Go for DSP. Not USP.

I was delighted to be invited to co-host an event recently, brilliantly called "How to be a raspberry in a sea of vanilla." The people around the table were all from professional services firms, but the challenges and the principles are the same for any sector: how do you achieve meaningful and lasting differentiation?

My suggestion was that we ignore a piece of advice that first appeared in 1961, and is still leading people down rabbit holes. That would be the Unique Selling Proposition. Perhaps it was easier when Rosser Reeves published his ideas, or maybe it was more difficult to challenge, but I think it's just wrong now, and always has been.

'Differentiation' means 'different from'. It doesn't have to mean, or include, 'unique'. But I still hear people asking "what's our/your USP?" - which is often impossible to answer. A much better and rewarding question is "What are we/you demonstrably better at?" That is where a brand reveals its truth; and it's also the way that clients and customers tend to think about the brands they experience...comparisons, not absolutes. It's the key to positioning, after all.

My contention is that the best form of differentiation is superiority, which I know can make some organisations feel uncomfortable as they struggle to confess to theirs, but it's worth it. For a start, it means the brand will be based on a core truth that is demonstrable and valuable: ask yourself who are your clients or customers, and what do you do for them (better than any of your peers and competitors)?

From my personal experience, I can think of an insurance company that created certainty, a transport company that made things easy, a law firm that strengthened people and an accounting firm that built businesses. Find your verb, and you've found your DSP.