March 3, 2008

Does Your Value Proposition Say that You’re Small Time?

ME Liz Strauss wrote this at 7:41 am

Do You Want One Thing and Say Another?

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Last year I worked with a fabulous small business. They had spent many years doing the small jobs. Clients saw them as the ones to call when something needed fixing in quick order, but never seemed to call when something new needed to be conceived or designed. Their goal was to move from a “menu driven” production house to the agency status.

The business had the award-winning talent, had the proven expertise, had the elegant web presence, but the projects that came in were still small time. Their client base still saw them as something they had been long ago. Our goal was to change the way clients thought about them.

We looked at their value proposition. It was something like this:

We offer [our niche] a menu of highest quality services at reasonable prices.

It’s an invitation to buy small services according to price. It says “We do the small-time jobs.”

Does Your Value Proposition Say that You’re Small Time?

What do you do when you have big goals and you realize that your customer base sees you as a small-time operation? It’s time to realign your value proposition and how you offer your services to them.

Back to the fabulous small business I worked with last year: Now that we had identified the problem, we could move to a solution that made clients take a new look at what the business had to offer. We talked about the business they wanted to be and outlined this list of criteria.

  • Corporate level clients
  • Agency level and agency-level partnerships
  • Management of major projects not pieces

Using those we constructed a new value proposition that went something like this.

We offer [our niche] the thinking and expertise that moves your ideal customers to action.

We tweaked what they offered — took the itemized list off their web presence, changed how they talked about what they do — in text and in person, made sure the message was clear throughout the business and throughout their offers, and wrote a new tagline to reflect their new direction.

It was two weeks when they called to report a major client project and a possible agency partnership.

What’s your value proposition? Does it reflect your goals?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Need to align your value proposition? Work with Liz!!

Related:
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Decision or Choice: Is the Difference Stealing Your Focus and Your Time?
7 Ways to Carve a Path to the Future of Your Dreams

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10 Comments to “Does Your Value Proposition Say that You’re Small Time?”

  1. March 3rd, 2008 at 10:30 am
    Michael Martine, Blog Consultant said

    So true! And BTW, great way to showcase your services in your blog! Never compete on price.

  2. March 3rd, 2008 at 1:52 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Michael!
    Thanks! The story is true and it was so fun to work with them. The happy ending makes this one of my favorite stories.

  3. March 3rd, 2008 at 7:00 pm
    Howard Cox said

    Congratulations Liz! I love to hear happy endings for businesses as well.

    I describe journeys like the one you just took your client through like this;

    Transform yourself from a generic commodity business into a virtual monopoly for your targeted customer.

    Every organization should strive to and can become a virtual monopoly. Life is simply too short to beat your head against the wall delivering a perceived commodity

  4. March 3rd, 2008 at 10:53 pm
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Howard!
    Great choice and great points. I agree. I think that the goal is to make the competition irrelevant!

    It’s certainly more fun that way!

  5. March 4th, 2008 at 6:10 am
    Stephen Hopson said

    Liz:

    I agree with Michael Martine above - never compete on price.

    In fact, I firmly believe there is no such thing as competition, despite “evidence to the contrary.”

    Why? Because we are each unique, like fingerprints. There is no one else like ourselves and therefore whatever we charge is exactly what we think we’re worth. Charge more, we think we’re worth more, charge less and so forth.

    Great, interesting article. I liked how you helped the client twist a few words around to help them attract bigger projects. Very interesting - almost like magic. :)

  6. March 4th, 2008 at 7:26 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Stephen!
    We ARE each unique. That’s the key to our unique value propositions. Each of us fits with a client base in a way that others cannot. :)

    I so agree with what you’re saying here.

  7. March 4th, 2008 at 7:34 am
    Stephen Hopson said

    Liz:

    Right, that’s why if we decided to charge X amount of dollars to give a presentation, we have to be totally comfortable with it and stick with it.

    I personally don’t believe in wavering on price - the only time I’ll give a discount is in instances where a school or church with a very low budget wants me to speak. But even some of them have large enough budgets. Sometimes it’s hard to decipher who can afford you or not. You just have to go with the flow and not dicker around much.

    Personally speaking, I’ve never had to discount myself to take on an engagement. If someone told me they couldn’t afford me, I would simply say something like, “Perhaps you can’t afford me now but when you’re in a position to retain my services, let me know.” Simple, to the point.

    What about you? How do you handle it?

  8. March 4th, 2008 at 7:49 am
    ME Liz Strauss said

    Hi Stephen!
    When price becomes the issue, many other things enter in. I see whether we can sit on the same side of the table with the same view. I look for ways that our mutual goals are headed in the same direction and use that to see how the work/price ratio might be adjusted to serve us both and maintain quality.

    I don’t barter. I don’t lower my price. Occasionally, by what I described above, the job can be altered to meet mutual needs in a smaller scope. I save a few hours for folks who need help, but they usually have to wait weeks for the folks who already have booked that time.

    I’ve never found that a single rule works for all situations. Maybe it’s because I don’t want to be ruled out by one. :)

  9. March 4th, 2008 at 8:10 am
    Stephen Hopson said

    Liz:

    COOL! Thanks for sharing. Good pointers. :)

  10. March 14th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
    NLPhilia Blog said

    What you are versus what you say you are…

    If people aren’t taking you seriously, maybe it’s because of the way you’re communicating with them. Liz Strauss over at Successful Blog writes about the disconnect between a recent client’s goals and some of their marketing mat…

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