Amongst all of your competitors in your marketplace there is only one who can offer their product and/or service for the lowest price point.
This means all other business needs to sell on value – and if you don’t have a rock solid value proposition, how can you expect your sales team to sell effectively? Sure, some sales might make it through the pipeline due to other outside influences, but you’ll never be achieving your maximum profitability.
So the next step is ensuring your strategic messaging is regularly reviewed, and time is spent ensuring it is working efficiently and effectively in your marketplace.
To be successful in sales you need; a value proposition, a positioning statement and a unique selling proposition. On the face of it, these may appear to be the same thing. But they actually aren’t – and used at different times, they produce different results.
Value proposition
Your proposition is a clear statement of the tangible results your customer will enjoy from using your product or service. It needs to focus on the specific outcomes to clearly demonstrate the value that you provide to your customers. The more specific you can be with your value proposition, the greater your ability to get in front of busy decision makers that will buy your product or service.
Your proposition is a description of how your ideal target market (customer) will materially benefit from your product or service. It is a statement that demonstrates clearly defined and measurable outcomes that your customers can expect from dealing with your company.
Examples of this include a quantifiable return on investment, improved productivity or efficiency, reduced costs or attracting more customers. Cut through the clutter and make it a compelling offer.
In business today your proposition needs to cut through the clutter and stand out from the crowd. To achieve this it needs to be specific and compelling.
A weak proposition will simply get lost in the crowd and won’t get you in front of busy decision makers whereas strong propositions will open doors and create opportunities.
Strong propositions speak in business language, using terms such as:
- Increased revenues
- Decreased costs
- Improved operational efficiency
- Reduced cost of sale
- Faster sales cycles
- Increased market share
- Decreased operational costs
- Faster response time
This also creates a strong sense of urgency, as there are tangible costs or losses in a delay to resolving those situations.
