Why Your Value-Prop is Critical to Prospecting & How to Create It
It doesn’t matter whether we’re in inbound or outbound, the goal of our effort is exactly the same. And that’s to have a conversation with a qualified prospect. The only difference between these two is where they start and the channels they use. With inbound we start with content and with outbound we start with a list of targeted leads.
It doesn’t matter whether we’re in inbound or outbound, the goal of our effort is exactly the same. And that’s to have a conversation with a qualified prospect.
Regardless of whether we are inbound or outbound we are dependent on messaging to engage our target audience.
And that is a key point.
“We are dependent on messaging to engage our target audience.”
That makes our messaging vitally important to prospecting.
Exercise
Let’s do a quick exercise. Quickly write your core value proposition. Right now.
This is the key value that your customers get from working with you.
The Surprising Truth
Let me share something with you about that exercise. I’ve had the opportunity to work with many organizations regarding their sales strategy. And while we may start by looking at closing, discovery or prospecting, in the majority of cases when we get to pealing back the onion, what we find is that their basic messaging and value proposition has not been well defined.
To me, that’s just mind-blowing.
I have seen entire sale machines and product launches built up around weak or non-existent value props.
Do You Know Your Value Proposition
So I would just ask:
- Do you know what your value-proposition is?
- Do you have a clear value-prop for each solution that you sell?
“Do you know what your value-proposition is?”
And that brings us to another key point – Your core value proposition is mission-critical information that you must have to succeed in selling.
“Your Core Value Proposition is Mission-Critical Information That You Must Have to Succeed in Selling.”
This is a big deal. And the reason for this is because it’s so foundational.
Not only is your value proposition the core of all your messaging, but it’s also the means by which we and our own teams come to learn the value of our solutions. If we and our own sales team don’t know and believe in the value of the solution – if we can’t articulate it – we’re never gonna be able to communicate it to customers.
Now, there are 6 key elements to high-impact messaging that we will be covering in upcoming posts. And your value prop is THE most important of those 6 elements.
So before we cover the 6 elements of the high-impact messaging framework it’s really important that we nail your value prop down.
How To Create A Value Proposition
So briefly, here’s how to create a basic value proposition – See how this compares to what you wrote down in the exercise above:
A basic value proposition has three components to it:
- A Metric
- Direction
- Magnitude
Metric – The Metric is the measurable component of the thing you improve. It answers the question “How do you measure whether or not you are doing well in this area?”
Direction – Direction is simple. It answers the question, “What is happening to the value of this Metric?” Is it going up or down?
Magnitude – And then last we have magnitude. Magnitude answers “How much…?” That is, how much is it going up or down? What’s the value of the change?
So with that, we now have enough to craft a basic value proposition. Here’s the formula:
Value Proposition Basic Formula
An example of that would be: We increase close ratios by an average of 22%.
And this is just the bare minimum. There are other elements we can use to juice up your value propositions even further like target statements and impacts, but this is the basic formula.
Answer The Critical Question
You should have a value proposition for each of your solutions and a more generalized value proposition that encompasses everything you offer. With your value props crafted you’ll be able to easily answer the critical question: “Why should this client see me?” And that’s the question we need to answer in order to get our first meeting with clients. It’s the valid business reason for prospects to meet with us. All other sales messaging stems from your value proposition. Invest the time and get it right. When you do you’ll find your impact magnified many times over.
Prospecting Secret: We are dependent on messaging to engage our target audience. And that makes your value proposition mission-critical information that you must have to succeed in prospecting.
Until next time!
James
