Take a minute and answer this question...

“What do you do for your clients?”

You ready? If you answered something like “Build websites” you need to think harder. How you answer this question is your ‘value proposition’ and your value proposition is what differentiates you from your competitors.

The web design industry is still pretty fast and loose although some standards have emerged over the past few years. It’s a lot like woodworking. Any hack can drop a Craftsman tablesaw in their garage and call themselves a custom woodworker. Likewise, any two-bit geek can get a pirated copy of Dreamweaver and start cranking out diabolical code in minutes. So what separates you from this guy?

To compound matters, your customers often won’t know a good value proposition from no value proposition when they shop for a developer. They believe that they just need a website. So, the first guy that comes along claiming to be a web designer often gets the job, no questions asked.

What a value proposition is NOT.

Think of something you know nothing about. For me, that would be several things but I’ll settle on corporate accounting. This stuff makes my nose bleed it’s so dull and confusing. Let’s say I want to incorporate my business and I’m on the hunt for a good accountant. What are my needs and concerns? I want to avoid an IRS audit, I want to know what my cash flow is doing, I want someone who can continue to help me if my business expands and I don’t want to spend a lot of time thinking about it. A quick glance through the Yellow Pages finds…

CPA #1: 20 years experience - taxes - bookkeeping - Quickbooks - answers

CPA #2: “Taking your business beyond the numbers.” (Huh?)

CPA #3: Over 30 years experience - tax & accounting services (Well no kidding.)

CPA #4: Small business tax & accounting solutions - over 25 years experience.

Do you see a pattern? What in the world makes me want to call one of these folks over another? I suppose I’ll call ALL of them and pick the one with the cheapest rates.

A quick glance at local web designers reveals a similar trend. Most firms talk about WHAT they do instead of how what they do makes a business successful in the competetive, global online marketplace. Talking about what you do, the mechanics, is easy. “Our firm specializes in dynamic, database driven sites that present a professional image of your company to the world. We employ only the latest web technologies including .NET, Flash, PHP, ASP, MySQL, Oracle, etc. etc. etc…….” Here’s a secret - your customers don’t care.

“OK, Jeff. Do you have a point?” Yes, I do. Please bear with me - it’s complicated.

What a value proposition SHOULD BE?

Imagine Les Schwab billboards showing you the process they use to change tires. Not very compelling is it? Instead, their value proposition is:

1. Location: chances are good there’s a Les Schwab tire center within 5 miles of your house.

2. Selection: they will get you any damn tire you need.

3. Peace of mind: Have a problem? Take your tires back and they’ll replace them for free, no questions asked.

Maybe you’ve had a bad experience with Les Schwab and you think I’m all washed up. Fine. Then think about the last time you had a really positive experience with a company and try to isolate what it is that made you feel so good about doing business with them. Some possibilities are…

1. You got a great product for less than you expected. The company exceeded your expectations.

2. You felt a great deal of trust when doing business with this company. They could relate to you and your needs like no one else.

3. You experienced simplicity at its finest. The company anticipated your needs, guided you toward the correct product and simplified the transaction.

How to create your value proposition.

This is where I begin to loose traction. Everyone’s business is a little different and probably requires a slightly different value proposition. I can say that your value proposition should be easy to remember and condensed to one (at most two) sentences. The latest version for my company is…

Notice that this is not a mission statement. You can have a mission statement if you wish but from what I’ve seen, most mission statements are fluff, hype, unattainable promises and very abstract. A value proposition goes beyond the mission statement in that it should permeate your entire business. Every thing you do – from your design, code, invoices, emails, client meetings, etc. – should in some way track back to your value proposition. In my next blog I’ll show you how I try to live out my value proposition in the day to day events of business.

If you have developed a value proposition for your company, post a comment. I would love to see what others are doing.

Thanks for reading.