“What does your company actually do?” How do your customers and future customers view your product or service? Do you know it?
“That is clear, isn’t it?” You hear often. Or: “Just look at my website, it is all there”. Well, usually not.
Lately I have come across many great companies, startups, scale-ups and grown-ups, with a crappy “Value Proposition”. Is that bad? I think so. How can you bring your excellent product or service to the attention without its value and uniqueness being clear? If you cannot explain in a few sentences yourself what makes your company, product or service so unique, how can you expect an outsider to understand what it will bring them? In fact, how will that outsider be able to make a decision to buy your product or service? Don’t expect someone to “see the light” by referring that person to your website or brochure.
Take the time to prepare a good, compelling “Value Proposition”. And then use it.
The “Value Proposition” is your explanation of your product or service and your promise to deliver that unique value to your customer. So unique that your customer would like to use it to solve his problem. Books have been written about the “Value Proposition”. But what it simply means is a clear, catchy description of the following elements: What do you offer, what are your products or services? Who, for which customers are they intended? And what are the challenges of those customers? What happens when customers use your product or service? What are the benefits, what are the costs and what is the value of your solution and what makes it so unique (for example compared to products / services of competitors)? Be sure to tell us what benefits other customers have already experienced, so that new customers have a good idea of what is possible.
“But we’ve been doing it like this for years…” I often hear. Fine. If you are satisfied with how things are going and if everything is running smoothly: leave it as it is. But if you want to grow in these difficult times, or at least strive for continuity and stability, then you should do something about your “Value Proposition”. You now know that your product or service is unique. Now tell it to your future customers!