Craft a Compelling Value Proposition

If you want to grow your revenue and business impact, you need to be clear on whom you serve and how to craft your value proposition.

In this episode you will learn:

1. How to stand out in a crowded market by being clear on who you serve and what you offer.

2. How to use your value proposition to attract attention and differentiate yourself.

3. Where to incorporate your value proposition into your messaging.

You can watch the 9-minute video here!

Alternatively, you can view the transcript below:

[00:00:02]
Welcome to Peak to Profit, where each week we share practical and tactical guidance to help you grow and run a profitable business. Hi, I'm Jennifer Drago, an award-winning strategist and business coach. I help entrepreneurs and smaller business owners develop a laser-focused roadmap to business growth so that they can earn more work fewer hours, and amplify the impact that they can have in the world. Today's segment is going to be the first in a three-part series to help entrepreneurs who want to grow their revenue and their business impact. We're going to talk about identifying your ideal client and crafting your value proposition.

[00:00:37]
Now, even if you've been in business for a few years, I encourage you to stay with me. In fact, I recommend to my clients that they undertake the exercise that we're going to cover at least twice a year. Why is this important? Well, if you aren't clear on whom you serve or how to describe how you serve your ideal client, you won't be able to sell anything to anyone. You will confuse your buyers, and a confused mind won't buy.

[00:01:03]
Let me say that again, a confused mind will not buy. So we need to be crystal clear in describing our business. And the reality is, most businesses are not clear on whom they are serving or what they can offer to the customer that's different or better than another company's product. I'm telling you that this is how you stand out in a crowded market, and I hope you'll hear me. I can't tell you how many business owners I've heard who can't clearly articulate whom they serve or the transformation that they offer to their clients.

[00:01:35]
It is really a business imperative. So let's first start with describing your ideal customer. Whom do you serve in your business? And I really want you to be as specific as possible. What gender are they?

[00:01:48]
How old are they? Do they work full time? Do they have children? Do they have pets? What recreational activities do they enjoy?

[00:01:56]
Many people are afraid about declaring their niche or the customer segment that they serve. They're worried that if they make their niche too narrow, they're going to miss out on some clients. Here's a few things about niche or niche. The riches are truly in the niches or the niches. So you really should focus first and foremost on identifying a very specific customer segment that you want to serve and then targeting your marketing.

[00:02:24]
In that way. You can always expand your niche later after you've found success. So don't ignore this exercise, please, and don't avoid the work because it will be to your detriment. You really want to identify a client segment who is most likely to get impact from your product and service and who can pay for your services. And I'll give you a client example really quickly.

[00:02:48]
So I was working with a client on her business strategy, and she wanted to target board members of nonprofit organizations. Well, board members of nonprofit organizations generally volunteer their time to the nonprofit so they're working for free. And so we were talking about how they were going to afford to pay for the services that she wanted to offer, which were courses and templates and things like that. And what we found instead was that she really didn't want to target the nonprofit board members themselves. She really wanted to target the nonprofit itself and specifically the executive director because while she was educating the board members, it was actually a service to the executive director who could then manage her board a little bit easier because they understood their job responsibilities and how to be a good board member.

[00:03:39]
And so we actually switched her ideal client a bit, but in the end, it's going to result in more sales. So once you can state clearly whom you serve, you want to know what their biggest pain points are or their biggest struggles. And you want to know those things in their own words because you're going to turn that around and use their words in your marketing to attract them to you. So what do they wish someone would solve for them with a magic wand?

[00:04:06]
I love that magic wand question. You can ask them if you had a magic wand, what would you want somebody to do for you or how would you want me to help you? I encourage you to do some research by ethically stocking your clients online. And this just means going into Facebook groups or other groups where they may hang out and just listening to how they communicate what they're struggling with or what their pain points are. And again, make note of the words that they use to describe their needs because that's what you're going to use those words in your marketing to ultimately attract them to you.

[00:04:42]
So that's your ideal customer. And now we're going to talk about your value proposition, which a value proposition consists of words that help you differentiate yourself and attract immediate attention from your audience, from those ideal clients. So you're going to use your value statement to clearly introduce your business and how you help your ideal clients. So in addition to who that's the ideal client that we just spoke of. Your value proposition communicates what is the transformation you offer with your products or services and why you are uniquely qualified to teach this or to provide this value.

[00:05:26]
It's also going to share what your expertise is. How long have you done this work? Have you done it before? What's your experience? Have you had your own business doing the same kind of thing?

[00:05:37]
You'll be able to share a little bit about your success story and your value proposition as well. And how will you use this value proposition once you create it? Well, you're going to put it everywhere, so it will likely be at the very top of your website. So as soon as somebody lands on your website, they will know exactly what you do and whom you serve. You will use it in the headline of each of your social media profiles such as LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, even TikTok.

[00:06:07]
You will use it to introduce yourself either in person to an in-person networking group or even online to like a Facebook group. And so you'll have a lot of opportunities to use this very clear positioning statement. I'm going to share my value proposition as an example, and I said it at the beginning, but I help overwhelmed entrepreneurs develop a laser-focused strategy to launch or grow their businesses so they can increase profits, work fewer hours, and amplify their impact. So, breaking that down, I've stated whom I serve (overwhelmed entrepreneurs) and what the transformation is that I offer. I help them develop a strategy to grow their business so they can work less, earn more, and have a greater impact.

[00:06:53]
And so you will notice that the value proposition doesn't yet cover my expertise. But a value proposition can generally be one to two statements. So that's my short value proposition where I don't say why I'm the perfect person, but I'm going to share with you an expanded value proposition where I add a second sentence to describe why my client should work with me. In the second sentence, I described that I have the expertise and experience in strategy and operations which uniquely qualifies me to provide this value to my ideal client. So here's my expanded value proposition.

[00:07:28]
I help overwhelmed entrepreneurs develop a laser-focused strategy to launch or grow their businesses so they can increase profits, work fewer hours, and amplify their impact. With over 30 years of experience in strategy and operations, I offer business consulting and coaching to help entrepreneurs develop an action plan and get focused so that they can get further faster. So that's an example of a full value proposition. And so I hope that you can see how this can clearly articulate to your ideal clients how you want to serve them and why you're the ideal choice for them. So your action step for today is to spend some time to identify and research your ideal customer and then get really clear on your value proposition.

[00:08:13]
And even if you have one. I encourage you to just take another look at it. Take another spin and see if you can get even clearer Then once you have your value proposition developed, make sure you update your website and your social media profiles so that they're all using the new language and you're consistently communicating your value across all platforms. Hope that you'll take the time necessary to get crystal clear on your messaging.

[00:09:03]
I promise it will pay dividends for you. I'll see you next week. Bye for now.

Categories: : Productivity, Strategy