If you have ever thumbed through Home Business magazine, Small Business Opportunities magazine, or a local newspaper in your area, how many times have you gone to the classified ads section and looked up your competitors in the network marketing industry? There is a lot, right? How can a beginning online network marketer develop a unique selling position (USP) so that he can stand up above his competition?
The following is some pointers on developing a good USP:
- Find out who your competitors are–Who is competing against you for distributors? It is easy to do that by pretending to be a prospective distributor yourself. Just go to the local advertisements. You might find there are two or three distributors in direct competition with you in your area. A direct competitor is defined as a competitor who is selling the same product or service as you are. For instance, if you are a weight loss supplements distributor, your direct competition includes other weight loss supplements distributors. An indirect competitor is a competitor who is selling a similar product or service as you are. An example of an indirect competitor would be a distributor who is selling weight loss books. You also want to know who your allies in network marketing are so that you can develop a good referral relationship with them.
- Try a sample of your competitor’s product or service–Again, pretend to be a customer and buy their products to test what they are selling. If buying their products is outside your budget, ask them to send you information or give you their sales pitch so that you know what kind of sales pitch you should be giving to your potential customers/distributors.
- Compare yourself against your competitors–How do you measure up to your competition? Do your competitors offer good quality, service, and products? What are your successful competitors doing that you should be doing? Do you find that one competitor is good network marketer while the other is a poor network marketer? How would you rate each of them on a scale of 1 to 5? How do you rate yourself on that same scale?
Knowing something about your competition can give you that unique selling position so that you can attract prospective customers and/or distributors to your online network marketing business. This holds true not only for network marketing but any type of business.