Your value proposition: Don’t set it and forget it

If you’re marketing your SaaS solution without a compelling and consistent value proposition and messages, you’re doing something wrong. 

Without a value proposition – a crystal clear explanation of who should buy your solution, what problem it solves for them, and why they should buy it from you – you’re missing an essential foundation for all your marketing efforts.

You may be cranking out papers, email campaigns, adword buys, videos, or whatever, but without a compelling value proposition, told consistently through all of these programs, it’s hard to have any real impact.  You may well be wasting your marketing budget.  (See “To deliver a consistent message, you need a script.”)

An effective value proposition and messages should have a fairly long shelf-life – a few years wouldn’t be unusual.

After all, it’s tough enough to get the attention of your target buyers.  Revamping your messages every few weeks, trying something different in every marketing deliverable, would make that job impossible.

Value propositions are not cast in stone

But don’t read that as the 11th commandment: “Though shall not change your value proposition…ever!” 

As the market changes over time, the value proposition and messages may need to be adjusted as well.

As markets mature, new buyers are likely to come into the market.  “Mainstream buyers” or “laggards” may displace the initial cadre of more adventurous buyers.  They may be less enamored of cool technology, and care more about support and training.  Issues like security and stability tend to come to the fore.  (See “Pivoting from early adopters to mainstream buyers.”)

As solutions become more widely adopted, or new competitors come into the market, it may be that buyers’ expectations change.  A feature that you once touted as new and novel, may no longer be so new or novel.

Over time, it may be that more people are involved in evaluating your solution.  Purchase decisions are no longer made by a progressive sales branch manager or a technical head in development, acting on their own.  Now they involve corporate IT and senior executives.

Keep your finger on the pulse

OK then, how do you know when changes to your value proposition are needed?

Stay in touch with your customers, that’s how.

And not just through training or the customer support team. 

Dedicate someone to talk regularly with customers, especially new customers.  Ask them why they’re buying, who’s involved in the decision, and why they chose your solution?

Don’t worry.  No giant, multi-page survey is required here.  A few open-ended conversations over the phone, done every month or every quarter, will reveal a lot of information – enough to detect important shifts in the market.  (If you don’t want to allocate an internal person to this task, get in touch with me.  I’ve done them on behalf of several clients.)

You don’t want to be constantly fiddling with your value proposition, but you cannot simply set it and forget it forever.  You don’t want to find yourself talking to the wrong people with the wrong message.