When you are an entrepreneur, you often learn that creating that product or service is often just the beginning of a long and tedious process.
One of the many steps is having a unique value proposition for your business. A value proposition is a statement that clearly expresses the distinct selling points of your business. It is more than a slogan or tagline. It is much more specific and detailed.
A value proposition differentiates your business from others and makes it easier for you to get more customers. So, how then can you create a unique value proposition?
Know your ideal customer
Who is your product or service directed towards? A buyer persona is the profile of your ideal customer. Who are they? Are you targeting individuals or other businesses? Does it solve their problem?
Doing some market research allows you to then tailor your product to the very specific people you want and this will be reflected in your value proposition.
Explain your selling points
Once you have your ideal customer profile, it is time to explain what makes you different from your competitors. So, this means researching your competition inside out and knowing what they have already done and what they haven’t.
Then you can put together a competitive matrix to help you stack up against them and see where you stand.
Then, tell the customer what your business does that others don’t. Does your product/service save time? Is it more affordable? Etc.
Be clear and specific
A Value proposition should be detailed but still simple enough for the customer to quickly and easily understands the message. Avoid technical jargon and go for an everyday language that your target market understands.
Company mission
What does your company stand for? And does that align with what you are promising the customer?
Company missions often make companies stand apart from others and thus, a great company mission will help you hone in on your value proposition. This is something that you will likely do over a long period so do not rush.
Write down the company mission and reevaluate it after every few days until you get that succinct sentence that stands out from your competitors. Then, use that to create it.
Test your value proposition
Once you have settled on a value proposition, to test how effective and unique it is, run it through people who represent your ideal target audience. These could be family or friends. If you are bold, you could even try strangers.
Find out from them how it makes them feel. Does it excite them about the product/service? Or does it remind them of another product? Would they buy the product or service based on that?
You can then use their feedback to refine your value proposition until you get the one that excites the people you are targeting.
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