The Power of Words: How to Craft Value Statements That Speak to Your Customer's Soul

Hi folks! 👋 Doug here,

My career has given me the opportunity to present to, and consult with some REALLY cool brands. Brands you’d recognize, and probably have/use/subscribe to.

Wanna know how we closed those deals?
NOT by making sure they understood our features.
We made sure they understood the VALUE they were going to get out of it.

It’s not always easy to get GOOD value statements from a list of features.
But it is VITAL if you want to be anything more than just another app / service provider.

Whoever BUILT the thing… shouldn’t be crafting your sales story.
Those folks care A LOT about what all the features do and how.
They geek out about it. It’s their job to do so.

But your Customers and Prospects don't care about the what & how of the solution. It could be working thanks to witchcraft - they won’t care.
What they care about is what it DOES FOR THEM.

So start there & ask them!

If you’re not talking to your customers - you need to be.

If you’re trying to build value statements that resonate with potential buyers…
You should be talking the people who are USING the solution.
You may be surprised by what you hear.

It’s important to ask the right people.
And there’s more than one type.

Think of the people involved in your sales cycle.
You need Value Statements that resonate with each.

• Ask the buyers: who’s writing the check?

• Ask Users: who are the front line users of the solution?

• Ask the managers: How do they wish they could better support their team?

And one last note here on “who to talk to”…
ONE customer is not a reliable sample size. Talk to your customers often.
You should develop a cadence for reaching out to customers.

• So many days, months after purchase.

• Right after renewal.

• Quarterly check-in.

• Etc.

Ok let’s get into crafting some Value Statements

We’ll do it two ways:
1) Collecting customer data
2) Starting with our boring stupid feature list

Collecting customer data:

Figuring out what to ask is actually pretty simple.
You want value statements - so look for the areas your customers are already in love with your solution and then REALLY dig into why.

A good place to start is asking:
“What's Your FAVORITE thing about our solution”
Remember, this is what matters to them.
You & the engineers can geek out later about whatever you want.

WHEN THEY TELL YOU… DIG DEEPER
“How does that part of the solution improve your day/work/whatever?”
Linger here. Go several layers deep.

Just as important is:
“What's Your LEAST favorite thing about our solution?”
You can’t pass up this opportunity to get some good constructive feedback. This is great info for you on how to improve your solution’s perceived value.
Again, linger here.

“Which Part of our solution do you spend the most time in?”
☝ This is where you make the most impact on your customers’ daily lives.
Look for ways you are saving them time and dig into that.
Look for ways you are costing them time and fix that.

Some good follow-up here could be:
“How is it better than previous tools you've used?”
“What was it like before you were using our solution?”
”How could it be even better?”

What if we don’t have enough/any customer feedback? 
I guess we have to start with the list of features...

This part is NOT to be done with your customers.
We’re going to take those boring features and apply…
The Most Powerful Question in the World!
“So What?”

And then we’ll ask it again.
As many times as it takes.
Until we get to the True - Simple - Value.

Let's play it out:
😎 Feature: Drag & Drop file upload  
😐 So What?
😎 It's Easy to import data
😐 So What?
😕 You can import data from anywhere?
😐 So...
😨 You can have all your data in one solution.
😐 So What?
😥 You can use all of your data together
🤔 hmmm… So What?
😖 Having ALL if your data in one place gives you a view of the Entire Customer life cycle…? please?

And it goes on until one of you dies 
Or you end up with a good value statement.

Something closer to this:

It's not perfect, but it beats the hell out of:
“Drag & Drop file upload”

Previously on @DugLvlsUp:

If you want to chat more about this the twitter thread is below. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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☝ Thanks, You’re the Best! 😁
~Doug