Value: ‘Intrinsic worth or goodness; the degree of quality; relative worth; high worth; esteem; excellence.’ Chambers Dictionary
Proposition: ‘An offer; a statement of a problem with solution; a possibility or suggestion of a course of action to be considered.’ Chambers Dictionary
The term ‘value proposition’ essentially means that you can state your value with intent to make your company, product, or services attractive to customers. And it’s not always easy to do off the top of your head!
Have you ever been asked, ‘what makes you different?’ If you’ve ever heard responses like, we care, we listen, or we have excellent customer services, have you believed them? I mean, would you choose a company that doesn’t listen, care, or have good customer service?
What makes you different? Your Unique Selling Point…
When you look back at those definitions at the top of the page, you can quickly tell that your USPs can’t be clearly communicated in a few words or a catchphrase. So, to give you a head start on writing your value proposition, here is my best advice:
Making your business stand out with a value proposition starts with understanding your existing customers.
Ask yourself, or them: ‘Why did they buy from YOU, why did they choose YOUR product or service rather than your competitor’s?
Know your features and benefits inside out. Ask what’s in it for them?
When you know their pain, problem, fear, or aspirations and what they’re trying to fix or avoid, you can demonstrate a solution using your features and benefits.
If you’re still not different enough…
Ask why and how
Benefit: We listen
Q: How are you good listeners?
A: Because we save time in meetings by using Zoom, Google Meet, or phone calls for our clients
Q: Why do you need to save time?
A: Because time is precious and we don’t want to waste a minute of theirs and spend our time working for them, not travelling.
Now all of a sudden, ‘we listen’ has become, ‘we understand how precious time is, so make our meetings as efficient as possible with online meeting platforms or phone calls. And we prevent unnecessary pollution every time we stay off the road too!
In a statement such as this, you can also demonstrate an understanding of their pain – time management, what they’re avoiding – lost time, and your personality comes through too – you care about the environment.
I often say you have to go into child mode and keep asking why, why, why… The deeper the dive you take, the greater success you’ll have at finding the real differentiation that creates your stand-out value..
Not all businesses are different, but all entrepreneurs are!
Remember, what makes your business different is often you; your why, the culture of your company and how you make your customers feel about working with you.
- Do you give away a lot of free content? Why?
- Are you working towards net zero? Why?
- Do you have a strong corporate social responsibility? Why?
- Do you make it easy for customers to do business with you? How?
- What is the culture in your company? Why?
The aim of a value proposition is to make someone lean in with interest when you speak. As always, I hope this blog has been of use to help you drill down to your unique values and find a way to communicate them.
One of my unique selling points is a free one-hour business mentor session, during which we can spend the time asking ‘why’ and nailing that proposition statement. If you’d like to read more about making your customer service stand out, I have a specific blog on that too.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this thought, ‘You have to understand your own personal DNA. Don’t do things because I do them or Steve Jobs or Mark Cuban tried it. You need to know your personal brand and stay true to it.’ Gary Vaynerchuk