust issues for new home buyers, access to finance, time taken to build and so many more considerations that need to be taken into account for each home buyer’s circumstances.
This is where your USPs or your market dominating position come into play. How can you create unique offers and propositions that solve the new home buyer’s problems and issues?
As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, use your whiteboard to jot down the issues and problems for new home buyers in your local market or markets if you operate in multiple locations and then look at whether you have the offers and solutions with your business to solve those problems.
Do you have the ‘best-in-class’ components in your business that will outshine your competitors. For example, what would be one of the main issues for a new home buyer today? Could it be whether the builder they choose is going to stay in business long enough to complete their home? What if you could offer peace-of-mind for your customers by guaranteeing payment to all the contractors and suppliers and you know you will be able to make a profit and survive? Could that be an option that is available?
Another example might be the flexibility to ‘customise’ their own home with your own in-house designer to help them achieve the lifestyle they want for their family. Do you have your own in-house design team that is expert in home design?
Can you make it easier to obtain finance?
Can you ‘add value’ by bundling a number of options and offers to make it easier for customers to choose the right solution for them? It also doesn’t have to be monetary items. It could be how good you make the customer journey and how you make your customers feel when they do business with you.
Hopefully you are starting to see that your USPs will be different from other businesses. You just need to look deeper and find what you are exceptionally good at and how this can solve your customer’s problems and issues.
You will need to find your ‘niche’ because you can’t be everything to everyone.
You will need to identify and promote your primary differentiating position and establish the business model you need to support that position.
Identify your secondary market dominating position as there will always be a secondary market that can benefit from your main differentiating position.
You will need to focus all your marketing and promotion around your market dominating position- your USPs so it is important to get it right.
It’s also hard to get it right if you haven’t worked on your business to establish consistent and robust systems and processes. There is no point in looking like a Ferrari if you don’t have a Ferrari engine under the bonnet, you very quickly get found out.
Alpha Edge and The 3C Mentor can help you create your USPs and ensure you have your Ferrari engine in place.
The whole purpose of The 3C Mentor and Alpha Edge is to help create really great businesses in the residential building industry and delivered by our unique ‘Four Pillars to Your Success’ – Business Coaching, Business Consulting, Business Resources and Construction Software.
For an overview of these four pillars go to Alpha Edge here. To find out more about our Business Coaching go to The 3C Mentor here, for further information about the services Alpha Edge can provide go directly to Alpha Edge here and to access the many documents and resources you need as a residential builder, go to our Builder’s Business Resource Centre here. For more information on the construction software and how to ‘Be a Better Builder’, click here
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