I was chatting with a friend a couple weeks ago about value proposition. He definitely doesn’t need my services — he told me how and his team revisit their value prop all the time! I’ve always thought of his company as unique because of the home-building product they manufacture. As we rely more and more on a connected home, his product makes that transition easier and, on the surface, seems like it should be a no-brainer for any developer.
What my friend told me, however, totally surprised me.
Anybody can manufacture a light switch, he told me. “What I’m selling is productivity.”
If you know anything about the logistics of building a home, lots of tradespeople perform different tasks to make the whole thing come together: the electricians put in the electrical; the plumbers put in pipes, conduit, heating ducts, and often gas lines; framers put up the walls — you get the idea.
This delicate dance has an order for the quickest construction of a home, but reality usually gets in the way. Schedules don’t always match tight timelines. Supplies might not always be available. Or things go wrong in tiny ways: The drywallers will cover over the spots for outlets, for example, making it harder for the electricians to figure out where things go, meaning it costs more to get all those plugs installed.
So if a product exists with a story: The builder can reduce their overhead and headaches with a product that not only saves time, but has the data behind it to map out exactly how a team of tradespeople can be more efficient by moving between sites on any given day because they now have that flexibility, isn’t that a damn good value proposition?
The product then becomes secondary.
So let’s do an exercise. Take a look at your company’s website, printed materials you may have, anything that talks about what your company does.
Write down all the tangible things you sell – whether it’s products, services, a mix of both. If you run a retail business, you don’t need to bother with your entire catalog! But categories help.
Next, take the main products or services and write down one or two words that suggest the benefit your customers receive from that item.
Finally, write down the emotional impact of that benefit. Does it resonate with you? Does it resonate with your customers? That is what you’re selling.
What am I selling? Clarity. Need help finishing your exercise? Reach out at joel@norththenwest.com.
