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Almost every successful company on the planet has one thing in common. It has nothing to do with the product or service itself, nor does it relate to the size of the company. Successful companies have unique selling propositions (USP’s).

A unique selling proposition is the marketing and promotional direction that a company is going in. It is what the company says to potential customers about what the company provides that no other can. A powerful USP can sway significant numbers of consumers towards buying from the company. It’s the phrase that solves their problems and sums up what benefit they will get from purchasing from you.

The vast majority of the most famous companies in the world became wildly successful because of their USP. eBay was the first company to offer an online “yard sale” outlet to anyone who needed to declutter. Research in Motion was the first company to design an easy-to-use mobile email device.

Unique selling propositions are not only important for large corporations. They are just as helpful in getting small companies’ messages out to the public. An example is NuShoe.com. NuShoe offers traditional cobbler services with state of the art materials. What makes them truly unique is that they offer the service through the postal service. It’s easy for the consumer to pop the shoes in the mail, have them repaired and have them returned as good as new. No other shoe repair companies offer that level of service.

A company’s unique selling proposition may change over time. When a company pioneers a new industry, it is likely to have a USP. However, when other businesses take heed and incorporate some of the practices in their own business, the USP is not so unique any more. It’s time for the company to develop a new USP and reach out to its customers to show them what benefits they will receive by purchasing from the company.

Companies that don’t have a unique selling proposition don’t have a true presence in their markets. They are run-of-the-mill companies that offer similar products or services to many of their competitors. Garbage pickup service is an example. They may try to use pricing as a differentiator, but they are essentially a commodity service and one is as good as another.

Developing a unique selling proposition is critical to the long term success of a business. Discovering what is truly important to customers is the first step in creating a USP. How can a company solve a need in a new and useful way? Companies that come and go quickly never understand the need to differentiate or communicate how their products and services are positioned to meet customer demand. Those that last have a strong sense of who they are and what they have to offer.