David Hooker is the Director of Corporate Services for the Clemson MBA Program. He helps companies of all sizes grow sales and increase productivity by designing and implementing customized training programs. Dave sincerely believes that anyone can be taught to sell, and he is available to help.
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Whatever your professional field, whether you work for someone else, own your own business, work alone or are one member in a staff of thousands, there is one thing you can do that will have a tremendous impact on your success. The simple act of defining and articulating your value proposition is a powerful tool that can transform the way you and your employees do business.
So what is a value proposition, exactly? Investopedia defines it as “a business or marketing statement that summarizes why a consumer should buy a product or use a service. This statement should convince a potential consumer that one particular product or service will add more value or better solve a problem than other similar offerings.”
I believe the essence of a good value proposition is uncomplicated and straightforward: it is the answer to the question, “What makes my company different?” No matter what you are selling – product or service – it is essential that you can define and articulate what sets you apart from your competition.
For companies that produce and sell tangible goods, this exercise is often easier. Features and benefits of products are easy to distinguish and compare. Even if your product is essentially identical to a competitor’s but is priced less, that price difference becomes part of your value proposition.
It’s important not to begin and end this exercise with the product itself but to also include service and other intangibles. Perhaps you offer free shipping, an a no-questions-asked return policy, free 24 hour technical support, a lifetime warranty against defects – any of these things and more can and should be defined and included when crafting your value proposition.
What if you’re a professional providing a service? Defining your value proposition may seem more difficult than for those producing a tangible product, but it’s really the same. Your product is you and the services you offer; the key is to find the ways you are different and better than your competition. If you are an attorney, perhaps you have an outstanding record of cases won or years of experience handling contracts in a specialized field. A dentist may offer complimentary foot massages to their patients during treatment to ease the stress of a dental visit. Freelance writers can distinguish themselves by never missing a deadline. If you can’t define the reason a customer should choose you, how can you expect the customer to find one on their own?
If you are having trouble coming up with a reason, this might be a good time to brainstorm and implement value-added policies and services. Sometimes the more unusual and off-the-wall ideas are the most valuable – be creative.
Companies with a large sales staff have an excellent way to find their value proposition: observe your top performers in action and see what they say when interacting with clients. Successful salespeople often have the innate ability to define and internalize the key messages that lead to increased sales. The good news is that these skills can be taught to and adapted by the rest of your staff. The key is to begin by defining the value proposition. Once you have that in place, sales staff can learn how to articulate the message to customers.
Though the learning process often begins by having employees practice from a script, the goal is not to create a bunch of parrots mimicking their master’s words. The desired result is that each individual will internalize the message and begin to express it naturally in conversation using his or her own words.
Practice is the key in successfully adopting this strategy. Repetition, role-playing, video recording and playback are all powerful tools for learning and improving one’s skills in projecting the value proposition, and all can be refined and perfected internally within the organization rather than having staff “practice” on clients.
Effective communication is not a talent that some people have and some do not – it is a skill anyone can learn and improve through time and practice. And it can make all the difference between mediocrity and success for any company.
