A value proposition names who it is for, what changes for them, and why you rather than the alternative. Write it in the words your customers use, keep it to a sentence, and test it by swapping in a competitor's name. If it still reads fine, it says nothing.
That swap test catches most bad value propositions in about five seconds, which is roughly as long as a visitor gives you.
Why most of them say nothing
The typical homepage sentence describes a category rather than a choice within it. Streamline your workflow. Powerful tools for modern teams. Everything you need in one place.
These are not lies, they are just true of everyone, which makes them useless at the exact moment they are read: when someone is deciding between you and two other tabs.
The cause is usually committee. Every specific claim has someone in the room who worries it excludes a customer, so specifics get sanded off one meeting at a time until only the safe sentence survives.
A structure that works
Fill in these four and then cut it down to something a person would say out loud.
- For whom: the specific person or business, not everybody
- Who has what problem: in their words, from a real conversation
- We do what: the plain description, not the category name
- Unlike what: the alternative they would otherwise pick, including doing nothing
The words have to be theirs
The fastest improvement available to most homepages is replacing internal vocabulary with customer vocabulary.
Read your support inbox, your sales call notes and your reviews, and note the phrases people use for the problem. They are almost always more concrete than the phrase your team uses, because your team has abstracted it after saying it a thousand times.
If customers say they keep forgetting to follow up and you say relationship management, you have translated your best sentence into a worse one.
Two tests before you ship it
The swap test comes first: put a competitor's name on it and see whether anything breaks. If not, it is a category description and you need to go back to the unlike-what line.
The second is the stranger test. Show it to someone outside your field for five seconds, take it away, and ask what the company does and who for. If they cannot say, the sentence is too abstract, too long, or both.
Both tests take minutes and most value propositions fail one of them.
Being narrow is not a risk
The commonest objection to a specific value proposition is that it will exclude people. It will, and that is the mechanism by which it works.
A sentence aimed precisely at one kind of buyer is read by everyone and acted on by the right ones. A sentence aimed at everyone is read by everyone and acted on by nobody, because it never quite describes anyone's situation.
You can broaden later from a position of being known for something. Nobody has ever become known for being suitable for anyone.
Common questions
- How do I know if my value proposition is any good?
- Put a competitor's name on it. If nothing looks wrong, it is a category description rather than a value proposition. Then show it to someone outside your field for five seconds and ask what you do and who for.
- How long should a value proposition be?
- One sentence a person would say out loud. It needs who it is for, what changes for them, and why you rather than the alternative, including doing nothing.
- Will a specific value proposition lose me customers?
- It will exclude some people, and that is the mechanism by which it works. A sentence aimed at everyone is read by everyone and acted on by nobody, because it never quite describes anyone's situation.
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