What is Your Value Proposition?
A “Value Proposition” is simply your promise to your customers. This promise is the ‘value’ you will deliver to them. Let’s look at some examples:
Consider Walmart with its slogan “Save Money. Live Better” – who doesn’t want that? It is a very effective slogan because it is such a compelling promise. They are saying that if I got to their store that not only will I save money, which is a big issue for most people, but that my life will be better off. It is a strong message.
What about Gillette with their slogan “The best a man can get”. The message here is that if use a Gillette shaving product then I am using the best possible product available and that I am not compromising.
My own business operated in the Australian financial planning industry and the most common complaint against the industry was the conflicts of interest that arose out of financial advisers selling financial products to earn commissions rather than providing objective strategic and product advice. I used this negative to turn it into a positive for my business.
I got our own financial services license so that we were not linked to the product providers in any way and we came up with the slogan “Uncompromised Advice”. So my promise was that if you came to me for your financial planning needs that the advice I gave you was completely objective and would have no conflicts of interest. This was backed up by our license that enabled us to use any product available in the marketplace that we felt appropriate for the client. We also charged flat fees to avoid the perceived and often real conflicts that commissions can trigger.
Ultimately when we’re talking about your competitive advantage and your value proposition, we’re talking about differentiation…