Value Proposition

Beyond developing a basic understanding of the target audience for your business’s marketing message, one of the first steps toward honing a solid marketing strategy involves the value proposition, or unique value proposition.

Value Proposition: Get Your Business in the Door

Your business’ value proposition succinctly summarizes — in a sentence, or even a few words — exactly why your target prospect should become your customer. Not surprisingly, very small businesses have a great one, or even a relatively good one.

An effective unique value proposition includes one of the primary reasons why a prospect should buy from you. The magic of a truly effective value proposition is that it will snap your prospective customer out of the “everything’s going just fine and we don’t want to bother with a change now” mindset. When you can clearly express the significant advantage of your offering, you will get immediate attention.

Value Proposition: Why a Prospect should buy from you.

Keep in mind that business clients have heard countless marketing spiels, and are quite immune to sales hype. They couldn’t care less about how long your business has been around, how much experience you have or the quality of the product you offer. The questions they are really interested in are these: “What’s in it for me?” and “Why should I buy from you?”

To really capture their attention, you need to come straight out with the tangible business results your potential customers will get by using your company’s product or service. To gain credibility, you must present specific numbers and percentages that address the all-important financial bottom line. And they must sound genuine, not approximate or made up.

Value Proposition: Capture your Prospects Attention.

Let’s take a look at two value propositions:

• “We offer a full range of consulting services to help companies save money.”
• “We help companies improve operational efficiency and reduce corporate waste. One of our current customers was able to increase profits by $80,000 only one quarter after implementation.”

The first example sounds vague and uninteresting at best. Every company wants to save money, but the value proposition gives no specifics regarding what the result will be. It sounds like a zillion other “blah blah blah” sales calls. By using the second value proposition, you can drive home the specific impact that the business could experience by adopting your offering. After hearing figures like these, no sane chief financial officer can turn you away.

MarketBlazer Services:

• Fundamental Marketing Services
• Information Marketing Services
• Online Marketing Services
• Social Media Marketing Services
• Demand Marketing Services
• Mobile Media Marketing
• Local Internet Marketing