Working closely with fitness industry business owners as part of Range of Motion Business Mentoring I notice some common themes.
When I ask people what they think they’re ‘the best in the world at’ (that is, their ‘unique selling proposition‘), the answers are worryingly predictable.
Worrying because, if everyone has the same point of difference – the NO ONE has a point of difference.
80% of the responses I get when we’re unpacking the USP sound something like:
“We have the best community.”
“We go out of our way to help people.”
“We provide amazing ‘out of session care’.”
“We’re a gym for people who don’t like gyms.”
Now don’t get me wrong, these things are all amazing, and they’re all vitally important and instrumental in your success.
But they’re not unique.
If everyone has the best community, no one has the best community.
If everyone is best at going out of their way to help people, no one is best at going out of their way to help people.
If everyone provides the best out of session care, no one provides the best out of session care.
If everyone claims to have a gym that is more friendly for ‘non-gym people’, then no one has a gym that is more friendly for ‘non-gym people’.
What you have here is a selling proposition, not a UNIQUE selling proposition.
So dig a little deeper. Consider WHO you help. HOW you help them? What part of your unique background do you bring to the table?
There’s one simple test to see if your USP really is a USP.
You should be able to complete the following sentence, MEAN it, and stand by it:
We are better than anyone else ONE EARTH at ____________________.
Until you can fill in the blank, you’re just another vanilla service in a crowded industry.
