How to Put Your Value Proposition to Work

By Michael Zipursky , consultingsuccess

It’s Michael Zipursky from ConsultingSuccess.com. Hope you’re having a wonderful day. My clients hear me use the phrase, “Imperfect action,” quite often. It’s something that I say a lot, because I’m a big believer in it, and I’ve seen firsthand in my business and in so many client businesses, the profound positive impact that it can.

So, let me share with you how I view imperfect action when it comes to the magnetic message. The magnetic message is really your marketing message. It’s your value proposition, your USP, your unique selling proposition. It’s the statement that you use that is really

at the core of all of your communications, whether it’s online, your LinkedIn profile, when you meet people, any marketing materials. But it conveys who your ideal clients are and how you can help them, and why they should chose you.

"Develop a strong magnetic message, as best as you can. But then, as soon as you feel like it’s good enough, as soon as it has the right elements, get it out there. Meet with ideal clients. Put your marketing in front of them. See what works. See what doesn’t."

Really, what makes you different, and separates you from all the competition out there. So, the goal of that message, and what it really should accomplish is to get the attention and interest of your ideal clients, so they raise their hand. They want to speak with you, because they’re interested. The message (your value proposition) resonates with them.

Now, a lot of consultants, especially in the early days, have trouble with this statement. They have trouble developing an effective magnetic message. My observations as to one of the reasons as to why this happens, is because they try to perfect it.

They want the message to be perfect before they get it out there. They’re so concerned they might lose some opportunities, or their message if they go to narrow, that somehow that means that they’re going to not land all this business, which they’ve never had before. But it’s like they think they’re going to close all these doors, so they want to perfect their message before they get it out there.

Now, the problem with that, is the way to develop a very effective magnetic message is to get market feedback. Is to actually test your value proposition in the marketplace, so you know what is resonating with your ideal clients. Is to see what gets a response, what aligns with them really well. So that you can then make the necessary adjustments.

I remember one time in one of our previous businesses, when I was going to a lot of networking events, a specific technology event was one that I went to quite often. I remember the early days, when I first tried to explain what we were doing, the value proposition, the magnetic message, people would just go like, “Oh, interesting.” There was no conversation, they would just move on to someone else.

Nothing really happened. They didn’t really get it. I remember I kept thinking about it, and tweaking it, and adjusting it based on the feedback that I was getting. The life feedback that I was getting.

Then, I remember when the first time that I actually delivered that message in a way that I thought was going to be much more compelling based on the feedback that I got, and people said, “Oh. Tell me more about that. How does that work? What do you guys do? How are you making that happen?” They were just so much more interested.

I was like, “Okay. Bingo. I hit it. I actually got it.”

Now, I wouldn’t have gotten there if I just stayed in my office all day long, at that point, actually, it was a home office. But, just if I was just there, and always working through it myself, and trying to perfect it so I was happy with it, that wouldn’t have meant anything. Because even though you might be happy with it, doesn’t mean that the marketplace is going to be happy with it. At the end of the day, that’s what matters. It matters, does it resonate with your ideal clients?

In terms of your magnetic message and value proposition, first, make sure that you’re developing a good one. As good as possible. Get some assistance if you don’t know how to develop that. Develop a strong magnetic message, as best as you can. But then, as soon as you feel like it’s good enough, as soon as it has the right elements, get it out there. Meet with ideal clients. Put your marketing in front of them. See what works. See what doesn’t. Learn from that, and then go back out with adjustments that you make.

The faster you do that, the more feedback that you get from the marketplace, the sooner that happens, the sooner that you can then make adjustments that are required, optimizations that are required to strengthen, and improve, and make your magnetic message and value proposition much, much more effective. Which will help you to grow your business, because you’ll create more conversations.

Don’t try and perfect it all by yourself. Get it out there. Take imperfect action.