One of the keys to good marketing for an organization is an understanding of your Unique Selling Proposition or USP.
It’s the thing that sets you apart from your completion. It might be how long you’ve been around or that you’re all organic; whatever it is that makes you special. Once you figure out what your USP is, then you can brand it to the world.
When putting myself out there for hire I’ve given this idea some considerable thought.
While I was in college I learned about UPS’s and decided at the time my personal tagline would be “Hardest Working”. Move over James Brown! I was young, excited, and had the energy to put in the time, so I did. At one point while I was enrolled as a full-time web and graphic design student, I was also working five jobs.
Within a few years I was out of school, employed, and on the other side of job interviewing. And every time our company was hiring for a new opportunity, we would get hundreds resumes. Each person trying their best to pitch their own USP.
Many of the positions I was hiring for were of a technical nature. Sometimes in areas I personally knew nothing about. I don’t believe this is an unusual situation for hiring managers, department heads, and other executives, but I did my best to educate myself.
This included reading the work by Joel Spolsky, entitled, Smart and Gets Things Done: Joel Spolsky’s Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent.
In the book Joel makes a compelling argument that two of the best qualities that a new hire might have is:
- A Demonstrated History of Intelligence
- A Demonstrated History of Completing What They Start
The book is somewhat polarizing and I’m sure Joel has his critics but the general idea is that without regard to what is thrown at you, if you’re a reasonably smart person that follows-through on things you’re given responsibility for — you will find a way to get it done.
I found that advise helpful in my own hiring and I’ve taken it to heart when presenting my professional self to the world.
So is my USP “Smart and Gets Things Done”? To some degree, yes. I use these words on LinkedIn, on my resume, and here now as a blog on the Sage Web Media website. And I hope I’ve demonstrated, to some degree, this concept over the years through my work and ongoing commitment to education.