Chapter 7: The Value Proposition
Define Your Company. Define Your Offering.
value proposition, positioning, differentiation, customer value, offering, pitch
What Is a Value Proposition?
Now I want to transition to value proposition. This is a framework for building a value proposition. We are the name of the company or the product or service. This is who we’re for. This is what we do. This is why this is important. And this is the benefit that you’re gonna get. This is a really easy way to write a value proposition.
A Straightforward Format
So I had a really good friend and mentor who was in advertising. His specialty was short form — he wrote punchy taglines and punchy advertising. He was a master at this, he was really good at this, because he could write short. You know how hard it is to write short? It’s really hard to boil it down to just this — something that people go, “Oh, I remember that.” His process was: he said, I write it all down, I go through, I take out every other word, and then I take out every other word again. That’s literally what he would do until he got it.
This is that process. What I would tell you is, as you’re writing your value proposition, first time around be really wordy — write it all down — and then start to shrink it and start to shrink it until you get to just its bare essence.
Defining Your Company in One Clear Statement
Writing short is really challenging, and it’s a real skill, and it’s really important here — because you want people to remember it, and they’ll only remember a little bit. They won’t remember like a novel’s worth of value proposition. They’ll remember a little bit. That’s what you’re shooting for.
It’s another one of the parts of this exercise that’s challenging. None of this is easy. It’s all fun if you like it, but it’s gonna make your brain work — it’s gonna make your head heat up. No question about it.
This is one form of it. There are lots of forms. I’ve used this a number of times — it’s a good exercise to go through individually, and it’s kind of a fun exercise to take a team through as well. But again, the idea is: as brief, as concise, and as to the point as you can possibly get.
So I’ll tell you one of my processes for writing short. Are you familiar with haikus? Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry — 17 syllables. You have to get a whole story across in 17 syllables. Try that. It’ll teach you to write short. You have more syllables with limericks, and they’re a little bit more fun, but it’ll teach you to write short. It’ll teach you to get your ideas down to the bare essence. That’s one of my tricks: how would I write this in a haiku? Sounds kind of odd. Works really well, actually.