Five top tips for developing your firm's USP

For your firm to thrive and ensure long-term profitability in today’s competitive legal practice landscape, it needs to have a relevant, compelling and intelligently articulated unique selling proposition (USP).

A USP is the reason clients choose your firm’s services over the competition. To the prospective client, your USP is the answer to their fundamental question: “What does your law firm have to offer me that nobody else does?”

Your USP is your ‘iron curtain of indispensability’ that develops a pipeline of ideal clients. The way to spearhead growth for your firm is to demonstrate a USP that is relevant, appealing and powerful, convinces your prospective clients you’re offering something superior and which has a value-based benefit for them.

After all, if your legal services are perceived as being like ‘all the rest,’ why would a client choose you, aside from a lower price? It’s likely that many of your prospective clients have difficulty deciding which firm is the one that deserves their time, money and trust.

You can assist them by making your USP obvious, compelling and memorable enough so they can clearly understand and appreciate why your firm aligns perfectly with their needs.

Five key elements underpin the creation of a profit-driven USP.

1) Your strengths

Exploring the factors that differentiate your services from the competition and identifying the position you wish to occupy provides a foundation for the development of your USP. What are your firm’s distinguishable strengths, expertise, insights or approaches to providing legal services?

Finding your main promise will require collective introspection and brainstorming. It could be based around
a particular practice area, solicitors’ attributes, a unique network of contacts that your firm has access to or even a unique approach to client care.

2) Your ideal clients

Before developing your firm’s USP you need to have a focused understanding of who your ideal clients are – the ones who will maximise profits for your firm.

An appreciation of their buying psychology, needs, purchasing prejudices and concerns will enable you to formulate and shape a benefit-laden USP, based on your firm’s core strengths. Even if this strategy results in ostracising some prospective customers, it will be a competitive advantage.

3) Benefits driven

An effective USP should never be insular or features driven; it should always be thought through from a client’s perspective rather than being a ‘quirky’ point of difference.

For example, for an entrepreneur looking for a commercial lawyer to represent his or her business, ‘A collection of high quality city trained commercial lawyers’ means little in terms of benefits. However, ‘Specialist business lawyers, committed to your success and providing solutions to your legal challenges’ does.

The ability to think like your clients by appreciating their values, needs, problems and beliefs will assist in creating an appealing USP. Your USP needs to reflect the way you do business, while being sufficiently relevant to your ideal clients to help sway the decision to hire your firm.

4) Competitor differentiation

Your USP needs to be subjected to some competitor analysis to ensure it is inimitable. If your current USP is a ‘me too’ proposition, it won’t yield the desired benefit in terms of client acquisition and profits.

The chosen form of differentiation needs to be built around selling your firm’s services, not just making your law firm into a brand that stands out.

5) Timeless couture

An effective USP is one that has the ability to stay relevant over time; it may require tweaks, but the fundamental benefit that it represents should remain the same.

To that end, a USP needs to be frequently monitored and aligned with new product and service offerings, new target markets and competition, even new changes in internal management. It is imperative to watch out for any shifts in industry trends, client preferences or competitor offerings that cause consumers to view your USP differently.

Whatever your chosen USP, it should be communicated consistently throughout all your marketing materials.

When you have an easy to articulate USP you’ll find all your business development activities – from writing sales letters and website copy to pitching at networking evenings and submitting proposals – a straightforward task.

Ensure that the design style of your marketing touch points amplifies your USP, whether you are creating a website, brochure or embarking on an online advertising campaign. SJ