The Challenge: organizations often struggle to climb the “buy-sell hierarchy,” to move their market perception from delivering a undifferentiable product or service that meets the customers’ requirements to creating novel solutions that contribute to their customers’ business and organizational needs.
How do you know when to pivot your market positioning and messaging? The Financial Times defines a strategic pivot as “the tortured path…to find the right customer, value proposition, or positioning.” Most organizations sort of just know when it’s time to refresh their value proposition; they just feel it. You’re always competing on price. You’re new product introductions take longer to ramp up in the marketplace. You seem to be lacking the organizational confidence to play in an adjacent market or take on an industry rival. Or you’ve made eight acquisitions in as many years and your elevator pitch requires a neural network to convey.
Value Proposition Elements
A value proposition is essentially a core belief statement that a competitor could not claim as their own, answering why someone should do business with your organization:
- For (target customers)…
- Who are challenged by (pain points)…
- We offer unique capabilities (that others cannot)….
- The benefits of which allows them (some form of competitive advantage)…