What is Your Value proposition?

What is Your Value proposition? What is Your Positioning?

Your value proposition is the combination of skills, traits, and resources you bring to the table and how they benefit target markets.

A value proposition and positioning is not only for businesses.
Your value proposition is a decision making tool used to guide behavior.

Recently I have had time to observe and/or talk with several people seeking guidance. To at least one I recommend doing a value proposition. His response was, he wasn’t going to start a business. I was not recommending it as part of a business startup. I was recommending it as a way to understand what he was providing to his customers. Even if that customer is only himself. To understand what’s motivating behavior it’s helpful to know what is valued. While self reflection is useful for knowing what motivates our behavior, we need to understand, some things are unknown or unknowable. Learning about what we value started with exercises from previous posts.

Before this conversation I hadn’t thought about people not seeing the benefits of doing a value proposition. It didn’t occur to me that there would be resistance to applying business theories and practices to one’s life. There are several friends I’ve seen during Covid-19 who can benefit from doing a value proposition.

When creating a value proposition we can think of the target market as customers. We’ll be looking at what a customer is next. On a personal level a target customer base can be very small or more expansive and include family, friends, business associates, or the larger community.

In the context of a value proposition it may be helpful to think of target markets as all of one’s customers. By customers I am referring to how Edwards Deming defined customers. These are the people we help, care for, or serve in some capacity. Customers are not only the people we sell to. Customers are also entities in any cultural organization that depend on us for doing a task. In most businesses that task will lead to profitability. On a more personal level it could lead to some other state of well being. We all have customers, if someone is relying on you for something, then they are your customer.

The reciprocal nature of customership
It’s well understood if I’m building a website for someone they are my customer. However, they may need to provide me with content such as photos, logos, and text. Then I become their customer. Whenever we need to rely on others to provide components for the completion of a project, we become their customer. You will always have customers, it could be any or all of the following: a manager, someone you manage, a supplier/vendor, or the final consumer. This interaction creates a process or system. If part of the system breaks down (for the website example, no content provided) the project can’t be completed properly.

On a more personal note your customer could be a significant other, such as someone you have a pair bond with. This is a good example because it’s quite obvious how much each person relies on the other. These close relationships often develop systems of giving and receiving that promote much greater well being than could be provided by the individual alone.

If your value proposition is of a personal nature you may want to be careful about how you share it. If your proposition seems too strategic it could be off putting to those it’s meant to most help. If it’s too generous it could encourage exploitation. A personal value proposition is often best used as an internal heuristic rather than a publicly advertised principle. This will depend on the individual and how culturally acceptable the proposition is. Value propositions require time and effort so they will not be done without considerable motivation.

A value proposition states where you fit into the overall system (marketplace, cultural, and socioeconomic system) and includes your unique competitive advantage.

The more we rely on others, the more others’ opinions matter. We are all influenced and need to, more or less, conform to cultural norms.

What we value and what others value about us are important parts of our narrative.

We all offer some type of value to the people we interact with. This is true whether we have thought about how we benefit others or not. On a personal level we convey our values through speech and behavior.

The last few posts have helped reveal what you value, the value proposition looks at what others (your customers) value about you. A value proposition describes how your self-schemas, skills, and behavior benefits others through a short narrative. A large part of our life story is shaped by how we fit into our culture and what others think about us.

Your value proposition reveals how you benefit customers while positioning gives you the chance to influence how you are perceived by others.

Even if you are only working on a personal value proposition you can benefit by developing a positioning statement as a guide for how you will promote what you offer. This is what you want people to think about what you offer.

Positioning statement and value proposition in personal relationships
In personal relationships a person’s interest may be sparked by a potential partner’s positioning. However, as the relationship develops, most people are as or more influenced by a partner’s values and behavior.

While a value proposition can help position you in the minds of your target market or company, it’s not a Positioning Statement.

Positioning Statement.

It is generally agreed that a Positioning Statement is to be used as a guide for how you will promote to a specific audience. Such as a company’s HR if you are looking for a job, a potential mate if you’re looking for a pair bond, or a target market if you are selling your offer. A Positioning Statement describes your target market and how you want them to perceive you. It’s not really meant to be shown to those you want to influence, it is for your own use, to keep you on message while promoting what you have to offer. A Positioning Statement aligns your promotional efforts with your narrative and value proposition.

Costs, Benefits, and self plus customer knowledge

Here we start applying some of the information you’ve been gathering from previous exercises. What are all the benefits you offer and how are they useful? In this post we’re also going to use an additional definition of value that’s related to a cost benefit analysis. Here Value = Benefits – Cost, with cost including risk.

Everyone does some kind of cost-benefits analysis when making a decision. Value Propositions are centered around and built upon the cost-benefits analysis of a product or service. This can also apply to individuals. When a company is looking at hiring you, they are doing a cost vs benefits evaluation of how you will benefit the company.

Value Propositions take into account all the benefits you offer and how useful they are. This includes your utility and less tangible benefits like your work ethic and trustworthiness. Utility has more to do with the facts of how profitable you are to a company. A utility can be assigned a number, such as dollars. When an HR person is hiring you they are taking a gamble and want to minimize their risk and maximize their gain. In other words, they are evaluating your expected utility.

They are most interested in what’s in it for them. What problems do you solve? These are some of the value drivers that influence consumers buying – best quality, best bang for the buck = quality-to-price ratio, luxury, and must have products and services. Where are you in the marketplace?

How much do you add to the bottom line? This could be that you are either making a profit for the company or saving them from losing capital or resources in some way.

The less tangible benefits you bring to the table can also be important. One of these may be that you fit into the company culture. I once applied to an all black production company, being an older white guy, I’m sure I did not fit into their company culture. No job for me there. Same thing with companies looking for young in their help wanted advertising. They would never hire me. Most of the companies close to me are owned by Chinese or Koreans, the same thing there, I don’t fit in and they won’t hire me. I have belonged to a lot of racial chamber of Commerce groups, some are more accepting of me than others. We have to accept there are a lot of jobs we will never get because we do not fit the narrative or self-schema of the company.

When dealing with more personal customers such as friends and potential mates we also provide and look for certain primal or archetypal values.

Can you combine one or more of your skills into something others would find harder to compete against?
You may not be an expert in skill A but you are competent for the job. However, you also have the ability to perform skill G combined with skill A. This may give you a competitive advantage if the job you’re doing would benefit from skill G and in reality only needs competency in skill A. This is especially true when expertise in skill A is only nice to have and not really a must have. Now all you need to do is convince the one hiring this is true. Showing the benefits of skill G with a lower level of skill A is the job of positioning.

Your positioning statement shows how your skills and traits will be best suited to a target employer, market, or individual, ideally in ways that others in the job pool can’t.

Risk tolerance
A person’s risk tolerance, biases, and personal beliefs can be a competitive advantage during Covid-19. Along with a cost-benefit analysis people are also always doing a risk–benefit analysis when making decisions. During Covid-19 those who see less risk in working with the public will have more chances to work than those not willing to risk close face to face encounters. This will give those who believe, Covid-19 will not affect them, more opportunity to work.

Value Proposition = Cost vs benefits = all the benefits you offer, how these benefits are useful and how do they help a target market – specifically what will customers get, how are you different or better. A Value Proposition can be understood quickly. Think of it as the big picture five second investor speech.

Here is a template you can use for a simple value proposition
For [target customer] who [statement of the need or opportunity] our [product/service] is [product category] that [statement of benefit].

I am wishing you the very best,
May you be Blessed by Goodness