4 What is your unique value proposition?

The word 'New' in a star burst
Figure 4 What is unique about your business or offering? Is it unique simply because it is new?

One of the earliest questions you should be asking yourself as an entrepreneur is: ‘Why should customers care about my product or service?’. In business parlance, your unique value proposition is what sets you apart from your rivals. It’s the secret sauce that makes your product something people should pay attention to, and want to purchase from you.

Before you can consider trying to sell your product or service to anyone else, you need to sell it to yourself. This consists of mapping out why your product matters, and effectively pinpointing what makes you unique. If you can’t achieve this, you can’t hope to market yourself effectively.

(Small Business BC, 2018)

It is critical for the success of any business that you have a clear picture of what makes you unique and, in particular, what makes your proposition unique and uniquely valuable for your existing and potential customers. Perhaps it is modesty or perhaps it is a lack of clear thinking, but distilling your unique value proposition and understanding what distinguishes you in a crowded marketplace can be one of the hardest things you will do in business.

So how can you define your unique value proposition?

A good way to approach it can be by asking yourself some key questions:

  • What customer problem are we attempting to solve?

  • What customer needs do we try to satisfy?

  • What segment-specific products and services do we offer our customers?

  • What value do we generate for our customers?

  • How does our value proposition differ from that of the competition?

Having a clear answer to these questions will help you define your unique value proposition for the long term.

Activity 2 Your unique value proposition

Timing: Allow approximately 15 minutes to complete this activity
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Discussion

There are no correct answers to these questions. The responses you give will very much depend on your business, the stage of development of your business idea and the field in which you are operating. Someone at the early stages of setting up a retail concept will, for example, have very different answers from someone managing an investor-ready tech start-up.

You should nonetheless take the time to consider these questions on a regular basis. If you are unable to answer them, or find it difficult to answer them clearly, it might be worth taking a step back and ensuring that you are on the right path.

3 Where do business models come from?

5 What are your unique capabilities?