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How to Build a Value Proposition in Sales
RAIN Group
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Remove your ability to substantiate your claims and buyers won’t risk working with you. They won’t believe you’ll be able to fulfill your promises or achieve intended results. Again, statements that encapsulate the mission and value of a firm are helpful early in discussions. Many buyers are skeptical at this stage, especially if you and your organization are an unknown quantity. It takes time to resonate, differentiate, and substantiate, but it’s worth doing. By summing up your organization in this way, you help buyers understand where and when you can help them. However, there’s always a set of underlying factors and specifics that sway any particular buyer to choose you instead of building an in-house solution, finding someone else to help them, or deciding to do nothing at all. This is where a strong value proposition helps. You need to convince the buyer of the impact of your solution, and what will happen if they move forward with you compared to these other options. To take this a step further, a sales impact model can help you demonstrate financial benefits of working with you and map out the context of your offer. To fulfill these three rules, you need your buyers to be able to answer four important questions. Your Ideal Customer Profile You can’t write a universally appealing value proposition, but by designing it around your Ideal Customer Profile, you can give yourself the best odds of success. Your ICP describes an organization that is best matched to benefit from your solutions, particularly as part of a long-term customer relationship. Note that your ICP is not static; with the breakneck pace of market change, it’s worth reevaluating on a semi-annual basis. It typically includes: Company size Industry Budget Common objections Pain points Aspirations Motivation for buying Their buying process Technological infrastructure Decision maker structure (i.e. buying committees vs. “Why trust covers substantiation. It's where you make the case for why the buyer should believe in you, your offering, your company, and your ability to achieve the desired and promised results.” It just does a little positioning for you. Your actual value proposition—the collection of reasons people buy from you—will be different from one buyer to the next. You’ll discover what it should be for each buyer through your conversations as you learn what they want and need, and who the competition is. Then and only then will you be able to craft the most compelling solution and messaging for them. If you do, the buyer’s perception of your value will be as strong as possible when it counts: when it’s time to buy. Establish Your Value Across the Sales Process In this complimentary guide, we share tips and frameworks for value-forward selling, and how to incorporate it into your conversations with buyers.