For the last ninety days I’ve been out talking to people about how Material Minds can help them. I’ve talked to more than 60 people in that time and in the process, finally developed a value proposition that I think will work.
You can check what I ended up with on our website.
In the process, I’ve learned more about value propositions than I ever knew before. I suspect that most companies talk about what they offer and how they offer it. That seems to be the positioning most often taken in our industry.
When I started this journey, I defined what we did by the technology we use. We create Digital Media including videos, articles, and exercises, hosted online in a Learning management System. So I started this adventure talking about the technology,why our technology was better than everyone else’s. That is one of our big differentiators, the fact that we use digital media when almost no one else does. Big deal. So what?
As I continued meeting with people I changed what I talked about to discuss not the technology but instead about our service, what we do. We do Leadership development using Digital Media. This is the positioning that most in the Leadership Development industry use and they usually talk about it in terms of the leadership style they advocate or some theory they have on what makes a good leader. Once again, big deal. So what?
Finally, I clued in to a better approach. (I’m slow at picking this stuff up.) Now I’m talking about the results we get. We create measurable increases in Return on People. Funny thing about it is that virtually no one else in the industry talks about quantifiable results from training or leadership development. It’s the big elephant in the room. Everyone does leadership development but they almost never measure their results.
When it comes down to it, that’s all that matters, what results you get. It doesn’t matter to a prospective client what technology you use. It doesn’t matter what your process or service is. It only matters what results you get.
And one more thought on the matter, the results you get have to be measurable and they have to tie into metrics that matter for the company you’re selling to. Otherwise you can’t explain what value you bring, what your value proposition is.
Hi Charlie – yes, measurable results must be your value proposition. Your challenge is your client company’s ability to reinforce your solution – post implementation. Having spent considerable time in the training space as both head of training inside a big company and VP sales/CEO of a training delivery companies, I have seen the best of training activities fizzle out due to internal apathy after the training. If you can find a way to enhance that component in your value prop – you will make a measurable difference and position yourself as a true leader.