How to write a value proposition

By Mo Lishomwa

There are endless online guides to writing a brand proposition - all you need is five minutes and the back of an envelope. Right???

Not so fast. In the first article of our Scale-up Survey Series, we share a missing step that can make or break the process.

We’re also going to explain why you need a strong value proposition and put our head on the block by using our own as an example throughout.?

What is a brand proposition?

Put simply, a brand proposition (aka a value proposition, market positioning, and sometimes a USP) is a statement that tells the world what you do better than anyone else.

Here are some powerful examples from 2Y3X's proposition workshops:?

• Digital marketing agency Impero: We make tired brands famous again
• Alpha Century: The creative agency for entrepreneurs
• AWA agency: Sophisticated CRO for big e-commerce
• Finally (as promised), our own: 2Y3X triples your revenue in two years.?

Why is it important?

A value proposition is so much more than a strapline: it has a direct relationship with your bottom line and underpins your strategy.

The relationship between proposition and profitability

Our 2022 Scale-up Survey - a poll of 500 business leaders - revealed that:?

• If your whole company can articulate your brand proposition you are twice as likely to be highly profitable* than if it can't.
• The majority – 64% – of companies aren’t confident that their entire staff could communicate their market position.

* Make more than 15% EBIT

A clearly articulated value proposition does three things:?

1. Focuses strategy

Every decision you make - each new product or service line -? should be grounded in whether it delivers your value proposition. This stops you from getting distracted and accepting business for the sake of business.?

For example, if what you’re good at (and what makes you money) is servicing big e-commerce, it would be a diversion to accept a contract from smaller firms (which may take up a similar amount of resource).???

2. Attracts the right employees

Before the job interview or even the CV stage, a strong proposition filters applicants by attracting those that share your vision.??

Nike’s Just Do It, for example, signals to potential recruits that they will be working in a fast-paced environment with the freedom to take risks.?

As a result, it attracts exactly the type of confident and courageous individuals that will take its vision forward.

3. Attracts the right clients

A tight proposition enables potential customers to recognise their needs in your offer. It’s a neon sign saying that you’re the best company to solve their problem.?

Take Impero’s We make tired brands famous again. Thwack! You can almost hear it hitting its target clients with bullseye precision.

By identifying a specific client type, Impero positions itself above other agencies with a more generic offer.

Writing a brand proposition: the missing step?

As mentioned, there are many ‘how to write a brand proposition’ articles out there. But many miss a simple truth: a proposition will only work if it aligns with the behaviors of your team. That’s to say its core values.

At 2Y3X, for example, our core values are honour, commitment, empathy, inclusivity, trust, courage, and respect.**?

We couldn’t deliver on our promise to triple revenues in two years if every member of our team didn’t share these.

Settling on core values takes time and is ideally done in a workshop with half a dozen or so stakeholders. The process involves finding common core values and whittling them down to those that underpin your business proposition.?

**As an aside, you won’t find these in a grand statement on our website as (this article aside) we strongly believe in the ‘do don’t tell’ approach to company values.

Building your value proposition

Your brand proposition won’t appear in a vacuum, but will be heavily based on the intersection of the following three features:??

• What you’re best at
• What you’re passionate about
• What makes money

Again, establishing the answers (and correct weighting) of these three factors requires workshopping with key stakeholders.?

An example

We used this framework to create our own proposition: 2Y3X triples revenue in two years.

Here’s how we answered:

1. What are you best at? Getting brilliant businesses in shape for the next level of growth
2. What are you passionate about? Sharing our experience and framework to help the next generation of entrepreneurs
3. What makes money??A deliverable promise to triple revenue within a two-year timeframe

Once you’ve got there, it’s time to check it against your core values - do the behaviours of your business enable you to deliver your core proposition??

Communicating your value proposition

Let’s go back to our survey findings: if your whole company can articulate your brand proposition you are twice as likely to be highly profitable than if it can’t.

Over six years of helping companies scale tells us that an employee's inability to express their company's proposition is the fault of the proposition rather than poor internal communications.?

If you think you’ve arrived at a winning proposition, try these three tests:?

1. Ask your newest employee what it is
2. Ask your most longstanding employee what it is
3. Ask your clients what it is

When all three groups come up with the same answer, congratulations, you are there!

If you have a winning value proposition, we'd love to see it in the comments.

The Scale-up Survey Series

This is the first article in a series covering each of the revelations from our 2022 Scale-up Survey, a poll of 500 business founders and leaders, focusing on the most common barriers to business growth. Follow us on LinkedIn for more articles.?

Identifying what sets you apart from competitors is the single most important thing you can do to drive growth. To find out more about our value proposition workshops, visit us here.