Almost all of the work I’m doing with businesses at the moment centres around the value proposition and, specifically, how to create a good one.  So I thought it was about time I blogged about it as it’s something which is so important but which so many people get wrong.

Put simply, the value proposition is a clear statement of the value your product will deliver and will be the main reason your potential client will buy from you.  It’s not a description of how good your product is, nor is it about how many clients you have, how many awards you’ve won or how much your customers like you.  The value proposition is about the customer, not you.

The value proposition should:

• Explain how your product solves customers’ problems or improves their situation
• Explain how you will deliver specific benefits
• Explain to the ideal customer why they should buy from you and not from the competition

Ideally the value proposition should be snappy and be the main focus of all engagement material, from the website through to marketing literature.  Easy peasy eh??!

Well no, it’s not.  Getting the value proposition right involves knowing exactly what your product can do compared to the competitors out there and understanding what it is that your potential clients need.  You then have to take all this info and formulate it into a proposition that highlights your uniqueness in the market and creates something your customers actually care about.  So no, it’s not easy but, when you see how customers respond, you’ll see it’s well worth the effort.