Value proposition?

This is a new concept for me..

I know the answer to this question could vary wildly but, how do you guys define your value proposition?

For home owners looking to sell their their manufactured or mobile home, MFG Home Brokers, a professional, cost effective listing service, helps you quickly sell your home for the best fair market price.

Instead of trying to sell it yourself, let MFG Home Brokers, accurately access the value of your home, find buyers, arrange financing, and handle all of the paperwork.


Actually that was a bit harder to write than I expected.

Pam

Originally Posted by LadySmith Actually that was a bit harder to write than I expected. Pam

Thats what i thought

Originally Posted by Snowman Thats what i thought

The purpose of your value proposition is to identify a need that your target market possesses, that is unmet by your competition and can best be satisfied by your company/product. It is generally done in about 2 sentences.

The first sentence defines Value (both as a need and as a benefit). Start by addressing who should buy your product (your target customer) and what they need...then address who you are (or your product), and what benefit your product serves.

The second sentence is your Proposition (why your product is different than the competition). It's easier if you start this sentence by defining your competion, then state why your company/product is different/better.

ok, so for the value part:

"For home owners" defines my customer.

"looking to sell their their manufactured or mobile home," defines their need.

"MFG Home Brokers, a professional, cost effective listing service" defines who I am and my product.

"helps you quickly sell your home for the best fair market price" defines my benefit.

Then my proposition:

"Instead of trying to sell it yourself" defines my major competition.

"let MFG Home Brokers, accurately access the value of your home, find buyers, arrange financing, and handle all of the paperwork" defines why my company is different/better.

Does that help?

Pam

Wikipedia has a good page on "Value Proposition" and a good example:

For individuals who are seeking an investment opportunity in real estate, the "Double Your Money Overnight" system is an instructional tape series and lecture course which will teach you to make money in the lucrative real estate business. Unlike other "get rich quick" schemes, our product is not $400, $300, or even $200. You can have our product for only 4 easy payments of $49.99

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Originally Posted by Snowman This is a new concept for me.. I know the answer to this question could vary wildly but, how do you guys define your value proposition?

Originally Posted by LadySmith Actually that was a bit harder to write than I expected. Pam

My value proposition was very simple. In fact, I sought out a value proposition before I started developing the business concept. It is simply this:

My region has a ski resort that is no less beautiful than Aspen or Tahoe, but has a 40% occupancy rate in the winter. That means 60% of the 2,200 rooms here are sitting empty every day during ski season. Anyone see a value proposition here?

If that info isn't enough to make an entrepreneur drool, I next discovered that the local tourist board spent $1,000,000 dollars a few years ago on advertising in a metropolitan area within a day's drive of here, but with little or no success. What I could have done with a million dollars!!!

So here is my value proposition. It costs the same amount of money to heat empty rooms in the winter that it does to heat full ones. Put a few of your empty rooms to work to fill up the rest of them. Instead of spending a million dollars on advertising that doesn't work, spend 20% of that million dollars on a vacation giveaway promotion that will.

Incidentally, the same value proposition works for the ski resort. It costs the same amount of money to operate the lift whether they have 500 visitors a week or 5000. Free lift tickets in the vacation giveaway cost them nothing. The advertsing that accompanies it will be much more effective than the vanilla advertising they are currently doing.

Originally Posted by rlabston So here is my value proposition. It costs the same amount of money to heat empty rooms in the winter that it does to heat full ones. Put a few of your empty rooms to work to fill up the rest of them. Instead of spending a million dollars on advertising that doesn't work, spend 20% of that million dollars on a vacation giveaway promotion that will. Incidentally, the same value proposition works for the ski resort. It costs the same amount of money to operate the lift whether they have 500 visitors a week or 5000. Free lift tickets in the vacation giveaway cost them nothing. The advertsing that accompanies it will be much more effective than the vanilla advertising they are currently doing.

It makes sense. How are prospects responding to this?

Originally Posted by Calvin It makes sense. How are prospects responding to this?

Good question. I have made presentations to individuals, an association of hotel owners and the tourism board.

I measure response in 2 ways. The first is a bit superficial, but useful none-the-less. When I make a presentation, if the audience is yawning and having a hard time staying awake, or they ask me to make the presentation shorter and leave, I view that as a negative response. If they ask lots of question, talk to me after the presentation and offer contacts in their company to follow up with, I view that as a positive response. In my limited marketing effort to date, the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

The second method of measuring response is with actual sales. It is one thing to say, "Yeah, that's a great idea!" but it is a much more powerful response to say, "Sure, I believe in this approach enough to give you $30,000 to be the Prime Sponsor. Since I am not yet at the point in the marketing effort to start asking for money, I will have to follow up later with an answer on how this part of the response is going.

I’m skiing in Aspen next winter, I’ll have to book through you, sounds like you know where I should stay?

I try to set the value propostion according to the market value and the customoers intrest