What is a Value Proposition? (Plus 3 Great Examples and 3 Common Mistakes) A value proposition is a statement that answers the 'why' someone should do business with you. It should convince a potential customer why your service or product will be of more value to them than similar offerings from your competition.
by Mark Stonham tags = Sales Strategy, Social Selling Tips, Value Propositions
Knowledge is a wonderful thing, and valuable when it solves problems.
And in business the value increases as we solve bigger and bigger problems, helping people to save time and money, to make money, to reduce risk and so on.
But time is precious, so the challenge is to maximise our value to prospects and customers and minimise the time spent on relatively low value activities.
The good news is that, with a bit of thought and preparation, we can make buying and selling easier by having packaged value propositions.
For the provider or vendor, packaged knowledge becomes easier to sell and to deliver multiple times, and is something to offer and promote through LinkedIn.
And for the buyer it is more tangible to buy, and lower risk if there are recommendations from other happy buyers, and it makes referrals and introductions easier.
And these packages don’t all have to be exchanged for money. They may be offered in exchange for information from the prospect, for example their email address, or filling in a form, or exchanged for their time, for example an exploratory meeting.
There is a booming market for information products, especially for diagnostics and for training, so this is a good place to start looking for ideas.
The additional benefit of this is to raise your credibility as an expert in your area, having invested to create product and gain social proof, endorsements, testimonials and recommendations.
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On a simple basis there are three steps to making a sales: Get the buyer’s ATTENTION. Get their TIME. Get their MONEY. And these steps are reflected below.
Contact us forms and newsletter subscriptions are passe, as most prospects are looking for something with a much more tangible payback before they part with their email address these days
Sales Pages and Landing Pages are the foundation of lead generation campaigns, and the payback of the packaged resource behind them is something that can be offered through LinkedIn.
Considered purchases entail research, not just into vendor solutions but also into internal costs and implementation. Vendors who help buyers, including business sponsors and line managers, to do their jobs better can become trusted advisors and heavily influence the purchase.
Consider the buying timetable and the decision-making group (research via LinkedIn) and the issues they need to address in order to make a purchase as part of planning your packaged value proposition for this stage in the sales process.
There may be many people who have limited budgets but who also have a desire to gain an understanding, knowledge and skills in the topic you are an expert in.
There are many variations available, to support the purchase / sale while also qualifying intent and earning income (or at least contributing to marketing and sales costs) along the way.
Notifying people of the course availability via LinkedIn is an option, and to advise 1st connections to see if the know anyone who would benefit from it.
If you haven’t already done so get a copy of our guide, which covers more LinkedIn Tips and introduces the Social Selling Matrix.
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About Mark Stonham
I help Business Owners and Sales Leaders to improve lead generation and create new sales opportunities through effective use of LinkedIn for themselves and their business. Techniques include Targeting, Trigger Events and Re-Framing the proposition to start sales conversations. In particular I work with technology businesses, professional services firms and knowledge sector organisations.
View all posts by Mark Stonham →
Educational Content – the fuel that makes Social Selling effective
Social Prospecting – how to use LinkedIn to Find New Customers
A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered. It's the primary reason a prospect should buy from you. explains how your product solves customers' problems or improves their situation (relevancy), ... tells the ideal customer why they should buy from you and not from the competition (unique differentiation).
