WD-40 and duct tape.
Who doesn't have these laying around? Talk about solutions.
"Now that you've built your [prospect's] interest by making them feel the pain it's time to provide the solution. This is the part of [your website] where you boldly stake your claim that you can solve the [prospect's] problem."
Excerpted and adapted from 12-Step Foolproof Sales Letter Template by David Frey
I often see people jump right to this stage in the development of their websites. They pass up Steps 1 and 2 and go straight to talking about themselves. As many marketers have said, "People don't care about you, they care about their problems."
But you have discussed their problem so you have their attention. They are feeling the salt you have rubbed into their "wound." Now is the point where you solve the problem for your prospect. Take care of my pain, please.
Define Your Solution
If you are currently in business -- people are paying you for a product or service -- then your business is "validated." You already have a solution of some kind. The content in this post is assuming this and focused on helping you further define your solution.
Discussing the development of your idea is outside the bounds of this post, but if that is the stage you are at, I suggest a couple tools at the bottom that can help you with this.
So what is your solution? You should have a good idea of this. You are the expert in you and your business. If you do not have this detailed out, the 5WHow framework (remember that from grade school?) is a nice and simple method for helping you sketch this out:
- Who do you help?
- What do you provide?
- Where are you located?
- When ...?
- Why are you different?
- How much does it cost/return?
Here is an example position statement from Joy Burke, a partner of mine, of Joy A. Burke Copywriting Services:
I am a freelance copywriter who writes copy for human resources departments. My knowledge of crafting valuable HR materials comes from working 12 years in customer and employee services in companies with little or no employee support documents, and creating those materials to fill that void. This experience and drive combined with a natural ability to understand the dynamics and needs of human resources make me the best choice.
Joy A. Burke Copywriting Services
Now let's work on developing some messaging around them.
Tell Me What You Do, In An Elevator Ride
Geoffrey Moore, in Crossing the Chasm, provides a "proven formula" that allows you to get your position statement down to two sentences. With the elevator pitch template, you should be able to explain your product in the time it takes to ride up an elevator:
- For [target customers]
- Who are dissatisfied with [the current market alternative]
- Our product is a [new product category]
- That provides [key problem-solving capability].
- Unlike [the product/service alternative],
- We have assembled [describe the key problem-solving features].
Put it all together and you get a description like this:
For [target customers] who are dissatisfied with [the current market alternative], our product is a [new product category] that provides [key problem-solving capability]. Unlike [the product/service alternative], our product [describe the key problem-solving features]. You just need to swap out the [bracketed technical lingo] with your answers.
Moore provides the example of Intuit (Quicken):
"For the bill-paying member of the family who also uses a home PC who is tired of filling out the same old checks month after month, Quicken is a PC home finance program that automatically creates and tracks all your check-writing. Unlike Managing Your Money, a financial analysis package, our system is optimized specifically for home bill-paying."
And here's mine in its current form:
"For business owners and marketers who are dissatisfied with websites that do not drive business growth, our solution is to not only create a professional website, but establish an online presence that provides you with new and ongoing relationships. Unlike websites that are built to just "look nice," our product generates qualified leads by implementing a strategic inbound marketing system."
Ironically, as Chris O'Leary says, you might not actually use the "elevator pitch" described above in an elevator. It doesn't sound like what a human would actually say. Remember your audience. Your prospect is a human who uses a certain language. Leverage your research and feedback here to put this in your prospect's language.
Key In On Value
Also, notice that the why above is in green. Why? Because truly differentiating yourself could be worth a 50% increase in the value of your business. John Warrilow, author of Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You and founder of the The Sellability Score, calls it "Monopoly Control" when you are in a position of true differentiation. The position is so valuable because "you've got control over how you price your product. You're not being commoditized, essentially, because you're unique and different in the marketplace."
You need to be unique and provide value.
Peep Laja, in this excellent article on how to develop value propositions, says in this type of statement you are giving "a promise of value to be delivered." You need to define beyond a simple positioning statement that says who you are and what you do and really key in on why you are unique and what value does your solution provide for your prospect.It is not just a slogan or catch phrase. It needs to be relevant, quantifiable, and different.
Peep also link to a value proposition worksheet you can use (via MarketingExperiments.com).
What Value Propositions Are Not
- Slogan
- Catch-phrase
- Simple positioning statement
Developing Your Solution
I mentioned up above that I would suggest a couple tools that can help you with developing your product. This article on lean startup tools and strategies will get you pointed in the right direction.
Experiment Board
Javelin has developed some really cool tools, such as the Experiment Board, for developing and validating your idea. Grace Ng, a co-founder of Javelin, provides shares thoughts on how and why you should be careful with your experiments.
The Lean Startup
The Lean Startup by Eric Ries is a highly recommended book (that's on my reading list too).
Conduct A SWOT Analysis
The name alone sounds super exciting, right? The process might not be, but the results surely can be. This process will help you identify the opportunities that you are ready to take on right now.
You will identify the strengths and weaknesses of your business and the opportunities and threats of the outside environment.
- Strengths: What advantages does your organization have?
- Weaknesses: What could you improve?
- Opportunities: What good opportunities can you spot?
- Threats: What obstacles do you face?
Read this SWOT analysis article from MindTools. It will walk you through this process in great detail and has a TON more questions to help you think through this. After gathering this information, build out a TOWS Matrix to identify strategies for moving forward.
Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Pursue opportunities that are a good fit to your strengths. Overcome weaknesses to pursue opportunities. Threats Identify ways that you can use your strengths to reduce your vulnerability to external threats. Establish a defensive plan to prevent your weaknesses from making you susceptible to external threats.
The S-O quartile should have some exciting information. The strategies inside it are the solutions your prospects want which you are perfectly suited to deliver on.
What To Do On Your Site
Now that you have developed and defined your unique and valuable solution, you need to make sure it is prominent on your home page and throughout your site, especially at entrance points. Be bold and leave no doubt that you can solve their problem and remove their pain.
Provide the Solution
Step 3
Present Your Credentials >
Step 4
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