3 questions that will create sharper value propositions
This is the basis of a keynote I give and which can help frame thinking at offsites, conferences and workshops. I get those there to do this work in the session - often with amazing results.
You know as well as I do that the key to BD is to be value-based, focused on outcomes not services.
Yet most professionals, when asked, still introduce themselves and go to market in terms of what they do and who they are. When they meet colleagues, they do the same. Changing this mindset can unlock better revenues and margins, and higher levels of internal cross selling.
No-one became a lawyer, an accountant, an engineer or a consultant in order to sell. And a lot of the prestige professionals feel is because they can describe their expertise and skills. Most firms communicate in the same way - here’s who we are, here’s what we do.
The result is that the clients they attract vary in both quality and value to the firm. This broad description of capability is the equivalent of net fishing: casting your net widely into the market, seeing who you catch and then dealing with it. Some of these will be the kind of huge fish that are exactly right. Others will be tiddlers, which are the most fiddly, take the most time and - away from the analogy - are the least profitable. The 80/20 rule will apply: 20% of those caught will provide 80% of the profits.
What’s more the firm and individual professionals are not fully leveraging their strengths, dealing mostly with clients where they bring the greatest value, because they also deal with a bunch of other clients where this is not true.
Simply casting a net into the market is too broad an approach
Wouldn’t it be great to focus on the clients who make up the 20% and make them a much bigger proportion of the total? That’s what creating a sharper value proposition will do, because it starts with defining them and working backwards.
Move to spear fishing
The opposite of net fishing is to use a spear, diving down deep into the market and focusing on the big fish that you want to catch. Then having a spear sharp enough to pierce the complex and difficult barriers to catching them.
Once caught, you can begin to focus on developing a Trusted Partner relationship, but that’s elsewhere.
This sharp spear is your focused value proposition. Here’s how to develop just one spear - each firm will have many. Each professional may have several. Focus means this number should be small.
1.Start with them not you - the client characteristics.
Let’s start with your very best client. The one you love working with, who loves working with you, you make the most money from and deliver the greatest value. With them, you or your firm are at your very best. Who are they? Because you want more of them.
We want to profile them in a simple way: find three defining characteristics.
Example:
A technology company
Which is multinational
And grows through acquisition
2. What are they trying to achieve? Results and problems.
Take the key service you provide for them - maybe the first one or the biggest thing you do for them. In that context, what are the fundamental results they want to achieve or problems they need to solve? These are their business issues as they would express them.
(Here’s the first trick: don’t know what they would say? Ask them! It’s a great and valuable relationship building conversation. And everything they say will be very similar to what other firms like them will say as well.)
Example, where our service is to handle cross border regulations for the client above:
They face complexity in regulations across multiple territories (a problem)
They want to simplify their management of this complexity(a result)
They want to increase the speed and lower the cost of doing so (a result)
3. What advantages do we have to help them deliver these outcomes?
At last, we’re back to us! The critical part of developing a powerful value proposition is to match our strengths to a client’s needs, and then tell our sales story in exactly that way.
If we’re basing this on an existing high value client, there must be reasons they chose your firm to achieve these outcomes and continue to work with you. Let’s be clear what they are so that we can articulate them.
This is high value work and should take time and be done seriously. This is where we are sharpening your value proposition and providing reasons to choose you.
Example with the client above:
We are demonstrably the leaders in this specific area (eg through thought leadership and our partner profiles)
We have presence in the right countries for this work
We have world class case studies showing how we achieved these specific outcomes for similar companies
Dive down and spear the big fish
Turn this into a clear proposition - sharpen the spear
There are further questions I use to really refine the proposition, but these three are enough to start focusing. When I lead workshops on this, I ask people to turn this into a simple statement they can say out loud to each other to move from a general statement - ‘ I’m an IP lawyer in Paris’ - to a more specific one which sets out a clear value. Having this clear statement gives them a great elevator pitch, but is really about a mindset shift that helps frame all commercial conversations and should be the basis for go-to-market content.
Here’s the simple statement.
My name is…
with a particular expertise in… [the service]
Do you or colleagues have clients like this… [the characteristics]
If so, they may face these problems…[the problems]
or would be aiming to …[the results]
We’re well positioned to help them because… [our advantages]
Worth a chat?
In the example above, this translates into the following:
My name is Stuart
with a particular expertise in tackling cross border regulations.
Do you or colleagues have clients like this - multinational tech firms that are buying companies around the world?
If so, they may face the problems of complexity because of regulations in different territories
or would be aiming to simplify their expansion process, make it more efficient and move quickly.
We’re well positioned to help them because we have the leading people in this area, we’re in the right countries and we’ve got great case studies to show what’s possible.
Worth a chat?
Throw and catch the spear
Here’s where the fun begins. In workshops, I get people onto their feet in lines, throwing these spears at each other. They have a minute to do so. It’s as important to catch them. When this is a single company event, there are often real opportunities which arise because the colleagues are asking a very specific question: do you or your team have clients like this? Because we can solve a very clear problem they have. And here’s why.
Even when those involved are senior experienced partners, longstanding rainmakers, you can see the lights coming on around the room. Because instead of a general intro, they have very specific value stories to tell to existing clients. They’re not selling, they’re solving a problem.
Lawyers and accountants from all over the world enjoying selling!
I repeat: this is as much about a mindset as a conversation formula. It’s a way of changing around the way professionals think about what they do, and feeling comfortable saying this out loud, then realising this provides a focus for their work. It gives them a way to hunt opportunities within their firm because they know what they are looking for. It helps their colleagues know precisely who they can introduce them to. It provides direction for their thought leadership and how to spend their BD time.
And they should be motivated to do so because the object of this exercise is to find more big fish, the ones they love working with and do their best work. And make the most money.
There are two other questions I get people to answer in order to fully develop their value proposition. They get asked in the workshop or keynote and provide the drivers for action.
If you would like me to come and give a keynote at your event, offsite or professional conference, get in touch below.
