Your value proposition sucks

Hello friends and welcome back to another edition of my newsletter, where I share lessons from over 25+ years of experience as a product and finance executive, with $300M in product launches and over $800M in funding.

No value proposition = no growth

Anyone can start a business. The cost of starting one is about as close to zero as it has ever been. With today’s technology, you can start an influencer channel on Instagram or create a Shopify store selling widgets at nearly zero cost and in no time at all.

That’s both a good thing and a bad thing.

It’s a bad thing because anyone can start a business. Which means, the amount of competition in the marketplace is high. Just about every vertical is saturated with competitors.

Today I was talking to a business associate, Hurl, in the financial advisory space. He told me about a conversation with a former software engineer who had started a business building financial plans for people. She was charging $100 (by the way, I’ve built 1300+ people a financial plan for NOTHING). Anyway, that software engineer turned advisor couldn’t answer basic questions about annuities. I’m pretty sure your $100 wouldn’t be well spent.

Because the barrier to entry for new businesses is low, there are a ton of founders who have no business owning a business. Which means, although there is a ton of competition, its not hard to stand out if you are good at what you do AND you have a unique value proposition.

The problem I see is that most of the founders I work with do not have a unique value proposition. That or they are terrible about making their value proposition clear.

Right now I’m working on a free product assessment for a prospect. I absolutely love his business and his website is beautiful. But, there’s a problem.

His business looks like every other business in his space.

There is no value proposition…beyond the fact that he is using AI. So…freaking…what. Who isn’t using AI in a software solution these days?

If your way of standing out is identical to your next closest competitors, then your value proposition sucks.

So, how do you build a value proposition that is rock solid? I’m glad you asked.

Value propositions that don’t suck

Your value proposition should be your secret weapon. It should be the thing that helps you win business.

Value propositions suck when:

• They make your business sound like every other business in your space.
• They speak to the wrong target market.
• They don’t clearly define how your product wins/helps customers

Value propositions don’t suck when:

• They can be boiled down into a short, concise sentence.
• They elicit an emotion from buyers (use power words to do this)

What’s an example of a value proposition that could be stronger?

Below is a screenshot from Senja.io.

<insert screenshot>

If you aren’t familiar with testimonial walls, or “Walls of Love”, like my own, they are software solutions that help you capture text and/or video based testimonials from happy customers.

The whole point of testimonials is to create credibility and trust in the mind of the buyer.

How could Senja create a more powerful value proposition than “Collect, manage and share your testimonials?”

Perhaps something like “Accelerate (power word!) your sales process with powerful personal testimonials!” or “Triple your close ratio with testimonials that

BTW, I’m not knocking the folks at Senja. I’m not a user, but their site is beautiful and I’m sure the product is fantastic. Its just that there are a lot of these types of services today standing out is important to winning market share. That requires a strong value proposition and good copy.

Here’s your take away - value propositions shouldn’t simply state what your product does. It should tell the prospective buyer what outcome they can expect.

What I’m consuming

I’m a long time Tolkien fan, of over 30+ years. Last night I finished season two of Rings of Power. It’s on Amazon Prime. Check it out if you haven’t already.

Also, I just finished, for a second time, Rich Dad Poor Dad. The book notes are published here.

Curious if your product's value proposition is strong enough?

My growth agency will perform a product assessment for you completely FREE.