Let’s face it, you’re in business to make money. It doesn’t matter if you have a cause, or you are going to change the world. Without sales and revenue, your business will not survive.
What is a value proposition?
Value proposition is not just a sentence or paragraph about your business, it’s a statement that you can share with your employees and customers. It’s a statement about what customers will get and a communication tool that will help people within your business explain what you do.
Smart companies understand their customers and differentiate themselves with a value proposition that resonates with their customers. Smarter businesses use value propositions internally and externally, to help everyone march to the same beat.
A great value proposition will
- Be simple and easy to understand
- Tell everyone what you do
- Be easily understood internally and externally
- Explain what you do in less than 10 words
- Tell your audience if they are in the right place
- Be unique, and identify yourself and your point of difference
Great value proposition examples
When I see a business online, one of the main things I look for is their value proposition. Most of the time you will not see their value proposition on the homepage, rather you will see one of the underlying value that the value the business and value prop is built upon.
Value propositions are always evolving, changing with the time, they can be based on a user, country product or solution.
TrackMaven
The Marketing Insights Company
When building products it can be difficult to concisely communicate your competitive advantage when your competitors offer the same services. TrackMaven concisely speaks to a marketer’s pain point – proving ROI.
Evernote
Feel organized without the effort
It shouldn’t be a surprise to see Evernote on this list. They have always had amazing value propositions and their market-fit is exceptional.
AirTasker
Get your to-do list done
You just have to love how simple this is, and straight to the point. I have met with the team so I may be a little bias, but this one really hits the nail on the head.
Xero
Beautiful Accounting Software
Their website may not say it anymore, but their value proposition is “Beautiful Accounting Software”. It may have changed since I first started my journey with Xero, you will find it is in their core ethos and is why Xero is one of the leaders in the accounting space.
Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.
It doesn’t matter how you feel about this organisation and their ethics, it is clear to see that Facebook is in touch with what matters most to their customers.
Get Satisfaction
The Shortest Distance Between You and Your Customer
Get Satisfaction has been one of my favourites for years, and their current value proposition simple catches who they are and why they deliver value.
FreshDesk
Intuitive, feature-rich, affordable customer support software
FreshDesk is one company that gets it, and they should. There are very close to their customers and are able to gather quality research and deliver true value.
HiPages
Change the way you tradie
This one seems more like a tagline, but I love how simple it is and it catches what this company does.
Canva
Simply great design for you and your team
This is another one which may not be their value proposition, however, this tagline is easily one of the best I have seen and brings out the true essence of the company.
Where to from here?
Creating the perfect value proposition is not an easy task, but it sure is fun! It takes time and patience.
I always start off with a discovery session, with key people in the business. In this session, people from the group will discuss who the ideal customer is, how the business makes its customers lives better, what pains and gains customers have when trying to get on with their life.
Phase two is getting out of the office and interviewing customers. This can be the most confronting, yet rewarding phase of the process. I absolutely love working with customers and finding out what makes them tick. It’s a shame most businesses are too afraid to ask questions, or they simply don’t know how to ask the right questions.
Phase three is the trickiest part of the co-creation process. This is where you relay your feedback back to the business. It is one of the most important parts of the process. By now you will have gathered enough data to show key stakeholder in your business the direction you want to take.
Further reading
A great book by one of my favourite scholars Clay Christensen, The Innovators Dilemma. If you would love to get your head around building products that people love, this book is for you.
