Business Proposition: The Practical Design Guide to Winning Business

Does your business have a winning business proposition. We have found many clients that cannot articulate their unique business proposition.  In our opinion, trying to win against your competition without good business discrimination is like trying to sail with no wind.  Nothing is more important for your business than competitive advantages … the more you have, the stronger your business. So pay close attention as we tell you how to build a winning business proposition.

Check out our thoughts on creative marketing.

Marketing is often confused with promotion, but it’s more than that.  As Peter Drucker put it, “the aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”  In truth, marketing is about insights more than anything else.

So how do you derive good differentiation and insights?  For starters, make sure you understand the concept of a value proposition:

Here is a short video explaining the concept of a value proposition.

Start by understanding there are two ways to win in a competitive market:

• Achieve sustainable lower cost (and therefore price) than your competition for the same products and services (very difficult to sustain)

• Deliver more value, despite equal or higher price

A business is a value delivery system. The heart of a winning value proposition is the end-result experiences of value a business intends to deliver to its target customer segments. It needs to be articulated for the customer value end-state … not for your product, service, or business process.

Here is a short 4-minute video to refresh you on this subject:

How to write a value proposition? Defining 6 core elements of Value Propositions

To understand your potential value to customers:

Be your customers … study and creatively infer value by observing/learning from what they do.

Do your claims surpass the value alternatives in the marketplace?  Do your customers believe your claims?

 So where should you look for value in your business’s value delivery chain?  The top areas include:

Best value

The most useful definition of unique selling propositions (USP) is a believable collection of the most persuasive reasons people should notice you and take the action you’re seeking.

This way, it guides your decisions much more clearly and can be used as the basis for marketing messages.

If you don’t have strong selling propositions, people don’t have good reasons to do either of those.

For example, if your online bookstore has average selection, decent prices, delivery, a guarantee, good customer service, and a website, why would anyone buy from you? There’s surely a competitor who beats you in at least some of those aspects.

You don’t have to be the best in every way. Sure, it’s great if you are. But realistically, it’s difficult enough to be the best in just a couple of ways.

However, if you’re the best in at least several ways, you’re the best option for the people who value those propositions.

Starbuck’s doesn’t have the lowest prices. Amazon isn’t the most prestigious book seller. Zappos’ isn’t the easiest way to shop. People buy from them for other reasons.

So, if your bookstore has the largest selection, for example, but the other things are just average, the people who value a large selection have a reason to buy from you.

You must have some product or service elements that are unique. Something has to make you the best option for your target customers.

Otherwise, they have no good reason to buy from you.

Business proposition … the heart of the proposition

The heart of a winning unique selling proposition is the end result experiences of value a business intends to deliver to its target customers. The end result experiences are what you should consider.

For example, a customer shopping for an electric drill is looking for one that can deliver holes as easy and conveniently as possible. Also, one that can deliver the most multiple functions.

 Time 

Time is the most important of customer priorities today. What can you do to keep your time demands to a minimum?

 Convenience and easy to work with

 Ones related to customer time for sure. Do everything you can to make things simple as possible.

 Customer experience/service

 Great service creates a great experience and becomes something worth your customer talking to his friends about. It is the most important element of your word of mouth marketing campaign.

 Trust and warranty

 Trust is the most often named reason customers say they select businesses to do business with. Good warranties are great places to start building trust.

Business proposition template … new ways

 Consider value in new ways of doing business. The best example for this value proposition in my mind is Netflix.

Demonstrate the proof

If you say, my pizza is the best in the world; will people flood your restaurant? No. They won’t believe you.

Without proof, you can’t say much before it starts to sound like marketing talk. No one pays attention. Or remembers. They just don’t believe. No believing, no trust. It is all downhill after that.

For example, I recently saw a digital marketing competitor site where they claimed to be the secret weapon of digital marketing for the most successful companies in the world. Needless to say, we doubt anyone can take that seriously when nothing supports the claim.

As long as you don’t prove your claims, people are unlikely to really believe them. And your unique selling proposition becomes of no use.

Use studies, testimonials, and common sense, among other methods, to prove your claims.

Impressive numbers can be the right choice, but they don’t always work.

To end this lesson, ask yourself the following questions:

Can you validate and deliver your unique selling point?

Is it sustainable, at least in the near term?

Is it simple, clear, and specific?

So apply these two lessons. What is the unique selling point for your business? How does it stack up with competitors?

The bottom line 

True innovation often doesn’t make us comfortable.  It makes us uncomfortable.  And yet, it is in that discomfort that the new ways, the new ideas, and the new feelings come to light. 

When you drive to work via a different route, you see different places and sights.  If you go to the newsstand and peruse the magazines that you never otherwise look at, you will see things you simply would never think about otherwise

So, if you were wondering where to put your marketing time and energy to optimize how to win customers from your competitors, focus on defining and delivering winning unique selling propositions.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And this struggle gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improve your marketing, branding, and advertising?

Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

More reading on value propositions from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Examples of Values … 17 Creative Value Proposition Ideas

Proposition Examples … 6 Awesome FiOS Value Statements

Creative Tips to Build Small Business Differentiation

Value Proposition Mistakes That Lose Customers

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.