Hi – Ian here.

As I mentioned in my last email, my next few messages are going to be about the topic you voted as the #1 you wanted to hear about:

»» Creating a powerful Value Proposition/Unique Selling Proposition (I'll use the terms interchangeably).

Now your value proposition is simply the big reason why someone would hire you (rather than doing nothing or hiring someone else). And it has two main components:

The value your clients get from working with you
How you're different (and better in your client's eyes) than the other options
If the value isn't clear, there's no reason for a client to shell out good money to work with you.

And if the differentiation isn't there, there's no reason for them to choose to work with you rather than someone else.

So normally most methodologies for creating value propositions set you the twin exercises of identifying what it is your clients value the most (that you can deliver) and what it is that marks you out as being the most different.

And then some kind of combining the two.

You can use rating systems. You can start with value and then check for difference. Or start with difference and check for value.

You can add things to boost the core value or difference (such as “without…” clauses).

But at the end of the day, any methodology that looks at both angles is going to be a solid one.

Except…

Doing this is really hard.

Knowing your clients and what they value inside out absolutely helps.

But it's often difficult to see from an outsider's perspective what's really different and valuable about you without it getting all generic.

“We have great service”. “We go the extra mile”. “We have the best people”. .

Unfortunately, everyone can say that. And they usually do.

It's oh-so easy to get stuck staring at a blank sheet of paper trying to find what's really different about you. And asking clients or contacts often doesn't help. They just get a “feeling” they like working with you.

But there is an approach that doesn't suffer from that problem. And it can result in much more powerful value propositions.

It's something I first heard from consultant Sean D'Souza (if you haven't got his book The Brain Audit it's well worth grabbing on Amazon).

D'Souza's insight is one of those things that seems obvious when you know it and makes you wish you'd thought of it yourself.

He points out that when you're creating a value proposition you don't have to spend forever analysing what you currently do to figure out how you're different in a valuable way.

You can decide how you want to be different and make it happen.

And that's particularly true in service businesses.

In a product business and especially for hard goods, you're kind of stuck with what you've got until a new product comes out.

But in a service business you can constantly tweak and improve your services to shape them how you want.

So, for example, if I train organisations in team-building and I decide that I want my value proposition to be that my training builds an effective team faster than anyone else's, then I can make that happen.

It won't be overnight. But I can invest in upgrading my models and my training approaches to focus them on best practices in rapid learning. And I can measure my success with clients to prove they get results fast.

I didn't have to scour the depths of my current services to find what I was doing that was different and hope that clients found it valuable.

I decided what valuable difference I wanted my value proposition to focus on and I made it happen.

Does that sound far-fetched?

Maybe in large organisation it is. In a big company I'd have to spend months in internal meetings trying to get our services updated. Then on training my colleagues to be able to deliver in a new way. Then setting up measurement systems and ensuring they actually happened.

But for a small company or solo business I can get change to happen much, much faster.

Not instantly of course. Depending on what you want your value proposition to be it may take you time to build up your knowledge and skills so you can deliver on it.

But it's doable.

And it means that your value proposition isn't constrained by what you currently do. You can base it round what you want to do and work towards it.

Much, much better than spending your time polishing and wordsmithing something that's inherently weak because it's just a reflection of internal ideas and perceived strengths.