How Do I Define My Company’s Value Proposition? 3 Rules You Need to Follow.

What’s the first thing you do when you visit a company’s website? Most people will skim the homepage and try to figure out what the company or organization offers. One of the first things a potential customer should see is a statement, and that statement is (or should be) the company’s value proposition.

That brings us to the next question, what is a value proposition?

A value proposition is a brief statement highlighting the value that a company or organization can offer a consumer. While these value propositions can seem elusive and even unnecessary to some businesses, they are actually one of the best ways for consumers to get a better (and quick!) understanding of what the organization offers. No customer wants to search through a whole website just to figure out what a company does and how it can benefit them.

Here’s an example of a great value proposition created by Uber,

“Uber is the smartest way to get around. One tap and a car comes directly to you. Your driver knows exactly where to go. And payment is completely cashless.”

After reading this statement, you know exactly what Uber offers and what value they can provide for you. Most importantly this value proposition is:

• Informative – you know exactly what they do, how it works and how it could be of value to you
• Concise – it’s short
• Clear – the statement is free of jargon and it’s not bogged down by details

Not everyone’s value proposition can be that catchy, we get it. Some industries such as life science, food and medical device may not be as exciting, or game-changing. But, as long as you’re focusing on being informative, clear and concise you’ll be sure to come up with a winning value proposition that fits your organization and targets your consumers.

Take medidata, a clinical trials software services provider, for example they have a great and captivating value proposition.

medidata

Value Proposition: “Your Research Brings Hope to Millions of Patients. Our Platform Accelerates it.”

It’s very informative, it outlines that their platform helps accelerate your research. It’s concise – just two short sentences, very clear and leaves the reader understanding what value medidata offers.

Let’s get into a little more detail on what we mean by informative, concise and clear.

Informative

Being informative means consumers get a good idea of what your company does. However, being informative doesn’t mean describing the entire back story of how your organization started, how the company functions, where it’s headquartered or any other unnecessary information. Just stick to the basics.

Concise

You’ll want to make sure your value proposition is short, so being concise (brief but still comprehensive) is the goal here. As we mentioned above, no one wants to read a vague description of your organization, when they are really searching for what exactly your organization does and how it can make their life easier.

Clear

Buzzwords, industry specific terms, hype and vague words do not belong in your value proposition. The focus here is to be clear and to eliminate any vague wording. Let’s try to rework Uber’s value proposition to include some of these types of terms.

What if the value proposition was,

“Uber is the game-changing, number one way to move. Through market disrupting innovations, a car comes directly to you. Your driver does the heavy lifting. And payment is virtual.”

Hype words – “game changing, number one”

Vague – “way to move, heavy lifting”

Buzzword – “market disrupting innovation, virtual”

Are you left wondering what exactly Uber does and how it’s valuable to you? Me too.

Now that you have the general idea of what your value proposition should and shouldn’t include, let’s focus on a few core questions that you should be answering. First and foremost, you need to figure out what value you are adding or offering to consumers.

Ask yourself these questions:

• What product or service do you provide?
• Who do you sell to?
• How does your company benefit the consumer?
• What pain points does your company alleviate for the consumer?
• How will the value mentioned be delivered?
• What sets you apart from your competitors?

While these questions seem surface level, it’s actually pretty difficult to answer these questions in a few sentences. But once again, remember to be informative, concise and clear.

A well thought-out value proposition is the foundation to creating other marketing and business aspects, like branding campaigns, sales pitches and more. It’s important to find your footing as a company before you go on to create specific value propositions for different products, services or different departments.

Let’s take a look at some other company value propositions to better understand what makes up a well-crafted statement, specific to the life science industry.

Parexel

Value Proposition: “At Parexel, we work every day to improve the world’s health. From clinical trials to regulatory, consulting, and market access, every clinical development solution we provide is underpinned by something special – a deep conviction in what we do. We’re not just the people with brains, we’re the people with heart.”

PSI

Value Proposition: “The global CRO where clinical trials run on time. Meet the global clinical research organization ranked No. 1 by investigators twice in a row.”

ERT

Value Proposition: “Have confidence at every turn. Clinical endpoint data collection, predictive analytics, and real world evidence – draw on our science, technological, global experience and credibility, learned over 15k trials, to power your clinical development with certainty, quality and speed.”

Definiens

Value Proposition: “Your global partner to accelerate IO-Development with next generation insights. Leverage your biomarker data from early research into next generation clinical diagnostics.”

Cambridge Cognition

Value Proposition: “Cambridge Cognition is a leading neuroscience technology company optimising the assessment of cognition for better brain health research with scientifically validated digital health solutions.”

Quartesian

Value Proposition: “Quartesian provides clinical data management, statistical programming, and medical writing services with unbeatable speed, cost, and quality. Phases I-IV, all therapeutic areas.”

IQuity

Value Proposition: “Inside Your Health Plan Is a Guaranteed Fixable Risk. Let Us Fix It. If you manage a healthcare plan, inside your plan – right now – is an untold population living with an undetected, uncontrolled, or misdiagnosed autoimmune disease that could cost you millions.”

These value proposition hit key pain points for industry customers and outline the value they offer in an informative, concise and clear method.

So, if your company already has a value proposition — take a look and see if it checks all the criteria described above. If your company doesn’t have a value proposition — use this article as a resource to get started.

Do you think your company has a great value proposition? How do you communicate this best in a webinar? Make sure to contact us to learn more about effectively communicating your organization’s value in one of our webinars.