What value do I provide to the market? Which customer problem am I trying to solve?
A value proposition is a clear and simple statement of the benefits your product or service will provide. In building your value proposition, you pinpoint your customer profile (see Customer Research and Customer Segmentation) and describe how you will create value for them. It helps to answer the essential question on every customer’s lips: Why should I choose you? However, value proposition is a process – your first attempt will never be your final version. The purpose is to use it as an opportunity to explore how to create a dovetail between what your customers need and what you are providing.
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WHEN: You are already clear on who is your customer and what their needs are.
WHY: Brands that combine strong propositions with marketing campaigns achieve 5x the growth of those that have “excellent advertising” but weak propositions.
WHAT: An article written by Nick Couch on the need of value propositions and how they can often be underestimated, now published on LinkedIn.
WHEN: You want a tool to think through and capture your value proposition.
WHY: Getting your value proposition on one piece of paper helps you to see where it matches customer needs and where it needs to be improved.
WHAT: A worksheet, developed by Alex Osterwalder at Strategyzer, is one of the best tools available to help you really understand your customer: the jobs they need to get done, what secret ambitions they have and what distractions /pain points are afoot. You can then line these up with your product features and benefits.
OTHER: You can download the first 100 pages of the Strategyzer Value Proposition design book for free which gives you the grounding you need to use it. (Don’t panic, it’s mostly pictures and not dense text).
WHEN: You have an existing product or you are developing a new one and you want to test whether customers will buy it.
WHY: If you skip this phase or don’t pay enough attention to it, you risk implementing a value proposition that nobody cares about, which will underpin a flawed business model.
WHAT: A list of 10 essential links to how-to guides on searching, experimenting and managing a testing process.
OTHER: You can download the first 100 pages of the Strategyzer Value Proposition design book for free which gives you the grounding you need to use it. (Don’t panic, it’s mostly pictures and not dense text).
WHEN: You are talking to anyone about what you do.
WHY: Luck happens when preparation meets opportunity – give yourself the best possible grounding to communicate your value proposition and catch attention.
WHAT: This article contains templates and tactics to craft your elevator pitch: a quick, persuasive speech that is used to create interest in a project, a concept, or people.
