What tme says

Firstly, ask yourself what you do differently, that would matter to your customer.

Is your product or service better? What about the packaging, design, customer service, visual identity, story or brand values? If you can’t answer these questions you’ll need to go back and do some in-depth customer and competitor research.

Secondly, think about what your product or service lets your customer achieve. Reframe what you’re selling, to what you’re solving.

There’s a saying that people don’t care about what you sell. They care about solving the problem they have. People understand things from their perspective, so make your value proposition about the solution that matters to them.

It could be an association or realisation of an aspirational identity, satisfaction of personal values, increase in wealth, improvement in health, reduced stress, more time back in their day and so on.

When you hear people say “talk about benefits, not features”, this is what they mean.

TME TIP

If you’re not sure how to get to the benefit, keep asking “So what?” until you find it.

EXAMPLE:

Feature-focused statement: “Our training program provides in-depth courses on various industry topics.”

So what?

Benefit-focused statement: “Enhance your skills, stay ahead of competition, and advance your career with our training program.”

Got another quandary?