USP, according to Wikipedia entry is “The Unique Selling Proposition (also Unique Selling Point) is a marketing concept that was first proposed as a theory to explain a pattern among successful advertising campaigns of the early 1940s. It states that such campaigns made unique propositions to the customer and that this convinced them to switch brands. The term was invented by Rosser Reeves of Ted Bates & Company. Today the term is used in other fields or just casually to refer to any aspect of an object that differentiates it from similar objects.”
Companies have been involved in a continuous process of (re) defining their Unique Selling Proposition for their products and services. This applies to not just in the business world but also during job search.
Why have a USP
Competition in today’s job market is fierce and you really need a tool that puts you at an advantage over others much before the interview process actually starts.
A great job search strategy a great way to have a competitive edge when it comes to finding your next job. During this process, the real kicker would be to have that competitive edge, a unique set of skills that sets you apart from the competition.
To the external world, a job seeker’s USP is manifested in a elevator speech, a cover letter, a resume or just simply any form of communication with potential employers.
Internally, it’s about how you can take the entire collection of skills and experience you have and jujitsu style, turn it into a clear, sharp and attractive USP.
So how can you identify and define you USP?
There are two elements to your USP:
- Role: the role is the specific type of position(s) that you are aiming as your next job. It could Sales Manager, Director of Operations, Business Analyst, Database Architect etc
- The unique set of results or experience that you would like to highlight; it could be any combination of the following:
- specific results that you have already accomplished
- unique experiences that you might have that nobody has
- touch problems that you might be known for solving
. For example, you might be a Sales Manager that is known for increasing revenues in challenging markets, plus you know Japanese, or you are Director of Operations that reduced vendor costs by 20% last quarter plus you have great communication skills, or you are a Business Analyst that developed specifications for a killer products and knows how to turn ideas / concepts into new products / services.
Once you have created a basic framework for this USP, you are ready to go onto the next level which is developing your communication based on this USP:
1) Create an elevator speech
2) You resume’s summary section
3) Your LinkedIn profile
4) Your blog profile
And here’s the best part – you can have multiple versions of your elevator speech depending on the type of setting you are in and who your audience is.
What would you like to include in your USP?
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