Value Proposition – whose perspective is it written from?

It matters!

I was leading a workshop recently with young entrepreneurs. During the course of developing their value proposition, I kept harping on the question: “Are you really solving an important problem / challenge for your customers?” The entrepreneurs kept asking me to move on to marketing techniques and how they can implement them. I resisted this urge and kept going back to value proposition. They seemed to think that the very reason they are up-and-running as enterprises is because they have identified some value for their customers! But for me, something seemed amiss!

Over the three hours that we spent discussing and rewriting the value proposition statements for all the entrepreneurs and their start-ups, one thing struck me hard – they were all writing their value proposition from the perspective of their offerings (be it products / services). This was not getting anyone other than themselves (even in the class) too excited. So how do we make a customer excited about your product / service? Answer: A good value proposition statement!

So, what is a good value proposition statement? While that requires a series of iterations, the first step is to change the direction of thinking from the perspective of the entrepreneur. The entrepreneur has to start writing the ‘value proposition’ statement from the perspective of the customer. This is too simple but subtle a change that it even requires keen awareness to recognize it.

Most entrepreneurs write value proposition statements from their perspective. It is most often a restatement of the features and benefits. But most customers buy solutions to their problems, not features! Small disconnect in understanding, but leads to large holes in the Income statement.

Think about this! This requires that you re-write value propositions to address problems head-on. In the next post I will detail at least two things that a good value proposition statement should address so that customers can make quick decisions.

Books and Me: Meatball Sundae

Book Title: Meatball Sundae

Author: Seth Godin

This is not Seth Godin’s latest book.  But I decided to re-look at it and re-read it as my work with entrepreneurs increased with respect to their marketing and sales problems.  Meatball Sundae is one of those typical Seth Godin writings, where he provides glaring and loud trends which are actually facts, but one’s that are seen as contrarian thoughts by most others.

The book makes a case, a rather strong one for marketers to re-look at their marketing efforts.  While a lot regarding the customers – on the way they read, the way they buy, the way they consume, the way they pay, the way they influence, the way they communicate and the way they decide has changed, marketers still seem to be stuck to some archaic approaches.

The 14 trends cited in the book may not be all new, but they definitely should trigger changes in your approach to the way you want to market yourself and your products or services.  The book is filled with examples of businesses, of companies that have in their own way leveraged some of these strengths and created remarkable brands and businesses.  While it is not a ‘How To’ book,  it is a very serious ‘What To’ book, which will in turn help you decide how tot thrive in the market.

I must state that I am a fan of Seth Godin and hence always provide a very positively biased review of his works. Why wouldn’t I ? For he has through his work converted me to be a fan.   But even all this cannot remove the fact that this book is truly a gem that is to be relished, consumed and put to practice. 

How to enable people find you?

I keep getting requests on how to build a good network? How to get contacts? How to make people notice us? All of these questions become relevant in today’s landscape because:
(a) there is greater access to people and institutions
(b) there is lesser attention with everybody
(c) there are too many people / objects vying for this reduced and further reducing attention span

So in this absolutely competitive attention grabbing situation how are you going to get noticed?

While all of the above has changed, the rules of who gets noticed has not changed! Look around and see who is getting attention. It is the person who is most visible. It is the person who makes the most useful contribution. It is the person who is easily accessible. It is the person who is interesting. It is the person who is most interested. It is the person who you can relate to.

In earlier days  many of the links between two people were controlled by various agencies – namely advertisers, PR agencies, executive assistants, etc.,. But with the internet in place, most (if not all) of these links have been eliminated. Any two people can now be easily connected almost directly. But why are you then not able to find  the right person and also get found? The problem is with some of the absolute issues. Ask yourself the following questions before complaining and giving up:

• Are you doing work that deserves attention?
• Are you consistent at what you are doing? OR Are you holding on to that one thing and waiting to be found?
• Are you talking about your ideas passionately?
• Are you talking about your ideas enough and frequently?
• Are you meeting enough people who share similar interests?
• Are you on the right mediums where these ideas can be found?

These are just the questions to begin with! If you are not doing enough, probably you are not doing enough to be found. In today’s world of permission driven attention, if you don’t get permission, you are not near being found. And after gaining the permission, if you are not able to hold the attention by being genuinely passionate about what you do – you have lost the connection forever.

Books and Me: Market Your Way To Growth

Book Title: Market Your Way To Growth

Author:  Philip Kotler and Milton Kotler

Turbulence seems to be the norm. Uncertainty is almost becoming the constant. In such an environment, the capability of leaders especially in business, is being constantly challenged.  The entrepreneurial quotient in every leader is being put to serious test. In these highly uncertain circumstances, how should leaders think of growth?

Philip and Milton Kotler, provide us with a variety of approaches to tackle this eluding growth. Two big take aways from the book for every leader would be:

a)     Nine mega trends that can affect growth, create opportunities and disrupt existing business practices

b)     Eight approaches or ways to growth

While on the face of it most of the things in the book has been extensively spoken about by a variety of people. But what makes Philip and Milton Kotler’s inputs unique is their vantage point – a rather important one: Marketing.

A-to-F  process of innovation (developed by professors Fernando Trias de Bes of Esade and Philip Kotler) is also touched upon. For companies looking to institutionalize innovation,  you may read up a more detailed book on the subject by the above professor.

The book is filled with tips, tricks, techniques, a few frameworks and a lot of approaches. But in my opinion what makes the book interesting is the large set of questions that it poses to the reader. As a CEO, entrepreneur or anyone taking the responsibility of the growth of the enterprise, one or a few of these eight approaches could trigger the creation of your ideal marketing solution.  You will enjoy, relish and benefit from the book if you are seeking inputs to trigger meaningful actions in your marketing and sales function.

Where are your customers?

Most entrepreneurs do what most MBA’s do – think about their marketing by following the STP route namely – Segment, Target and Position! The trouble with this approach is that the method is built for existing large enterprises. They are the ones who already have buyers, who already have a sales force, who already have a marketing and PR team, who have product recognition if not brand recognition, who already have the cash and wherewithal to withstand cash flow problems for a while!! But most early stage bootstrapped entrepreneurs don’t have most of the above luxuries (almost none). So the extrapolation of this functional approach does not work. Many entrepreneurs don’t get this because they are not trained to be marketing / sales people – but they simply have to be! But rarely have I come across an entrepreneur who has spent time picking up sales and marketing knowledge, let alone talent. So when I started working with small businesses I realized the need for an alternative solution. Here is a quick look at it.

For entrepreneurs I have always found, it works best the other way. Yes! Turn it right on its head! First figure out who is your ideal customer? What are his/her characteristics? Where will you find them? Where do they aggregate? How can I reach those little aggregation points in my immediate vicinity? Are there more such groups? Keep expanding the size of your serviceable market as you gain more and more over. By approaching this way the entrepreneur is always in control of his addressable market – he / she is always servicing customer and winning them over. Though the approach seems pretty simple, it works and works every time. It brings control on cash flow. It brings effective cost controlled advertising. It enables entrepreneurs always keep an eye on scaling. This is also an easy way of planning sales and marketing as an extension of the business modeling exercise. Since the growth of a firm is high, redrawing the business model and hence your sales and marketing plan becomes a repeated exercise. They go hand-in-hand.

Strong businesses are built on fundamentals, strong fundamentals. And strong fundamentals are always a result of simple thinking!