If you only have 30 seconds to pitch your product or service, what would you say? That, in a nutshell, is your unique value proposition—or what other people will call your elevator pitch.
Your business’ value proposition communicates the number one reason your product or service is the best solution for a customer’s need(s).
It should not be confused with your slogan or tagline, which is more of a catchphrase.
There is no strict format when creating a value proposition. Some would suggest that it should have a headline, subheadline, and a couple of bullet points. This is true too, but it’s not necessarily the rule. If you can formulate your value proposition into one sentence, then why not? But one thing for sure is that it should be concise, precise, compelling, and unique.
Your value proposition will be front and center in all your marketing and advertising assets: your website, sales presentation, campaigns, etc. So if someone is to visit your website, for example, your value proposition on the home page should lure him into exploring the rest of the site.
But how do you create a value proposition that simply wows and, ultimately, wins deals? There are three steps.
Three Steps to a Winning Value Proposition
First thing you need to do is establish the value you provide. To do this, you must accomplish these seven things:
- Know your product or service
If you want to effectively sell anything, you should know it by heart. Know your product or service inside and out—the technical specs, features, benefits, strengths, and limitations. You will most likely receive all the information you need during onboarding and sales training sessions, but augment all that learning by personally trying out what you’re hoping to sell.
- Know your market
Who is the market you’re trying to serve? Determine the demographic data and their values, pain points, problems, interests, motivations, and more. The more data and information you have on your target market, the better.
- Identify the problem(s) your product or service is trying to solve
Your product or service was created to fulfill a need. What is that need that it aims to fulfill?
The more critical the need, the more successful a product or service will likely be. How can you evaluate the need? You can begin by qualifying the problem: Is it “Blac and White”? Is it BLAC (Blatant, Latent, Aspirational, Critical) and does it address a WHITE space in the market, allowing you to capitalize on an open area of opportunity? Going by this evaluation, the BLACer the problem you’re trying to solve and the whiter the space (meaning fewer competitors and more customers to seize), the better for you.
- Enumerate the benefits of your product or service
List down all the positives attached to your product or service. These are the outstanding features and benefits that it offers. It can be the intelligent design, the fair price, functionality, durability, and similar.
- Nail down your value driver(s)
A value driver addresses a customer’s need. So what are the value drivers of your product or service? Does it offer convenience? Reduce risk or cost? Boost productivity? Increase revenue?
Your value driver is the answer to any of a customer’s many needs.
- Establish your differential feature(s)
For your product or service to stand out, your value proposition must be unique. What differentiates you from competitors? What features or selling points are unique to your product or service? This is something you can easily identify if you’ve done competitor research.
- Hone in on your unique value
Considering everything—market, problem solved, benefits, value drivers, and differential factors—you can now hone in on your unique value. You may have a host of benefits and features but if you share a lot of those with another brand, their value is watered down. Your unique value will make your proposition more compelling.
Remember: your value proposition is the number one reason your product or service is the best solution for a customer’s need(s). And it should be the reason a customer will choose you over your competitors.
2. Compose your value proposition
When crafting your value proposition, you have to aim for:
- Simplicity and clarity: You don’t need big, highfalutin words. Make it as simple, as clear, and as easy to understand as possible—by anyone and everyone.
- Precision: Be to the point, concise yet precise.
- Uniqueness: People remember things that stand out. For that, you have to be unique. Uniqueness should come from the value you propose and the messaging—how you compose/write the value proposition.
3. Test your value proposition
We would recommend that you narrow down your value propositions to your top two and test them. There are many ways to do this. You can conduct A/B testing via email marketing or run split test ads on Google or Facebook to determine which one performs better. The one that receives more engagement wins, of course. You can also run them by the teams in the organization or with small user groups.
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