What Is Your Client Really Buying From You? How to Create a Winning Value Statement - with Examples & Templates

You know that a strong value statement is crucial effective sales management, and ultimately for your company to thrive. It’s that power statement — those magic words — that tell your client that you understand their problem and have the perfect solution at the ready.

Though value statements are often brief, the process of getting to those precise, honed words can be anything but. So, here are some hacks and examples to help you write your own winning value statement.

Questions to Answer with Your Team
Before you put word one down on the page, you want to make sure you have these five questions answered with your team:

1. Who is your client? “Anyone” is never the answer. Try our Ideal Audience worksheet if you’re struggling to define your market. Example: Full-time, long-haul truck drivers
2.  What problem are they facing? Put yourself in your client’s shoes. What are they struggling with that your service will help them with. Example: Truck drivers struggle to find time to eat and sleep while meeting demanding scheduling expectations.
3. What do you offer? Be sure to articulate what you offer from your client’s perspective. So, your app may have the most cutting-edge framework ever and you may be totally geeked out about it, but your clients care most about what your services offer them. Example: A voice-activated app that optimizes truck drivers’ routes and identifies weigh stations, truck stops and hotels with driver discounts along the way.
4. What differentiates you? Think of the superlatives that you and your team use to describe your product. Is it the first, the fastest, the easiest, the only one of its kind? Focus on why your client should pay attention to your solution over all others like it. Example: First navigation app built with truck drivers in mind.
5. What are the benefits of your solution? How do you solve your client’s problem? How will their life, work or situation be different once they adopt your service. Example: TruckerMap shaves time off your drives, identifies the food you need to fuel your trips, and keeps you well-rested and safe.

​Putting it all Together: Examples + Templates
Now that you have all the elements, you want to put them together in a way that’s attractive, easy to process and memorable. Here are some hacks for doing just that.

Write one powerful sentence.

The most straightforward way to build your value statement is to connect your client and their challenge to your services and benefits in one, clear sentence. In Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers, Geoff Moore suggests using the following template to do just that:

Template

For _________________________________________ (target customer) who ________________________________________ (statement need or opportunity) our (product/service) is ______________________________ (define product/service category) that ________________________________________ (statement of benefit)

 

Examples

TruckerMap: For truck drivers who struggle to stay awake during long-hauls, our voice-driven map app identifies optimal rest stops so you can stay rested and on schedule. TextUs: For busy recruiters who can’t get talent on the phone, our business text messaging platform helps you get ahold of candidates faster. Smiota: For property managers with busy front desks, our cloud-based packaging system keeps your residents’ packages secure -- without the hassle.

 

Compare your service to something your client already knows.

If you can find a way to compare your service to another well-known product in another industry, you’ve found a shortcut to conveying your value proposition. By relying on your audience’s knowledge of the familiar product, you can quickly say a lot about what you offer.

Template

[Proven industry example] for/of [new domain].

 

Examples

Wag!: Uber for dogs. Kindle Unlimited: Netflix for books. Turo: Airbnb for cars.

 

Focus on who and how you help.

Steven Blank’s suggestion for cutting through the noise is to frame your value proposition in a way people will easily understand. He suggests focusing on who and how you can help.

Template

We help X do Y by doing Z.

Examples

The Nerdy Nonprofit: We help nonprofits thrive online with our marketing resource center. Impact: We help manufacturers compete on the international stage with step-by-step supply chain optimization strategies. Ingram Content: We help bookstores optimize their revenue stream with smart e-commerce tools and a large inventory of specialty items

 

Nail your elevator pitch.

Building off of Dave McClure’s How to Pitch a VC presentation, which encourages businesses to focus on short, simple, memorable keywords or phrases, use this simple template to define the elevator-pitch version of your value proposition.

Template

“________________________________________ is the ________________________________________ to ______________________________________.”

 

Examples

Mint.com: Mint.com is the free, easy way to manage your money online. Trello: Trello is the free, flexible, and visual way to organize anything with anyone. Buffer: Buffer is an intuitive social media management platform trusted by brands, businesses, agencies, and individuals to help drive social media results.

 

Challenge yourself to be brief.

Ernest Hemingway was once challenged to write an entire story using no more than six words. Since then, many writers have similarly tried to pack an entire story into as few words as possible. Can you convey the value you provide in six words or less?

Examples

MailChimp: Send better email. Evernote: Get organized. Work smarter. Remember everything. Uber: Tap the app, get a ride.

​Want more templates? Check out our Value Messaging Worksheet.
Looking for more on how to grow faster? Check out 10 Sales Tactics CEAVCO Audio Visual Used to Generate $2 Million in New Revenue.