The Messaging Feed

You have fat, lazy value propositions. There, I said it. You have fat, lazy, good-for-nothing value propositions that will never amount to anything that drives revenue for your company. In your heart, you know this because MarketingSherpa recently reported that “delivering relevant and engaging messages to your customers and prospects” is your “number one challenge.” (MarketingSherpa 2012 Email Marketing Benchmarks)

But, do you know why your value propositions are fat, lazy, irrelevant and not engaging?

It’s because they are safe and self-satisfied. They make you feel good about what you do. But, they don’t work hard enough and fail to move the needle on three levels when it comes to getting a customer to respond and consider doing something different, and then eventually consider doing it with you.

Here are the three reasons and what you can do to fix the problem:

Reason #1: Too much blah, blah, blah

Economics is the study of scarcity. And right now the scarcest resource in the marketing world is a decision-maker’s time and attention. Your value propositions need to succeed in this brutal “attention economy” where customers and prospects are training themselves to ignore you. If your value props are too generic, too big and broad, too fluffy and too safe, no one is going to care. They don’t have the mental file space or bandwidth.

The Solution: Trim the Fat

Find your value wedge and gain an edge. Identify those unique, relevant differences your company and solutions offer, no matter how small, and blow them up into the most meaningful issue possible. Then jettison all the other things you are tempted to pollute your value proposition with… and ride the edge.

All things considered equal, your customer needs to see a difference between what they are doing today and what they could be doing with you, or between you and the competitive alternative. You need to make that contrast the clear and compelling reason they will succeed with their decision. They must see it as the difference maker. Not because of what the feature is or does, but because of what they will do differently as a result. You need to position that strength as the “saving grace” or “assurance policy” when it comes to solving their problems and eliminating their pain.

Reason #2: Too much gain, not enough pain

Value propositions, by the definition of the words “value” and “proposition,” are also to blame. Customers need to justify their decisions with business cases, ROI calculations, and TCO assessments. Notice I said “justify” their decisions with these types of proof points of the gain they will achieve. It’s not “how” they make their decisions.  Brain science proves that people make a decision to ensure their survival, which means moving away from pain.  Too many value propositions neglect the “pain avoidance” part of the discussion and focus only on the “gain attainment,” which is just half the equation.

The Solution: Don’t spare the rod

Appeal to their aversion to risk or loss. Your messaging must first establish what is putting your prospect and customer’s key objectives or outcomes at risk. In other words, you need to display and document the leaking and squeaking floorboards around their current solution to the problem and why this status quo is no longer acceptable or sustainable.  Business decision-makers are still people, and people are more likely to move away from the status quo and consider changing to something new to avoid risk or loss than they are to change in order to achieve something better.

Make sure you clearly define the contrast between the status quo and all of its inefficiencies, inadequacies and other limitations that will put the customer’s desired outcomes and end-state in jeopardy before you start introducing the gain. It’s a well-choreographed conversation that includes both pain and gain elements.

Reason #3: Too much voice of the customer

You can uncover customer needs in your “voice of the customer” research only to come out with a value proposition that they won’t accept. Why? How did that happen? It’s because customers can’t really tell you what it will take to get them to change what they are doing. There’s a change burden that will keep your customer in the status quo if your value propositions can’t get them over it. Oh sure, they will tell you what problems and pains they have. But, these issues don’t typically add up to enough of a challenge that they are willing to change out their way of doing things. They take one look at the change required with your solution and say, “I guess these things I’m living with aren’t that bad.”

The Solution: Use tough love

Make the pain of staying the same bigger than the pain of change. Admit it, changing to your solution is a barrier. Because it’s change… and all change is hard when you deal with humans. So, your value proposition needs to make sure that your prospect and customer viscerally knows and feels that the pains they are living with are actually bigger than the pain of change. You have to change that equation to your favor.

This means you have to clearly identify and amplify the risk and impact of the existing pains, and potentially expose them to pains they didn’t even know about — demonstrating the immediacy and magnitude of those threats, problems or missed opportunities. Make sure your value proposition helps the customer see their status quo as no longer tenable, sustainable or safe. Don’t call your prospect or customer stupid. Simply point out that the current status quo was the best decision at the time it was made based on the problems they faced and the solutions available.  But, problems don’t stand still and not all solutions can stretch far enough to deal with the new threats.

To learn more about how to create a value proposition that is not fat or lazy for your company, check out this instant webinar – How to Create Preference, Not Parity, in Your Value Propositions