Business Expert – knowing your USP – the business growth game changer

business expert – positive mindset in dentistryIn this month’s Business Expert column, Jas Gill explains how knowing your USP (unique selling point) can really help improve business growth.

Competition is the natural order in business. Patients are constantly overwhelmed with options. They want to quickly understand what makes one treatment or dentist different to another.

Knowing the right way to position yourself can mean the difference between standing out and blending in.

That’s why it’s crucial for all entrepreneurs to understand how to identify a USP to help guide their branding and business growth decisions.

What is a USP?

A USP, is the one thing that makes your practice better than the competition. It’s a specific benefit that makes your practice stand out when compared to other practices in your market.

Forming an opinionated and deliberate USP helps focus your marketing strategy and influences messaging, branding, copywriting, business growth and other marketing decisions. At its core, a USP should quickly answer a potential patient’s most immediate question when they encounter your brand or surgery: ‘What makes you different from the competition?’

Your USP plays to your strengths. You should base it on what makes your brand or treatment uniquely valuable to your patients. Being ‘unique’ is rarely a strong USP in itself. You must differentiate around some aspect your target audience cares about. Otherwise your messaging won’t be nearly as effective.

A USP should be a combination of what your customers want and what your business does well.

business growth through USP

Growing your business

A USP isn’t just a persuasive line on your home page. It’s ultimately how you position yourself or even your entire practice to the rest of the area.

Your services don’t need to be wholly unique in and of themselves for you to have a strong USP. Instead, look for a spot in the market where you can plant your flag that is relatively untouched by the competition.

There may be a dozen ways you could sell your treatment. But your USP is the big idea that best positions your brand according to what your patients care about and what your competitors aren’t.

A USP is also not just the header on your homepage. It’s a position your practice takes as a whole, that can be incorporated into your treatment, your brand, the experience you provide, and any other touch point your patients have with your business.

My USP for my Platinum Practice business is: ‘Be the best you can be, be Platinum’. The aim of my business is to provide delegates with the confidence and skills to reach Platinum Invisalign Provider, as well as improving their general work/life balance.

The majority of our delegates join the course hoping to increase their Invisalign cases. Our data shows that 95% of our attendees see a marked business growth in their numbers. Many also state that they have also been able to reduce their work load and enjoy their role more.

The course is unique from any other course because we provide a range of skills that can transform not only case numbers but quality of work and life too.

I have a genuine passion for helping others. My team and colleagues all know this very well. My USP is #itsallabouteveryone.

Discovering your USP leads to business growth

Whether you are a practice owner or an associate, you should know your USP. And so should the team be working with/for you.

A book I would recommend to help you find your USP is The Purple Cow by Seth Godin. The premise of this book is – if you saw a purple cow in a field you would stop and take notice. That is what you want to be.

A purple cow is remarkable, not like a brown cow or a black and white cow, which is standard. Your USP needs to be innovative.

You will only survive in a crowded marketplace if you stop advertising and start innovating. Think different…be different.

Guarantee

Through a USP you can create a guarantee. It must be unique and valuable to the patient. You set the guarantee rules. A guarantee gives power for service companies.

The most successful USP I have ever seen was from Dominos, which provided the guarantee: ‘You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less or it’s free’.

This solved both problems of the consumer, speed and hunger, which is why it was so successful. Another example is Energie Fitness gyms: ‘Guaranteed results in six weeks or your money back.’

So rather than offer free whitening or free retainers, which everyone offers now, why not offer a retainer guarantee? This adds value and is different from your competitors resulting in business growth.


I hope this article was useful to you. If you have any questions please feel free to get in touch with my team at [email protected], also pop over to our website at www.platinumpracticesolutions.co.uk for further information.

This article is just one section of what I teach at my seminar that enables the average delegate to quadruple their Invisalign case numbers. I believe, the definition of a real business is a commercial, profitable enterprise that can work without you.

Over the next 12 months, each article I publish is therefore designed to help you enhance your time management and work/life balance.

The first step in building a brand is to have a unique selling point.

Catch up with previous Business Expert columns:

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