4 MIN. READ
Value propositions bombard buyers daily. Whether that proposition takes the form of Walmart’s “Roll Back Pricing” or another store's BOGO (buy one, get one) offers, your potential manufacturing client are saturated with value propositions in their daily lives.
For your business value proposition to stand out, you must invest the time in creating a product that will knock your socks off upon impact.
COVID may have hastened the departure of door-to-door sales, cold calls, and face-time with manufacturing buying executives. Regardless of the “why”, the fact of the matter is that B2B buyers spend less than 25% of their entire buying journey meeting with sales reps.
Since B2B buyers generally reach out to more than one company for a solution to their problems, your sales rep likely has around 5% of the time that the buyer is willing to commit to his sales journey to convince that buyer to select your company.
Your value proposition must be brief, meaningful, and insightful.
Your core value is not your product or your work ethic. It is the key differentiator between you and your competitors.
You have been in business long enough to know that you are not the only company that installs commercial HVAC systems. Your company may only sometimes carry the lowest price.
However, the one thing that you have that your competitors need is your educated and trained workforce. Everyone from your marketing team to your sales staff and installers can discuss HVAC system pros and cons at a level understandable to the business owner.
Will you lose some customers because your price is higher? Probably. But you will gain life-long customers when you explain that your HVAC systems are designed to meet and exceed current SEER2 standards. Your installers guarantee their work and provide free system checks for the first five years of ownership. Your sales personnel take the time to evaluate the energy usage of the current system and can show the customer expected savings with your system.
Of course, the “free” inspections keep the customer’s systems running at peak efficiency and provide the opportunity to form a relationship and provide a valuable service.
Knowledge and service can be your core value, your key differentiator from your competition in an ever-increasingly competitive market.Identify and assess your costs to provide the solution.
As a company, you know that you cannot provide all solutions to all other companies. Trying to do so would put your own company at risk of losing money on a proposition at best. At worst, it would lead to inadequate solutions and shatter your reputation.
A solid cost/benefit analysis gives you a quantitative measure of the project’s scope.
Before deciding to bid on a solution, perform a simple SWOT analysis to determine whether the benefits of attracting a new client will outweigh the costs. Using our HVAC company as an example, a SWOT analysis would look something like this:
Strengths
· My company has been in the HVAC generation for two generations.
· Our employees are knowledgeable about our current products
Weaknesses
· We have not upskilled our technicians regarding new SEER2 regulations
· We have a small workforce, limiting our ability to bid on larger jobs
Weaknesses
· We have not upskilled our technicians regarding new SEER2 regulations
· We have a small workforce, limiting our ability to bid on larger jobs
Opportunities
· Our local community college provides reasonably-priced training for employees who want to upgrade their skill sets.
· We have had several quarters of growth, providing the income for expansion.
Threats
· Some of our competitors already have a highly-trained workforce.
· What if we invest the money in training our workforce only to have them leave for our competitors?
Threats
· Some of our competitors already have a highly-trained workforce.
While this example is a simplification of your company, it does represent some very real considerations that you should undertake prior to deciding whether or not to bid on a new project with a new company.
The entire client expansion process is time-consuming and costly. A basic SWOT analysis and cost/benefit analysis saves your company time, money and hits to your stellar reputation.
When you see the proliferation of visual elements such as Tik Tok, Facebook and Instagram, you know that you need to incorporate a visual element in your value proposition if you are going to capture your company’s 5% of the buyer’s time.
Consider using video, if appropriate, as it captures the buyer’s attention more than would a simple chart or graph. Infographics generate interest as well. They provide important information in an easy-to-digest manner with relevant pictures or clip art.
Make sure that your visual element incorporates the following:
● Identifying your customer’s main problem.
● Identifying the value your company provides.
● Show why this value benefits the customer.
● Include your differentiator.
The simplest way to test and validate your value proposition is through a simple A/B testing method.
For about half of your current clients, design a proposition geared towards solving a known problem using your current methodology – email, CRM, whatever you use for your current outreach strategy.
For another half of your current client with the same problem that you can solve, use your re-vamped value proposition, complete with graphics.
After a period of 6 months to one year, depending on the typical purchasing cycle, evaluate which value proposition resulted in the greater number of sales and highest profit margin. Repeat this process until you know that you have the best value proposition to present to new customers.
Now that you have a winning value proposition, you need the right data to get your message across. IndustrySelect provides detailed profiles of 400,000+ industrial companies and their one million executives. Researched firsthand by real people, IndustrySelect is the industry's #1 most trusted platform for sales, marketing, business development and research. Set up a free demo account, loaded with 800 free profiles to get you started!
Article Sources:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2023/01/20/2023-will-be-the-year-of-business-enablement-for-b2b-sales/?sh=1e29d5ae7a16
https://www.score.org/sites/default/files/SCORE-Canon%E2%80%93eGuide-Core%20Value%20Proposition.pdf
https://asana.com/resources/cost-benefit-analysis
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/write-value-proposition
https://www.linkedin.com/advice/3/how-do-you-test-validate-your-value-proposition-2f
https://www.industryselect.com/