Stop Telling Me You’re Unique
How to design offers that actually feel different to customers in crowded markets
Most companies try to convey a USP. Far fewer design one. The difference is everything. A real USP is baked into the offer—how the customer gets and uses the thing—not just into the headline. In my framework, the final product = core product + process modifications across Place, Product, and Price. Build the differentiator first; then talk about it.
Start where value is obvious: the buying flow
If you make the buying process radically easier, the process becomes the USP. Deconstruct it and remove friction:
Access: Can customers find it when and where they want?
Order: Is placing an order effortless, self-serve, repeatable?
Pay: Do you support the payment methods they actually use?
Receive/Delivery: Is handover fast, reliable, transparent?
When you redesign these steps, the “how I buy” becomes your competitive edge. That’s the heart of GTM digitalization: reimagining the route to market so buying is faster, simpler, and more convenient than the status quo.
To prioritize, ask blunt questions: How easy is it to pay? to order? to get a price? to tailor the product? The answers point straight at what to fix first—and what to turn into your USP.
Design > declare (with one concrete example)
Don’t change the core product if you don’t need to; change the surround. Imagine Nike doesn’t market a “polyester tee” but designs the offer around what runners value: a short app flow that captures climate, mileage, and fit; a shirt produced to those specs; delivered on a sensible cadence—tailored performance apparel at mass prices. That’s a designed USP. The copy simply names what the product already delivers.
Plenty of modern winners didn’t invent a new product category—they made buying/logistics feel inevitable. Think of companies that focused on the route to value, not the widget—classic GTM digitalization.
Let customers tell you what to build into the offer
Don’t guess. Listen for need; it exposes opportunity. Use two data streams:
External: forums, reviews, social chatter—what people complain about or wish existed.
Internal: sales patterns, repeat buys, offer spikes, support tickets—what people actually do.
Be wary of over‑relying on surveys (they bias toward the questions you asked). Behavior is the cleanest signal.
Three levers you can pull today
You rarely need a full product overhaul to stand out. Differentiate by enhancing:
Place (convenience) — Put the product where the customer already is; compress steps; remove handoffs. Sometimes place is the USP.
Product (experience) — Add light customization, setup, training, warranties—services that neutralize anxiety or effort.
Price (model) — Rethink how value is captured: subscriptions, bundles, pay‑per‑use. Often the model change is the differentiator.
This is the practical re‑ordering of McCarthy’s 4Ps I use in practice: research → process‑optimize Place/Product/Price → then promotion. Promotion’s job is to say the value you’ve already engineered.
Make the value blindingly clear
Your USP should read like a promise customers actually want:
“Buy this, and you’ll get this specific benefit.”
Use their language, point at the outcome, keep it painfully simple. That’s your PMF (positioning & messaging framework) in one line—and it should be the same line sales, marketing, and product use everywhere.
Balance wow with reality
Two forces are always in tension:
(1) the urge to make it a no‑brainer for the customer to buy, and
(2) resource constraints.
Solve for both by shipping one or two hard‑to‑copy, high‑impact enhancements first, then scale what converts. Keep two loops running: keep sensing what customers value; keep finding cheaper ways to deliver that value.
A note on strategy drift: efficiency moves are easy; growth moves are harder—but that’s where durable differentiation tends to live (often via servitization—wrapping services around products). Don’t let efficiency become the only story.
Try this next week (90‑minute sprint)
Pick one product and map Access → Order → Pay → Receive. Circle the ugliest friction.
Draft a light enhancement to Place/Product/Price that removes it (no core rebuild).
Ship a quick pilot to 10–20 users.
Write the one‑line promise that names the benefit they just experienced.
Measure conversion or repeat‑buy lift; if it moves, scale.
Now, make it rAIn, KG