A value proposition is a simple way of understanding what your products, brand and company mean for your customer. A true value proposition enables your customer’s desires, so that they can realize their dreams. The difference is important. You want your value proposition to unlock your customer’s desires.
Merely selling a product to customer is a transaction. You need to go deeper.
Does Your Value Proposition Unlock Your Customer’s Desires?
The feeling that a customer has doing business with you is where a true value proposition lives. It is like a catalyst for the customer to emerge, to grow or to become what they aspire to be. Understanding this can help you expand your business and grow revenue because the connection becomes much more important than any product or service. Aligning your team toward this true value proposition is invaluable to any organization.
Denise Yohn, a leading marketing thought-leader, describes the value proposition of Spanx in her post on Smartblog on Leadership. Spanx is a shapewear brand. They are a billion dollar business who has gone beyond their original products because they have harnessed the true value woman see in the brand.
Spanx has value because it helps woman to feel great about themselves and their potential.
This is far more powerful than a sale. It means that the connection, the loyalty and the real benefit goes beyond a single purchase. The Spanx value proposition isn’t their tagline. It is spoken in the language of the customer – in how they would express to themselves the derived benefit.
Sara Blakely Foundation created Spanx Gives Back to give life to these causes. Sara founded the business in 1998.
“Sara feels grateful to be a woman in America who was given the opportunity to achieve her dream. She wants women everywhere to have the same opportunity. For all the women who feel as grateful, and for all the men who see the global potential of women, The Sara Blakely Foundation is dedicated to helping women globally and locally through education and entrepreneurship. By finding the future female entrepreneurs and leaders of the world and giving them the “leg-up” they need to succeed, the whole world will benefit.”
Creating a Value Proposition That Unlocks Your Customer’s Desires
- In your customer’s voice, what would they say about your product, service or business?
- When customer’s comments are linked to their emotional states – how they feel working with you, you are in the right zip code for data needed to craft a true value proposition.
- Your customer won’t be able to craft the language in a simple way but they will reveal keys to your value, if in fact it exists.
- It helps to get many perspectives from within your customer’s business. How the CFO versus purchasing views your relationship could be very different. Get input from multiple points of contact.
- Write a simple headline about your value proposition.
- Add a few bullets or perhaps, a sentence or two.
- Someone who doesn’t know your business will have 8 seconds to understand what you mean.
- A new customer should understand your true value proposition from their heart, not their head.
If your company’s true value proposition isn’t apparent to everyone, you are not focusing your resources to engage, excite and ignite your audience.
What a missed opportunity to get a leg up on the competition.
Need help finding your TVP or your True Value Proposition? Give me a call and let’s brainstorm together.
