Your Value Proposition: Stop talking about you. What’s in it for me?

How well is your value proposition working for you?

The elevator ride challenge

I have been listening to a lot of business pitches recently.  Between working with clients, a startup accelerator and recent networking meetings, I have heard a lot of people introduce themselves and their business. And…it is boring.

Too often we communicate our businesses in terms of our functional capabilities or industry verticals.  We do not introduce our businesses in a way that is engaging, compelling and meaningful to our current and prospective customers.  I talked with a gentleman this past week and asked him to tell me about his business.  He introduced his business as “we do IT”.  It took two minutes of asking pointed questions for me to uncover their unique point of difference in the IT world. He had not been taught how to sell his business in a way that clearly defines the value they offer.

I have been listening to a lot of entrepreneurial business pitches this year.  One of the biggest challenges for an entrepreneur is to simplify his/her business pitch to a single sentence or at least a compelling 30-second elevator pitch.  After three to five minutes, many entrepreneurs still struggle to explain their business concept clearly.  If the value proposition is not clear, the opportunity for to secure investment in a new business is highly diminished.

I recently took one person for a ride in an actual elevator to pitch her concept, and she did fairly well to simply tell what they do while traveling just four floors. Could you do this?  Can you describe your business in an engaging and compelling way to explain the key benefit to your customers in a 20 to 30 second elevator ride?  Can all the members of your leadership team do this?

Identifying your value proposition

Many companies do a nice job of defining a clear value proposition and compelling reasons to believe it.  Having clear reasons to believe (or RTBs) is also important.  The combination of the value proposition and RTBs help a target customer decide if you provide interesting value to them – the What’s In It For Me factor or (WIIFM).

It does take work to identify and clearly define your value proposition.  Many companies struggle with this. It takes practice and training to do this well.  Here are a couple thoughts to assist you in thinking through how to better define your value proposition.  You and your team may be great at this, but it is surprising how many companies still need work in this area.

Let’s start with what you are not.  If you can identify the products and services you do not provide, you will avoid the temptation of defining your scope and value proposition too broadly.  You may be in IT, but you do not work on hardware.  By defining yourself as not a hardware company, it makes it quicker to define your strengths in the realm of software and/or application development.

What is the one product or service benefit you provide that your customers value from you over your competitors? Articulate what you uniquely offer. Do you make fishing lures or fishing lures that are highly effective because of they way they light up underwater?  Do you run an Italian restaurant or do you run the Italian restaurant with unique family recipes from Northern Italy where all the servers make you feel like family?  Do you sell coffee or do you sell coffee from organic coffee growers whom you work with to help develop sustainable practices in their community and farms?  Do you create websites or do you create websites that effectively engage and sell target customers through an ecommerce platform that is highly customizable?

Make sure your value proposition is relevant and meaningful to your target customers.  Is your value proposition both valuable and differentiated from your competition?  How many restaurants do you know that sell chicken sandwiches?  How many of them have a clearly differentiated chicken sandwich?  What makes it different? 

If you are willing to drive farther to buy something, there is a clearly differentiated value proposition that has engaged you.

Does your communication clearly communicate your value proposition such that a customer would drive further or pay more to get your product or service vs. your competition?  If your answer is no, you have work to do.

If you can afford research, conduct research with your current and target customers to help you understand what they value.  This will help you define and communicate a compelling value proposition.

Why should we believe you?

Once you have a value proposition, you need to support it.  What are your RTBs?

I was recently in the Florida Keys.  Almost every restaurant we saw has an “award winning” key lime pie.  That’s a lot of awards.  Many companies claim to be the best at what they do.  What the winning companies do is define how they uniquely provide a specialized product and service.  They provide clear reasons to believe why they are a better choice for this solution than others.  The restaurant that displays the awards and offers a money-back guarantee if you do not love their pie will stand above those who just claim to be award winning.

Is your company environmentally friendly because you say so (and then buy carbon offsets in exchange for how you conduct day-to-day business)? Or, do you work in a LEED certified building with a net zero use of energy and recycle over 90% of all waste? Which of these two sound more environmentally friendly to you?

Providing clear, powerful and relevant reasons to believe will support your value proposition and make your story authentic and differentiating. 

Write your story

You need to write your own story.  Combine your value proposition and reasons to believe into a 20-30 second story.  Create your own authentic differentiating story as to why customers should do business with you – not why you are great, but why you offer a unique, valuable benefit to them.  Then explain why they should believe that benefit.

When you have this right, it should become the foundation for your communication brief for your brand communication.  Your leadership team should all be able to tell your story.  And, your sales team should also be trained in how to sell with this story. 

This short story about your value proposition is the core of what will differentiate you in the market.  It should not change year to year.  If you consider changing your go-to-market strategy in a way that will change your value proposition, do your homework first.  Make sure your proposed change offers a potential reward that is worth risking and/or disrupting your customer loyalty and business.

For now, make sure your current story is the strongest story you can tell to differentiate and build your business.  Don’t be boring!

This blog was originally posted by GrowthSpring Group on the MENG Blend website 

GrowthSpring Group is a unique a strategic growth and marketing innovation firm that works with clients to accelerate success by helping them identify and launch new opportunities to profitably grow sales. www.GrowthSpringGroup.com