How to Craft a Winning Work Tech Value Proposition: A Roadmap for Founders

Your value proposition is at the heart of your go-to-market success. In this blog, Jeremy Citro shares a practical roadmap to help work and HR tech founders create a value proposition that captures buyer attention, differentiates from competitors, and accelerates growth.

Why Value Propositions Matter More Than Ever

The HR and work tech space has never been more competitive or noisier. Advanced technologies, new market entrants, and increasingly selective buyers mean founders must work harder to earn attention and trust.

Your value proposition is your foundation. It’s your clear, compelling answer to the question: “Why should customers choose us now, instead of someone else... or nothing at all?”

As I shared in a recent installment of the WorkTech Scaling Series,

“A sharp value proposition positions you to earn your ideal customer’s trust and persuade them it’s worth their time to engage with you.”

This video was hosted by WorkTech Advisory’s Managing Partner, Marilyn Pearson Hendricks, who noted during our discussion,

“Your organization’s value proposition communicates the value promise you are making to your ideal customer profile. It’s the heart of all your marketing and sales processes.”

[INSERT FINAL VIDEO HERE]

What a Value Proposition Is and Isn’t

Many founders mistake taglines, mission statements, or feature lists for value propositions. They’re not the same thing.

A value proposition is:

• A concise, customer-centric promise of what value you deliver consistently and with excellence.

• Specific to your ideal customer profile (ICP) – the buyers you most want and are best equipped to serve.

• A differentiator that makes clear why you’re the better choice.

It’s not just a catchy slogan like “Expect More, Pay Less” and it’s not your aspirational mission. As I noted in the video, “It’s your answer to why your ICP should choose you now over other competitors.”

Study Your Competitors (Briefly, but Deliberately)

Understanding how others position themselves helps you see where you stand out. Analyze the top 3–5 competitors’ websites and public-facing content:

• What problems do they claim to solve?

• Who are they targeting?

• Where are the gaps you can own?

At WorkTech Advisory, we often use a color-coded analysis to reveal competitors’ focus. What they do (blue), how they do it (green), ROI/business case language (yellow), and buyer-specific alignment (pink). Most solutions are heavy on blue and green, light on yellow and pink. That gap could be your opportunity.

Get in Your ICP’s Shoes

A powerful value proposition starts with empathy: understanding what matters most to your buyers. In the video, I explained, “Center on your ICP’s world, so they see that you understand their challenges and priorities.”

Document:

• Their key responsibilities and daily activities

• The “big deal problems” they’re under pressure to solve

• Barriers preventing success

• Triggers that prompt purchase decisions

• Common objections

This gives you a lens to pressure-test whether your draft value proposition resonates.

Frameworks to Help You Write It

There are multiple proven frameworks:

• Steve Blank’s formula: We help X (your ideal buyer) by doing Y (what you do) to achieve Z (the outcome).

• Geoffrey Moore’s formula (Crossing the Chasm): For [target segment], our product is a [category] that [statement of benefit].

Choose a framework that keeps you focused on outcomes, not features.

Test and Pressure-Test Your Draft

Don’t stop at internal approval. Share your draft with:

• Current customers: Does it reflect their experience and outcomes?

• Lost prospects: Does it resonate with their original needs or reasons for passing?

As I mentioned in the video, “Ask whether it inspires them to want a conversation, or would they delete the email and move on?”

Bring It to Life

Once finalized, integrate your value proposition everywhere:

• Website homepage and product pages

• Pitch decks and investor presentations

• Outreach campaigns and social profiles

• Thought leadership content and customer success stories

Your buyers should see and hear it consistently. As we emphasized, “Your value proposition is the foundation of your marketing and sales enablement efforts.”

FAQ & Key Takeaways

FAQ

1. Q: Why is a value proposition critical for scaling work tech companies?
   A:  It reduces sales friction by making it clear why your solution is worth attention and purchase—accelerating deal velocity and improving win rates.

2. Q: How often should I update my value proposition?
   A: Review it at least annually or whenever your market, product strategy, or ideal customer profile changes significantly.

3. Q: Can AI tools like ChatGPT write my value proposition?
   A: AI can help draft ideas, but as Marilyn noted in the video, “This isn’t going to be automatically generated for you. It requires reflection on your ICP and your promise.”

4. Q: What if my team disagrees on our value proposition?
   A: Use customer feedback as the deciding factor. Test drafts with current customers and prospects and let their reactions guide refinement.

Key Takeaways

• Start with empathy: Understand your ICP’s world before writing.
• Clarify your differentiators: Be specific about what makes you the better choice.
• Keep it concise and outcome-focused: Focus on big problems and business results.
• Test with real buyers: Don’t rely solely on internal alignment.
• Use it everywhere: Make it the core language of your marketing and sales efforts.

Building Your Value Proposition Muscle for Long-Term Growth

A strong value proposition isn’t static. It’s a skill and a muscle you develop and refine as markets, buyers, and your offerings evolve. Done well, it reduces sales friction, shortens cycles, and accelerates growth.

If you’d like help pressure-testing your current value proposition, or building one from scratch, reach out to me directly by following the CTA below. Let’s create a value proposition that earns attention and converts.

Video Transcript

Marilyn Pearson Hendricks  0:00  

Great. All right, hello, hello, and welcome everybody. Today, I have Jeremy Citro, and today what we're going to be doing is talking about the topic of how to craft a winning or tech value proposition. Welcome Jeremy and so honored to be able to host this session here with you today. The you know we have, we have a little bit of a backstory on the inspiration for this topic, as we were picking out the topics that of all of the things that we might talk about, and this one kind of landed front, front and center, is one that we definitely wanted to share with the community. Let me just introduce you Jeremy. It is my pleasure to introduce you to Jeremy Citro. Jeremy has deep expertise in talent management, B to be consulting and SAS having helped build the customer success function for CEB HR practice and the customer success and sales engineering teams at Gartner talent neuron Gartner acquired CEB so Corporate Executive Board, and so that was a little bit of the history in the making. Jeremy specializes in helping B to B leadership teams craft sharp, compelling value propositions and use cases that resonate with ideal customers. He then brings these life by scaling leadership and sales enable enablement assets to build trust, generate demand and drive revenue growth. And Jeremy and I have worked together over the past several years with multiple clients really leading them through this journey. So Jeremy, welcome maybe share a little bit about this topic and what we're going to be, what we're going to be diving into here today, in the next hour.

Jeremy Citro  2:01  

Thanks Marilyn, for that great introduction. Thrilled to be partnering with you and the work tech advisory team on this topic. It's really important that founders and all organizations are confident in their value proposition A pithy, compelling statement that's at the heart of all of your marketing and sales efforts, and that's because in a crowded market that's dominated by advanced technologies and increasingly saturated with solutions, it's harder than ever to stand out, and I think it becomes more tempting than ever in your sales motions and in your marketing content to focus on features and functions of your services and solutions, rather than starting with your ideal customers and what it is that they're going to be hiring you or not hiring you to solve. So who you're solving a problem for what they and their teams and ultimately their organizations are going to get by going with your solution versus going with somebody else. So a sharp value proposition really positions you right to begin with, to earn your ICPs trust and to persuade them that it's worth their time to have a conversation with you. So that's why we're excited today, because a value proposition can really help ramp all of your efforts to grow your organization, and it's at the heart of all of those marketing and sales processes, right?

Marilyn Pearson Hendricks  3:23  

Yeah, Heart heart center. And it's one of these things too. I would, I would an analogy that I would have with the skill set that you have and that we bring to clients, is it's like a muscle, and before you start using it, I remember people talk about value and and all of this, and it was just a little bit like gibberish to me. I didn't quite, like, understand what that nuance was. And then once you've gone through it, really seen it, you can, like, can't unsee it. So, um, so really, what we've got is we've got for you today, we've got 12 points. And really that the idea here is your organization's value proposition communicates the value promise that you're making through your ideal customer profile. Now this is assuming that some work is spent on the ideal buyer as well, and so we're assuming that you've gone through that step, which is the North Star of everything in go to market. And also, ultimately, it's about what your ICP, your ideal customer profile, your ideal buyer, if you would, can expect you to deliver consistently with excellence. That makes clear why they should go with your solution. So that's easier said than done, right? Jeremy,

Jeremy Citro  4:51  

yeah, absolutely. And to pick up on your point. Marilyn, I think your value proposition is your answer as to why your firm and. Your offering or your solution or your services suite is a better choice than alternatives for what your ICP is on the hook for solving or achieving. So that's what we're going to talk about today. Really 12 guidelines that give you a roadmap that will help you do an exercise to either create or to reframe and sharpen your organizational value proposition. And

Marilyn Pearson Hendricks  5:26  

when we think about it like the our entrepreneurs, our founders and the senior leadership teams today, in this world of agentic and AI, we can think it. You can code it so never before, never in our lifetimes, has there been as much competition and as not only for the offering, but it's really about the headspace and the mindshare. So the ability to stand out in the crowd and be succinct and memorable is the bar is increasing every single day, so hence this topic. All right, let's crack on and just dive in here. Number 12, Jeremy, share a little bit more the answer of why your ICP should choose you.

Jeremy Citro  6:18  

Yeah, this is really the starting point for writing or refining your organizational value proposition. You're answering the question for your ideal buyer, your ideal customer, why it is they should give you a little bit of their time and engage in a conversation with you about how your solution or your offering is going to help them. So it's one concise and compelling statement that they can see themselves reflected in your world, and where they're going to get from A to B, if you will, by partnering with you. And that's really what we want to get to at the end of these guidelines is a roadmap is going to take you through how to create that compelling statement that's going to be the foundational piece for all of your marketing and sales efforts and channels,

Marilyn Pearson Hendricks  7:09  

right? And when, when we've nailed it or nailed it for now, it there's an elegance to what that value proposition is getting there does take some thought and some work and some sometimes some blood sweat and fears into into that process. Yeah, right. So on that note, sometimes people get confused about the value proposition, right? They think it's other things say a little bit more about this. Sure. Sure.

Jeremy Citro  7:41  

So what your value proposition is is that really concise, hard hitting answer for why they should take a leap of faith in engaging with you and going with your solution right to really convert what it's not is it's not a tagline. So think about, expect more, pay less. That's memorable. It's punchy. It's also not a value proposition. A value proposition is also not your mission or organizational purpose statement that you have on your homepage, right? It's the answer to why your ICP should choose you and convert and why they should choose you now over other competitors, versus kicking the can down the road. So that's really what we want to get to at the end of our conversation today. So start thinking, What is my ICP need to get done or overcome that they're struggling to do? And what is it that other solutions don't solve or aren't fully solving right where we stand out, where we're going to solve that for them. So what are we best at? And that's the basis with which we're going to start to develop your value proposition,

Marilyn Pearson Hendricks  8:47  

right, you know? And that's a good lead in into number 10 here, which is clear and memorable. Value proposition centers on your ICP, so building on what you were just saying, there's an element of empathy that is involved, like putting yourself, setting aside your goals and objectives to get to the next step in the sales process or get the demo or close the deal. It's setting your desires aside and thinking about what is it like to walk for kilometer or mile in the shoes of your buyer?

Jeremy Citro  9:25  

Right? Yep, exactly. And what is the big deal thing, right, that matters to them, personally and professionally, so how they're allocating their resources, how they're guiding their teams, what they're investing in, right? What is the thing that they need to achieve or or overcome? So centering on the world of your ICP, so that they see that you get their world, and they want to engage with you.

Marilyn Pearson Hendricks  9:55  

And this is, this is a particularly important muscle and harder to develop sometimes. Is with tech founders who ended up by accident in work tech, or each call it HR tech, and didn't really come up the ranks as a practitioner. So so that's, that's a, that's a, that's an element of domain expertise that sometimes is missing in the equation and needs to get a magnifying glass put on it in a meaningful way, or great big floodlight, I should say, right so before you basically start writing or prompting chatgpt to come up with one for you, which, by the way, it can be helpful, but it's not gonna it's not gonna do it. This isn't gonna be automatically generated for you. What are some questions that the leaders could be asking for writing?

Jeremy Citro  11:00  

Yeah, in our experience, there are five straightforward questions that will help help founders and your leadership teams identify the ingredients that are going to go into your value proposition statement, right? So, what is your company offer? And then to that, what job or function does your ideal buyer or customer hire your company to do, what is the main problem that you're solving, whether results or gains, personal and professional, that using your product or solution delivers consistently and with excellence, and who is that ideal customer profile and What makes your offering uniquely different and valuable to them? Right? Setting it apart from your competitors, those are the five things that you should answer first, right? A really focused homework, if you will, before you start writing, make sure that you're confident in and have affirmed those answers, because those answers give you the ingredients, if you will, that are going to go into your written statement

Marilyn Pearson Hendricks  12:05  

in that and then in that work, really what we're doing, we're setting up the framework and the architecture for the business case that the buyer needs to have to sell to their stakeholders when we're

Jeremy Citro  12:21  

not in the room, I recall Marilyn. I'm sorry, go ahead. Oh, I recall an engagement with a WTA client a couple of years ago in the labor market analytics space, really crowded space. Right? New solutions coming online regularly, all of them pitching that they have right the best, most actionable labor market data. And with this client, we helped the founder and his team really hone in on a piece of that market that was underserved, I think, by other providers and upstarts in this space, right? So that he and his team could carve out what they were best at, centering it around a very high value problem for their ICP in certain industries, because that problem is both big dollar value, highly visible and recurring. So through that exercise, right, he was able to identify, in a firm, sort of a slice of the market that his firm was best at solving, not that they didn't have the other pieces right of a comprehensive labor market analytics solution. They certainly did. But where they stood out the most was solving a piece of that around a recurring problem with getting and maintaining talent, versus having it poached by competitors, or having that talent walk out the door in short order to get a better offer. So that's an example of where those five questions can help you really get that clarity that then you're going to translate into your statement,

Marilyn Pearson Hendricks  14:05  

right? The the, I mean, if we think about like any given product, there's like, literally, almost an unlimited number of go to markets, yeah, opportunities on who we compete against is a direct response to the value the winning value proposition of who we're not competing against. So with, with it's like a scalpel in many respects, but it's also a set of business decisions based upon your five power questions that are here now people are going to be asking. Are these questions? I have them again. I think what we've decided is that we'll have a download available for you so that you can, if you for you di wires, that you would be able to at least come to the table with some of. Those answers. But on that note, that's a good actually segue into our next point here is, what are your top competitors moving? Where are they playing? Where are they focused? What can What do you know from your past sales motions? What can you tell from their social media website and so forth? Say a little bit more here.

Jeremy Citro  15:21  

Yeah, exactly. Marilyn, so following our roadmap here. This is the second piece of homework that's going to help you have a really clear, compelling value proposition statement that you're confident in. So look at your top three to five competitors. Check out their websites. What's on their home pages? What? What are they saying in any public, ungated content or sales materials that you can get your hands on right? What are the problems that they assert or claim to solve? Who is the ICP they're targeting, and how are their positioning? And this is a really important exercise, because it can help you get clarity on where you stand out either because you're solving something that there's a gap in the market, or you're solving something in a better, higher ROI way than right. The existing players that have been around the block, and this is where, when we have engagements at WTI, there's a really cool exercise we do, where we go, and just grab right, a positioning on our clients competitor site, and use a color coding methodology to help them understand what's the offer. How is it working? What are the claims about the benefits and impact, right? Who is the buyer that they're targeting? And so you can do this as well to get inspiration right, to help you really create a sharp or sharpen your existing value proposition so that you're standing out in a crowded market. I

Marilyn Pearson Hendricks  16:50  

mean, to give a little bit extra insight along those lines, I mean, if you go grab the text for yourself as well, and then you use the highlighting feature, like in Google Docs or word. Here's some colors. Colors for you, if the sentence or the words are and usually we're vendors are pretty good at, really good at this. This is the superpower. They describe what they do, and then there's a lot of blue in the any of analysis that we do, and then how we do what we do, that's the green, right? So we typically see a blue sea of blue and green. If you can put the if it's like a business case oriented, or some, you know, connected to money, ROI, anything related to ROI, or you can put this word in front of them, this series of words before magic words are and this is important, because that's a why this is a yellow. Now we need all the colors, right? We need all the colors that can't just be yellow. Can't left. It certainly can't be just the blue and green. And what we typically we'll see for almost everybody, is a lot more blue and green. And then best is if your buyer can recognize themselves right in in the material. We're going to do pink on that one for whom, but for home. And if it's for everybody, and your competitors are going after everybody, that is maybe, in some respects, a good thing, because that means that they're not focused, especially if, if the world experience supports that, and less focused you are or your competitor, that's the hardest sales motion that there is. And so that gets down into perhaps abandonment or lack of we're not being disciplined really about the ICP. And so this is a really important step. It's not just like to get obsessed about the competitors, right? Because there's if you don't have a market, you know, if you don't have competitors, you may not have a market. Felt like a necessary evil, but, but that forensics exercise, which of course, we need to periodically redo, is so very important, and then picking where do we want to be, or where do we choose to not play, as well as those are some very, very important decisions. So that's a good movement as as we've been talking about, into the problem statement. Say more. A little bit about that. Some more about that. Jeremy,

Jeremy Citro  19:37  

absolutely. So the third key ingredient right to nail before you start writing your value proposition is the world of your ICP. And here we're really talking about documenting right the persona, right your buyer's persona. And we did that a little bit when we answered those five questions initially. But now we're going to go. Bit deeper. So in the world of your ICP, what's broken or what's not working optimally, in terms of what they're on the hook for delivering for their function and the business, is it a process that's been broken for a long time? Is it a capability gap that they haven't been able to address internally or with other external resources that aren't fully delivering on that. Why does that matter to them? And then, how does your product or services, suite or solution solve that? And here, we're not talking about features or functionality or cool user interfaces, all those things are important, but we're talking about the things that they get from leveraging your solution or you're using your solution that make it easier for them, right, to manage their workflows, to lead their teams, to deliver on the KPIs that are attached to strategic business outcomes. So your value proposition should really speak directly to what is that big headache? What is that big dollar concern or initiative. What is that big visibility thing that they're on the hook for that's been so hard for them to achieve, overcome or dispose of? That's what I mean by centering on their world.

Marilyn Pearson Hendricks  21:13  

Yeah, it's it's definitely connected into that empathy discussion and another extremely useful byproduct of this is pipeline meetings. We're looking at our sales funnel and we're looking at deals, we should, with clarity, be able to answer what is the pain that we are solving for this organization during those pipeline meetings. What I don't want to hear in the pipeline meetings is, well, they like the talk. They want to implement us. Why? Right? Well, how is this going to be a priority? It's not even necessarily the money, it's the headspace and the priority of the buyers and so. So if we decide get a fluff answer those questions, we really don't know, that's an opportunity to tune some sales motion styles as well as alignment that happens with anything that we are publishing external with our tools and social media and all the things so but yeah, this is, this is this is our this is our North Star. I would say, most would say, who've had any degree of success in here. So bringing it all together, can you state your core value promise in one concise, punchy statement this, this is tough getting to the sun spot. It's clear view is not necessarily short distance. Say a little bit more about before and after picture or advice that you'd have for this. This bullet point number six here,

Jeremy Citro  22:59  

that's exactly right to Marilyn, that's why we've done right, the homework that the roadmap is just taking us through to this point, the five questions, what are our competitors saying? What's going on in the world of our ICP, right? That we're helping them overcome or achieve or dispose of. And if anyone tells you that you know you're going to get to your value proposition right away, after just a few minutes of writing on a whiteboard, they're not telling you the truth. Your value proposition is your headline statement, and if you need maybe one to two very brief sub headlines that support it, that articulate how that promise is brought to life. But to Marilyn point, right, you're getting to your core promise. What is it that your ICP is going to realize consistently and at a level of excellent performance that your firm delivers? That's what you want to boil down into that one concise, compelling statement, right? That's your core promise. And there are methods that you can use to help you with this. So one is from Steve Blank, whose method simply is, you know, we help x your ideal buyer by doing y to achieve z. So very simple. Another framework from Jeff Moore. His formula is titled Crossing the Chasm. It's a bit more specific to characteristics of your ICP, like industry, and basically it's along the lines of our solution or product is in a category that delivers XYZ right for customers that look like ABC. Harvard Business School has a model as well. That's even more in depth than their examples that we can talk to you about as well. Following this conversation and using one of these methods is a good way to get a bit of a head start and putting down on paper, on a whiteboard or on screen, what your value promises that's going to be your value. Proposition statement.

Marilyn Pearson Hendricks  25:02  

I mean, in essence, this, this becomes our elevator pitch, right, right. And so if we go on and on our elevator pitch, it might be a little bit of a symptom that would have additional work to do on this side. Now, there are other elements of the elevator pitch which gets into establishing, you know, personal connection and credibility and and, you know, the things that we relate to each other as human beings as well, but the structure of what you just described, there's, there's multiple right ways to do this, but getting there is going to require, at least for coming up. Another thing too is, is that if you're on your journey of figuring out your problem, problem market fit, there's a certain amount of road time that is needed in order to maybe get enough experience in what it looks like, what it doesn't look like, what you want to do and what you don't want to do. So there are times where, when you're early in your your journey of this that happens six or nine or 12 months, from 12 or 24 months, it could look very different. And so that I would say these things are not necessarily, call it insulin publics, once you do them, particularly as the market is changing. So that's why this is important. To develop a muscle for creating and updating and crafting these types of things. And if you don't have that muscle, get a trainer until you have the muscle. Otherwise, it will be expensive, the cost of not doing so, diving deeper into the reflection here, on reflection, on the work and also on the ICP ICPs world, does your value prop reflect your ICPs world? Right?

Jeremy Citro  27:00  

And Marilyn, you made a great point right about the elevator pitch that I think applies here. So what we're not looking for, what you're not looking for is something like, you know, this is our AI powered XYZ with cool features and user interfaces. Of course, your solution is cool. Got amazing tech behind it, and it's going to be fun and turnkey to use. Undoubtedly, that's not a value proposition, though, right? That's sort of a run on features or a run on Product functionality or product benefits. So if you find yourself tempted to do that, go back to those three ingredients that we talked about, the five questions, hire competitors, what they're asserting that they're doing that, and then you know how you're offering relates to the world of the ICP, what they care about, what they need to solve or dispose of, so that they realize their personal And the professional outcomes that matter, that matter to them. So that's really the first gut check here, after you've written a few candidate statements.

Marilyn Pearson Hendricks  28:11  

I think we think one of the symptoms when, when we've got problems in developing a value proposition, I think one of the symptoms is the leadership team are going to come back and they're going to say something's not working and we don't know what it is, right? So in fact, I just had that conversation earlier this morning with a new client, and people are like, we're working really hard. We're doing the things that we've thought we should be doing. We're following the SAS playbook, and we can't get a hold of anyone. No one's responding to our emails, and they're not calling us back, right? So there's, there's, so there's something going on and and if you can get a hold of somebody long enough and tie them up and watch the demo, then they like really get it. But sometimes even engaging in the conversation is a we're seeing just again, the headspace is not there with the buyers. Nobody's answering the phones. And so how is it that we can even have some sort of a interaction with with buyers. It kind of goes back to, are we delivering value in a way that we get there too much money? So we've been taught, we've been talking a little bit about the metaphor of a roadmap, right? And going deeper on that, Jeremy, talk to us a little bit more about how to map your ICP. Yeah,

Jeremy Citro  29:49  

and we talked about that a little bit right when we had the homework around the ICP. When we map out our ICP, we really want to have crisp on. Um, authoritative documentation on that establishes really right, like their persona that you would have right in a modern marketing function where you where you go through and you actually document a buyer journey. So things like, what are the jobs that they and their team do on a daily basis? Right? So not just their responsibilities and their titles, but what are the activities that they're executing or responsible for on a day to day basis? What are the processes that they own that are occurring that have big dollar values attached to them? Where are they spending money on external resources? What are the barriers to achieving their functional and business outcomes, what are the things that would trigger them to buy and what are the objections that they might have make sure that you've got all of these things documented, because these are the things that you're going to use to pressure test whether those candidate value proposition statements really reflect their world and what matters to them. In other words, how clearly right, how confidently will they see themselves reflected in that statement?

Marilyn Pearson Hendricks  31:07  

So what the prescription here is is a deliberate, intentional set of documents that you initially create and maintain that specifically codify your value proposition, including your ICP, and if there's edits or there's updates to that, then we go back and we revise those documents. Great. And then that's the place that we use as our compass for everything else that we do, all the other digital assets, but we, we, we need the discipline to actually click put that on paper, metaphorically, right, exactly. So if you have them and they're old, time to review. So you wouldn't surprise again, given the rate of change that we are seeing in technology, it's, and it's, it's pretty exciting out there. So you use the word pressure test Yes, right? So say a little bit more about that. You know, we know what the pressure cooker feels like. Yes, we're looking at numbers and revenue, but yeah, a little bit more about the pressure test too. Sure.

Jeremy Citro  32:24  

So when I help clients develop or reframe their organizational value proposition, it's important to ask two questions once you've got a couple of preferred or finalist candidates or maybe even one statement that you've landed on. So if someone said this to you about the firm that you started and your core offering or solution, would it inspire you to want to have a conversation, right? Or would you just say no thanks or right, send the email into the Delete bin and never respond? The second question I ask is, go to a couple of your current customers and prospects that said no, and ask them, how does it resonate with you and what you aspire to realize or overcome? And that's a great way to determine if you and your team have landed on a clear, compelling value proposition that your ICP is going to say, yeah, they get my world, and I want to give them a little bit of my time to learn about their solution and how it can help me and my team.

Marilyn Pearson Hendricks  33:33  

Jeremy, I think this is so important because the pressure test is doing something that is oftentimes overlooked, which is asking for feedback and then close your mouth and listen, right? We're not, we're not, we're done selling. We're listening and learning and then asking a variety of sources. Now, there might be different reasons for you know, there's truly, we don't have patterns amongst buyer candidates, if you would. So they have different buyers are coming at the problem from different perspectives. So they may not have alignment in what they tell you. They could tell you exactly opposite. The fact that we're asking the question is so incredibly important. This is this, is this is something that I think is particularly different difficult we've helped and many clients who have been successful in other global theaters, and they're interested in coming into the United States. And what works over, for example, in Europe, is not going to work here, or it could be even what's working in one part of the United States, like the. Area is its own economy. In many respects, just because you can sell in the Bay Area doesn't mean you can sell in Atlanta or in Minneapolis. And so it's, it's, it's basically setting up a mechanism for fine tuning, learning and understanding, and having that be part of the muscle that you're building, in addition to the digital assets that you create. I love the pressure test. Such a good example. All right? Say a little bit more. Your customers should see and hear it.

Jeremy Citro  35:37  

So you've gone through the roadmap, right? You've got that punchy, compelling statement that you're confident in. Now it's time to get it out there, because we said at the beginning, it's the foundation of your marketing and your sales enablement efforts. So without saying right on your website's homepage, above the fold, in any pitch decks or investor presentations. It should be woven into formal outreach campaign, so outbound campaign ad copy, it should be in the bio right of your organization's LinkedIn page, your bio, your leadership team's bios, right in your social ads, in right referenced naturally in your thought leadership blogs, white papers and other thought leadership collaterals that you create, because right, it's the answer to that question about why our customers should go with you versus go with the other players out there. And so when you have it now, it's time to put it to use and to help you right, have better outcomes from your marketing and your sales processes.

Marilyn Pearson Hendricks  36:53  

You know, as we think about this topic, and you know, your customer should see and hear it. It's they identify with and relate very quickly to the the value proposition. So if we go back to our color coding exercise, just a word to founders in particular, if we've identified. Oftentimes I'm thinking about total addressable market and valuation, right? An ICP is a subset of your total addressable market. So when we have our our goal is to reduce sales friction, like increase revenue faster. And so what that means is highlighting certain buyers for whom the solution would be the best fit. If we do that, that means that we are yes, not all the verticals. If you have all the verticals, you have no vertical strategy as one example, or you may probably don't have an ICP. If we have an i if that buyer can't recognize themselves in some way, shape or form, you know, on your on your during your sales presentation, and on your website and social, it's really a missed opportunity when I I have personally have a debate with with many founders on just by doing that does not reduce your valuation. What you're doing is increasing your sales philosophy, your ability to get sales so. So anyway, so don't, don't refuse those two, two things as all of a sudden, it's like when I put the breath of air off of the regulator the first time in the swimming pool with scuba gear, right? Is this thing really going to work? It felt the same. It can feel the same way I'm underwater. I'm going to inhale and let that whatever in my lungs. It can't feel like that for some founders and so, so it's, it's, it's this interesting tension and building of this skill that is so needed, because if we don't when your competitors are doing identification of you know, their customers can see and hear them a lot more elegantly. You are at a competitive disadvantage. Doesn't matter what you think your evaluation is going to be, you're never going to get there. So anyway, that was me on a soapbox. Moment before we get to numeral. Numeral, oh, no, your value checklist, right? It all together here for us,

Jeremy Citro  39:46  

yeah, and Marilyn, I think you've already helped us into this last piece of the roadmap, which is your value proposition, right? Is about your sales and how you stand out. And. And achieve that growth that you're that you're looking for. So five tips, used your ICPs language, right? You've done the homework on that. So it's not your internal language. It's not all the cool things that are in your product or solution, and they are cool things, but remember, that's not the value proposition. Second, focus on the big deal problem, not features, not fluff, right? We're tempted to talk about where the latest AI solution, where the latest dates are, solution that's not a value proposition, right? Keep it short. Test it with your buyers, and then lastly, align your team around it, sales, marketing and product, right? All of them should be speaking that language when it comes to how they impact your ICP success. That earns you the right for your ICP to say, You know what, I'm going to take a leap of faith and I'm going to purchase. Because what we're really talking about here is conversions. So getting your firm in front of your ideal customer, grabbing the attention of your ICP and persuading them to engage with you in a conversation. So those are our five, five tips before you hit Publish or put it formally onto anything that your customers or prospective customers we'll see. And one last gut check. And Marilyn hit on this right at the beginning, right? Can you deliver on this consistently and with excellence? That is the last gut check that you should do before formally publicizing your value proposition statement

Marilyn Pearson Hendricks  41:38  

that gets into the promise, right? In fact, one of our our European clients, they were having a no problem closing, getting and closing deals. They were having a problem with renewals and so and we have another global client here that is dealing with that at the moment as well. Is, you know, if you've got a leaky bucket, we've got to fix the leaky bucket. Either we're signing up, perhaps clients that shouldn't be signed up for, or we've got some operational elements on the delivery we need to shore up, make sure that we can not only renew, but hopefully sell into our customer base for future goodness that we might invent and so and that's got to be earned, and that's the best place also to get revenue in once you've got a growing concern is, is to grow your accounts. So that promise is so important we can't just like, make stuff up that we can't do or have it be aspirational and we can't deliver on it. Jeremy, I just want to thank you so much for really taking your experiences and putting them together in this roadmap, if you would, the 12 points. And our goal here is to give back to the ecosystem, to help those that are inclined to DIY, to take it farther, faster, and also to give anyone who is thinking about getting some outside help, a little bit of a viewpoint into our approach and philosophy and how we've taken the battle scars and road rash that we've accumulated, all the mistakes that we've made, and putting it into something that will be beneficial to others to avoid doing that in the future. So, so in summary, so our compelling a compelling value proposition is your answer to why customers should choose you. It clearly and concisely explains what your company offers that we still have to get the what. And that's the blue we still have to get the what now it solves the big recurring problems your ICP faces. So how it solves the problems, not necessarily how it always works, but how it solves the problems so that it can be explained to those stakeholders and why your organization is a better choice than the alternatives. And that forms the basis for, essentially, the architecture for the business case, your buyer will need to sell when you're not in the room. So any, any parting thoughts, Jeremy,

Jeremy Citro  44:33  

I think to your point, it's definitely something that we can, we can help with. And I think there'll be a couple of pieces coming out of this, Marilyn that you, that you mentioned, and so, you know, talk to us. And, you know, I think one of the things that we've talked about doing is helping founders with a scan of just where their value proposition is today.

Marilyn Pearson Hendricks  44:53  

Yeah, yeah. What we do have a link where you can book a complimentary info. For meeting, and what we'll usually do is come through that conversation with with a little bit of reflection and using some of the tools and techniques that we talked about in this in this discussion, so that thank you so much. Jeremy,

Jeremy Citro  45:17  

thank you.