If you’ve been in B2B marketing or sales for the last few years, you’ve definitely noticed some changes – longer and more complex sales cycles, more buyers involved in the decision-making process, and more buyers coming to your organization with a clear idea of what they want.
As buying cycles become more complex, now more than ever, it’s critical to have a compelling value proposition that connects the dots for potential buyers and clearly illustrates how your solution solves their problem. But this is easier said than done, as recent research shows that 83% of marketers have no idea how to develop or apply a customer value proposition!
But don’t stress. As it turns out, there’s a formula to articulate a powerful message, which we cover in depth in our upcoming book Value-ology: Aligning sales and marketing to shape and deliver profitable customer value propositions.
From our perspective, a value proposition is “a promise of expected future value illustrating that future relevant and distinct benefits will outweigh total cost of ownership.”
In order to create a strong value proposition, you need to be able to answer these 5 questions:
For example, let’s say you are targeting a VP of Marketing to offer them your new customer analytics software. Based on your customer research (see #1 and 2 above), you know their biggest pain points are to create efficiency within their department and generate more qualified leads for the sales team. Thus, your value could be articulated as “On average, the Acme analytics solution increases productivity within your marketing department by 20% while increasing the # of qualified sales leads by 40% – all within the first 3 months.” People will pay extra for your product if you can demonstrate how it will make their lives better.
Once you’ve answered these five questions, you will be well on your way to creating a message that not only resonates with customers but also provides you with a solid foundation from which to develop strong marketing content, useful sales meetings and higher win rates.
Want more help? We give you step-by-step instructions to create a winning value proposition in our free e-book, Rock your Customers World.
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