It’s also a fantastic way to get an edge. Because, according to recent research, a whopping 83% of marketers are neglecting their customer value proposition.
That’s awful, right? But it can be good news for you. If you and a few people from other key departments are willing to sit down and try to talk plainly about how your customers and prospects perceive and value your products, you’ve got an edge.
Sit down a couple of times, and you’ll do even better. Heck, you might even want to do a little customer or prospect research (like a survey) to try to get hard data on how these groups view your company and products.
And then, you might even want to test some of your messaging.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
What’s the most memorable B2B value proposition of all time?
Before we get too far, let’s give you an example of a killer value prop. I bet a bunch of you know this value proposition so well that you could finish this sentence:
“Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM.”
That’s a value proposition. Maybe not the de-sanitized, jargon-muddled sort of value proposition so many of us see, but a value proposition that goes directly to the heart of its audience: the enterprise technology buyer.
This particular persona (yes, you can ― and should ― define value propositions for each of your products and for each of the personas that buy those products), the B2B enterprise buyer, was ultimately concerned about one thing: screwing up.
Nobody wants to buy an expensive, complex technology package and not have it work. And yet, it happens all the time. And if the outfit the buyer is assessing ends up being incompetent, or the product doesn’t work, it’s on the buyer’s head. Their job is on the line.
So while the vendor/salesperson/marketing content may be talking about features and customer service hours, and training, and their latest big client shindig, the thing the buyer really, really wants to know, ultimately, is that one thing:
Is buying this going to get me fired?
(Or, more optimistically: Might it get me a raise?)
I especially like this example because it shows that if you can truly nail your value proposition, it will bond your buyer so strongly to you that even if there are snags in the process, they’ll continue to trust you. They’ll tolerate a few hiccups and stay with you. Because even if IBM made mistakes, nobody ever got fired for buying them. Right?
Notice a few things about this one simple sentence:
- It’s not a tagline.
- It doesn’t even mention a product or any product features.
- It’s not a positioning statement.
- It’s all about the customer ― and not at all about the company.
So that’s what it’s not.
Here’s what to aim for. These are the common attributes of a great value proposition:
It’s clear.
If people don’t understand your value proposition instantly, it’s a fail.
The problem is, how can you tell if your value prop is clear or not?
Answer: You test. Landing pages are particularly good for testing value propositions. Your entire landing page should have “congruence,” which means every element of the landing page either states or supports the value proposition.
Landing pages are usually the realm of creative types and marketers, but I urge you, again, to bring someone from sales into your landing page development.
Remember: Sales talks to your prospects day in and day out. Their job depends on how well they know your prospects and how well they communicate your company’s value proposition to each prospect. Maybe they aren’t copywriters, but it sure would be cool if you could do a brain meld between your best salesperson and your best copywriter.
Wanna know another place that’s great for testing value propositions? AdWords ads.
It’s powerful.
In other words, it’s “memorable.” But, more importantly, it’s powerful. This is the “convincer” element of a value proposition. Even if your value proposition is clear, if it doesn’t all but stop your prospects in their tracks, it won’t be effective.
Remember, you’re competing with every other company’s value propositions. Stand out or go home.
It’s laser-targeted for your prospect.
The single biggest shortcoming of most value propositions? They’re “not relevant to our needs,” according to 2014 research from IDG Connect and Knowledgence Associates.