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What's in it for Me?
By John Joyce, President
Red, Incorporated
Strategic Marketing and Design
It's not a trick question, it is the primary thing your prospects and customers need to know about your business. Unfortunately, in the midst of all the effort we spend on communicating, advertising, lead-generating, educating, selling... somehow we can easily lose sight of addressing this simple question. Why? Maybe it's because day-to-day we spend more time wrapping our heads around our own business, and not seeing it from our customer's perspective. When we think of ourselves we tend to think in terms of benefits and features, not why those features and benefits matter. These things matter automatically to us - after all, it is what we do - but not so with our customers. They need to be told WHY they matter. They need to be shown the VALUE.
A value proposition in business and marketing, is a statement summarizing the core differentiation of one's product from the offerings of competitors. The American Heritage Dictionary defines value as worth in usefulness or importance to the possessor; utility or merit. – Wikipedia (edited).
It takes time and thought and effort to discover your value proposition. It is often made up of the very things that make your business what it is: your core competencies, the kind of customer you're geared towards, how you differ from your competition, where your business is headed, where your industry is headed and more. It may be new or difficult for you to think in these terms if you haven't before. You might be thinking 'but my product/service is faster, better or cheaper' - so is every other product/service out there.
Here's a question that may help: So what?
This is a great question to ask yourself to help find the real value to the customer, and try to show how it benefits their bottom line. For example: Our product is the most innovative in the market place .... so what? Our approach is unique ... so what? We have lots of offices nationwide ... so what? Do your innovations or unique approach or locations, or any other feature save the customer time and money? Or do they help the customer to be more profitable somehow? Can you measure and demonstrate this value - can you prove it?
Why say 'Our product is the most innovative in the market place' if you can say something like 'On average our customers save $1000 per year, per employee by using our innovative product'. Why say 'Our approach is unique' if you can say something like 'Because of our unique approach, you can expect to save around three dollars for every dollar you spend with us.' I think you can see how approaches like this are guaranteed to generate more interest and more response.
Reality Check
There's one more critical part of your value proposition. It has to be TRUE! .... True, accurate, and defendable. I'm not talking about wishful thinking here, stick to the present reality. A value proposition must not be something you hope will be true some day ... It has to be true right now, or else you are just lying, which is unethical and will also backfire on you when you fail to live up to your promises. Resist the temptation to 'invent' a value proposition, there are real values at work in your business right now or you wouldn't be in business, take the time to search them out. Look carefully at your business, your products and your services and then tell us ... What's in it for me?
