Why your Startup urgently needs a Value Proposition.

Surprisingly, only 2.2% of companies have useful value propositions.

Being part of the 2.2% of companies with a unique and powerful value proposition is a huge opportunity for you to gain a competitive advantage!

The hard truth is if you can’t articulate the value you want to bring your audience, how can your customer understand why they should buy from you or why should a potential investor give you money? Unfortunately, startups are often missing this critical step in starting their new businesses, but if they take the time to focus on this crucial element and foundation of their business they could be putting themselves in the front line for success.

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Critical to your business

Many people will talk about a value proposition being the most crucial element of your marketing, but I’d argue it’s more than that. Value propositions are a fundamental must-have that makes up one of the most important elements of defining your company and your vision. Don’t wait to focus on this important element or confused it with a tagline or slogan or even a mission or vision statement?

A value proposition at its heart is the promise that you’re making to your customers and future customers that speaks to everything in your business, from your marketing and sales to your customer support and product roadmap. A good value proposition will be found articulated in all of your companies communications and engagements, from sales through to building relationships with investors, your marketing team and even future hires.

You need to articulate your value proposition in a way that will make your customers and investors eye’s sparkle or the media or potential partners understand you within moments, to make that emotional connection that is critical in building key relationships.

Hubspot found that only 69% of B2B firms have established a value proposition, but 54% of companies do nothing to optimise it or even ensure it’s working for them. With so many companies not taking the time to determine or improve their value proposition, this is a huge opportunity for a company to gain a competitive advantage.

Powerful competitive advantage

Demystifying your value into a strong message is powerful. And it’s not only for large corporates; it’s a potent tool for small businesses, startups and early-stage companies. It’s also not a "done once, and file it" exercise, it’s something that needs to be regularly reviewed and adjusted as you evolve, pivot or as the landscape changes.

The process of establishing a value proposition forces you to understand the competitive landscape and understand the world from your customer’s view, from the outside in. It defines what makes you essentially unique from others in how you solve their problem and why they should pick you over everything else. Working through the process to find your radical differentiation makes you a stronger, more effective business.

Building your value proposition enables you to create a consistent drumbeat of a single clearly articulate message based on value across all areas of your businesses. Ensuring it’s clearly articulated in a way that everyone can quickly understand empowers your employees with a uniform way of talking about what and why. It establishes a strong foundation upon which all of your marketing and sales activities can build and sets the tone for your product development roadmap and even customer service. The more you say it, and the more consistently you say it, the more influential the impact.

It empowers your audience to engage with you on a much more connected level because they understand the value you bring them. It will speed up sales cycles, increase the likelihood of gaining market share and move you away from price-based sales to value-based.

If you’re interested in finding out how you can build or improve your value proposition, get in touch!

This article originally appeared in Medium here.