What are some of the best practices for creating a compelling value proposition for your target market?

The best way to make progress early is to talk to customers about unmet needs, frustrations in their work / life. What workarounds are they doing now? What have they tried before that has or hasn't worked? If they've tried to solve the problem before and failed, it's a good signal it's important.

In my experience it is very important to use open questioning techniques. Many people make the mistake of asking potential customers whether they would use a suggested solution. People will say yes to be nice and would not really use the product when it comes down to it. Obsess on questions related to the problems facing the consumer and what they currently do to solve them.

Some of the best practices I've seen come from being on the ground and in the face of the target customer. If you have not identified at least 25 people who you think are the target and asked them directly, you will not understand their pain from their point of view. Write down what you think, then go ask others, what they think about what you wrote down and see how far from center you are on it. Rinse and repeat it over and over until you start seeing the patterns that can help you discover who they are, where they are and how they are. This is real market detection at its finest and cannot be done from behind a computer screen.

From my experience, it's crucial to create a common ground between your personal purpose, the purpose of your business, and that of your target. From there, craft something that is both enduring and scalable in your value proposition. Aligning these three elements not only creates a solid foundation for your business but also fosters a deeper connection with your target audience. This synergy forms the bedrock for a value proposition that stands the test of time and has the potential for widespread impact and growth.

For my financial projections startup, founders come to me when their pain point is most urgent -- during fundraising. Projections become a bottleneck to the rest of the process (hard to raise money if you can't show a growth trajectory to investors). Even though the product offers other value props like helping the founder not running out of cash, making better strategic decisions etc, the strongest one by far is for fundraising. Focus your value prop on peak pain and the time period during which the prospect needs your solution the most.

I like utilizing the Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) framework as it offers a pragmatic lens through which a value proposition can be crafted. It's just like the saying: “No one wants a quarter-inch drill bit; they want a quarter-inch hole.” Likewise, JTBD is based on the belief that customers don’t buy products; they “employ” them to solve specific problems. Therefore it's not just about your features but more about the job your customers need to accomplish and the context in which they do so. Integrating all of this allows us to articulate a value proposition that is inherently customer-centric.

From my experience, you have to do all the things possible to understand your target emotions, goals, and challenges. It humanizes the relationship between your brand and consumers, and not only leads to successful business transactions but also to long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships. Therefore, investing time and effort to understand the motivations of your audience is a critical step for the success of your business.

Follow this step by step process that I generally recommend my founders: - First, pinpoint your target customer's major pain points. - Next, explain how your product uniquely solves those pains better than alternatives. - Quantify the benefits - cost reduction, time savings, convenience. - Support claims with proof points - specific features, results, testimonials. - Convey your differentiators like proprietary technology, specialization, or ease of use. - Craft a succinct statement that resonates emotionally and convinces rationally. - Refine through customer feedback to maximize relevance. An ironclad value proposition is the foundation for positioning, messaging, and product decisions.

As a founder and startup coach, I've learned that defining your value proposition is like telling a story where your customer is the hero. Imagine it this way: First, think about your customer's main struggle – what keeps them up at night? This is where you start. Next, introduce your solution as the game-changer. But don't oversell something its not. Then, highlight the benefits. It's not just about what you offer, but how it transforms their life. Finally, what's your secret sauce? What do you bring to the table that no one else does? Put it all together, and you have a value proposition that's not just a statement, but a narrative of how you make a real difference in your customers' lives.

One thing I will share on this is to just get out there and test it. Ask people for a moment of their time and share your value prop with them. Ask for feedback. Using surveys, forms, texts and more are definitely ways to do so as well, but remember you will never land on one good version. You will have multiple iterations and it will continually evolve. Be okay with that and just get started testing.

Testing a value proposition shouldn't stop at just numbers. Quantitative data is the 'what', but it's through qualitative insights that we discover the 'why'. By initiating conversations with the very individuals our value proposition serves, we gain a clearer, more empathetic understanding of the problem we're solving. This qualitative feedback is invaluable in crafting a proposition that's not just compelling but also genuinely relevant to our customers.

Once you have validated your value proposition, effectively communicating it to your target market is crucial. Utilize various channels and formats, including headlines, subheadings, images, videos, testimonials, and call-to-actions, to convey your message. Ensure that your value proposition is visible, concise, and consistent across your website, social media, emails, and other touchpoints. Employ storytelling techniques to make your value proposition more engaging and memorable, highlighting real-life examples and success stories that resonate with your audience. This approach helps create a strong, cohesive message that clearly communicates the unique benefits of your product or service.

As with just about everything with startups, the messaging for your Value Proposition is something that should be iterated. The more closely you can show that you understand the pain points of your target market, the more your value proposition will resonate. Analytics can provide quantitative data (you'll see improved conversion rates) but look for qualitative signs as well. When you talk to people, do they nod with you? Do people want to know more about how you can help them? Or do they look confused and repeatedly ask, what is it you do? The best value propositions are worded around the outcomes your target market achieves when using your solution - not around the features of your solution.

Think of the value proposition as the venture's promise to its user-buyers. Avoid the kind of statement that says what the venture does. Rather, focus the statement on what the user-buyer will gain by doing business with the venture. Venture With Vision ??