The Big Problem With Your Value Proposition (And How to Fix It)

When it comes to crafting your company‘s value proposition, there‘s one critical mistake that most businesses make: developing it in a vacuum. Too often, marketing and sales teams will huddle together in a conference room to brainstorm the key messages and language to describe their offering‘s value, without ever soliciting input from the people who matter most – their customers.

The result? Generic, uninspiring value propositions that fail to differentiate. In fact, research from Meaningful Brands shows that 60% of content created by brands is seen as poor, irrelevant, and failing to deliver. The reality is, buyers today are inundated with marketing messages, making it harder than ever to cut through the noise. If your value proposition sounds like everyone else‘s, you don‘t stand a chance.

Think of all the trite, overused phrases that get tossed around:

• "We provide great service"
• "We truly care about our customers"
• "We deliver unique solutions"

Sound familiar? The problem is, these played-out platitudes could describe virtually any business. They‘re not unique or compelling. A study by CEB found that 86% of B2B value propositions make no positive impression on potential buyers, largely because they‘re overly generic.

So how do you break out of this rut and develop a value proposition that actually resonates? The key is to seek outside input – specifically, from your satisfied customers and clients. They can tell you, in their own words, exactly what makes your offering valuable and why they chose you over competitors.

Go Straight to the Source

Your happiest customers are a goldmine of insight when it comes to understanding and articulating your value. Think about it – they‘ve experienced your product or service firsthand. They can pinpoint the specific aspects that won them over and the tangible results they‘ve seen.

So as you‘re developing or refining your value proposition, make a point to engage some of your top customers. Some effective tactics include:

• Taking them out for coffee or lunch to pick their brain in a casual setting
• Conducting a phone interview or sending over a short email survey
• Holding a focus group or roundtable discussion with a diverse group of customers

Explain that you‘re looking to improve how you communicate your value and you‘d love their candid feedback. Then ask questions like:

• What first convinced you to buy from us/work with us?
• How would you describe what we do and the value we provide to others?
• What specific results and benefits have you experienced from using our product/service?
• How do we compare to alternatives or competitors you considered or used to use?
• What do you see as our key strengths and differentiators?

Really listen to the words, phrases, and anecdotes they share. Chances are, you‘ll uncover powerful soundbites that perfectly encapsulate your value – messaging you might never come up with sitting in a conference room.

For example, Wistia, a video hosting platform, found that customers frequently said their product made them feel like they had a "entire video team at their fingertips." That became core to Wistia‘s value prop messaging. Handy, an on-demand home services company, heard time and again that they make "adulting" and tackling to-do lists easier – a key marketing hook.

The point is, your customers have a perspective on your value that you simply can‘t get sitting inside your four walls. It‘s essential to tap into their experiences and insight as you craft your value proposition.

Translating Feedback into Messaging Gold

Once you‘ve gathered a wealth of customer insight, it‘s time to translate it into a compelling value proposition. As you distill down the feedback, keep an eye out for:

• Vivid phrasing and soundbites that bring your value to life
• Recurring themes and benefits that come up again and again
• Specific, tangible results your offering helps customers achieve
• The language your customers use to describe competitive differentiators

Plugging actual customer quotes into your value prop is a great way to make it feel more authentic and credible than a generic platitude. For instance, see how these examples come to life with the voice of the customer:

Generic Statement	With Customer Language
We help you grow your business	"With [Company], we saw a 30% increase in inbound leads in just 2 months – leads that converted to real revenue."
Our software is easy to use	"[Product] is so intuitive, our team was able to get up and running without any training. It makes the tedious parts of my job feel effortless."
We provide great service	"The best part about working with [Company] is that I can treat them like an extension of my own team. They‘re super responsive and I know I can count on them to troubleshoot any issue quickly."

See how much richer the value proposition feels with those customer sound bites? And it‘s not just about dropping in quotes verbatim – pay attention to the vivid phrases and adjectives your customers use to describe your value and try to incorporate those into your copy as well. The more you can mirror your customers‘ language in your messaging, the more it will resonate.

Putting Customer Insight into Practice

Ready to apply this approach to your own business? Here‘s a simple framework you can follow:

1. Mine your best customers for insight. Identify a diverse group of happy customers and interview them about how they perceive and describe your value.

2. Analyze customer language. Review the feedback and look for standout quotes, recurring value themes, and unique differentiators you can reshape into messaging.

3. Craft your customer-driven value prop. Develop a succinct value proposition that incorporates the most powerful elements from your voice of customer research. Don‘t be afraid to use the same vivid phrasing they do.

4. Validate and iterate. Run your new value prop by a few trusted customers to ensure it resonates. Incorporate their suggestions and continue to tweak it based on feedback.

5. Infuse it everywhere. Once finalized, weave your value prop throughout your marketing – on your website, in sales collateral, social media posts, email campaigns, and more. Make it the foundation of how you communicate your worth.

To bring this framework to life, let‘s look at how one company transformed its value proposition by listening to its customers:

Case Study: Articulate

Articulate is a SaaS company that provides e-learning development tools. For years, their value prop centered around ease-of-use and included generic messaging like "The fast, easy way to create e-learning courses."

But when they started talking to customers, they quickly found that ease-of-use, while important, wasn‘t the primary reason people loved Articulate. Instead, customers raved about how Articulate made them look and feel – empowered, capable, and creative. They talked about going from dreading course development to actually getting excited about it.

This insight inspired Articulate to completely overhaul their value prop. Their new messaging leads with the emotional benefit: "Feel like an e-learning hero." They highlight how users can "amaze" and "engage" learners with "wow-worthy" courses. And they feature glowing testimonial quotes that back up those claims.

The result? Articulate has carved out a differentiated position in a crowded market and seen huge growth. They credit their customer-centric value prop as a key factor. CMO Shelley Keith explains: "Getting really crisp and clear on how our customers experience value completely changed our trajectory. It‘s the foundation for our marketing and it informs everything we do."

The Proof is in the Positioning

Articulate isn‘t the only company that has seen impressive results from nailing their value prop:

• Unbounce, a landing page platform, updated their value prop based on customer feedback to focus on how they can help marketers "create custom landing pages that convert." Since implementing the new messaging, they‘ve seen a 12% lift in paid conversions.

• Trunk Club, a personal styling service, tested two different value props with customers. The one that performed better – "Your partner in looking good" – became their official tagline. They‘ve since seen email open rates double.

• Campaign Monitor, an email marketing software, found that customers valued the speed and simplicity of their product above all else. So they made "create stunning emails in minutes" core to their value prop – and saw a 16% increase in free trial signups.

The takeaway is clear: A value proposition rooted in real customer insight is incredibly powerful. Not only will it help you rise above the noise and generic messaging of competitors, but it will resonate on an emotional level with buyers and drive measurable business results.

So if your current value prop feels lackluster, don‘t waste another minute. Go talk to your customers and let them guide the way to a stronger, clearer articulation of value. As venture capitalist Dave McClure puts it: "Customers don‘t care about your solution. They care about their problems." Show that you understand their problems – and offer a solution uniquely suited to solve them – and you‘ll win hearts, minds, and wallets.

Key Takeaways

• Most value propositions are generic and fail to make an impression because companies develop them in a silo without customer input
• The best source of fresh messaging is your satisfied customers – they can tell you in their own words what makes your offering valuable
• To develop a compelling value prop, interview customers, identify standout quotes/themes, craft messaging around key insights, and validate it with customers
• Weaving vivid customer soundbites into your value prop makes it more specific, credible, and emotionally resonant
• Companies that have implemented a customer-driven value prop have seen measurable lifts in conversion, engagement, and revenue
• An effective value proposition is the foundation of all your marketing efforts – it‘s worth the time to get it right!