What Difference Do You Make?

 

We’re a modest bunch and usually find it hard to articulate the difference we make to our customers, to others and not least to ourselves.

Even if you do know the difference you make, do you state it in a way that’s clear?

Expressing clearly the difference that your business makes – your value propositions – will help you, will help those who work for you and will make your marketing so much more effective.

How Your Value Propositions Will Help You

It’s tough running and growing a business no matter its size. It can also be pretty lonely at the top and it’s perfectly understandable that you’ll hit a rough patch and possibly lose your way.

In this case, a clear value proposition or purpose statement that defines why you do what you do – why your business exists – and the difference you make to others can really help blow away the dark clouds and get you mentally and emotionally back on course.

How Your Value Propositions Will Help Your People

If your people don’t already see the difference your organization makes then help them see. Create a strong purpose statement (a strong overarching value proposition) and talk it through with them.

Go one step further and help them create their own value proposition. Help them to see and state the difference that they personally make to the company and its customers.

When you ask them what they do, instead of thinking and stating what they physically do, help them think and state the difference they make.

How Your Value Propositions Will Make Your Marketing More Effective

If I ask you what your company does what would you say? Most companies get this wrong. They simply extol the features of their products. They tell you that their widget is faster, smaller, new and improved but say little as to why you should care.

They may go on to tell you how much they value you as a customer, and how they put you first, but shouldn’t that be a given? How does that differentiate them from their competitors?

When I worked in the electronics industry, manufacturers and distributors would, and still do, create product brochures and flyers, which listed all the key features and possible applications. But so did their competitors and it was down to the customer to carry out his own research to decide which was the best solution.

If a customer has to go and figure out why to use your products and services over another’s then your value propositions are not clear enough and you’ve probably lost them.

What’s worse, you may lose them to a competitor whose solution is actually inferior to yours and which doesn’t meet their needs as well as yours would. There are plenty of companies who lose out to a competitor that has an inferior product but better messages and marketing.

If you want to stand out from your competitors (and you do don’t you) it’s critical that your ideal customers know why you do what you do and why they should care.

It’s critical that you have the right set of value propositions that do just that.

In this hectic, pressured world we live in, a customer needs to ‘get-it’ very quickly. As far as possible, choosing your solution over that of your competitors’, needs to be a no-brainer for them.

What you do won’t do that, but the difference you’ll make can.

Grab an A3 sheet of paper or head over to a blank whiteboard and start to write down the difference you make. For your customers make sure you identify what’s important to them and create value propositions that directly address them. If you need some guidance, check out my course ‘How Strong is Your Business‘ where you will learn how to assess exactly where your business is strong and how to define the difference it can make to others.

Related posts:
Give Your Business a Reason for Being

Photo credit: Kulliyyah of Dentistry, International Islamic University Malaysia