The sales process · Customer research
If your nearest rival could print the same sentence, it is not yours.
A value proposition is one sentence saying what a buyer gets from you that they would not get from the other quotation on their desk. It names the outcome rather than the feature, and it is only finished when a competitor could not put their own name on it.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
A value proposition is one sentence saying what a buyer gets from you that they would not get from the other quotation on their desk. It names the outcome rather than the feature, and it is only finished when a competitor could not put their own name on it.
Take the line at the top of your website and put a competitor's name above it. If it still reads perfectly well, you do not have a value proposition. You have a description of your category.
Quality, experience, customer focus and on-time delivery are claimed by every firm in every trade. None of them is untrue. They are simply unowned, and a buyer holding three quotations cannot choose between three companies saying the same four words.
What survives the test is narrow and slightly uncomfortable. A fabricator who will absorb one drawing revision without requoting. A clinic that keeps the first slot of the morning for patients who have to reach an office by ten. Something a rival would have to change how they work to match.
This closes customer research and hands over to prospecting, where the list of companies to approach gets built. Everything the earlier steps taught you about the payer, the specifier and the situation has to compress into this one line.
Where this sits
Stage 2 of 10, customer research. Who buys, why they buy, and what they are comparing you against while they decide.
- The stage before
- Strategic plan
- The stage after
- Prospecting
If you want this done for you
Answer the one question every buyer silently asks: why should I choose you.
The work
What this step is actually like.
“The rival test comes before the wordsmithing”
Write your sentence, then write the same sentence for the two firms you lose work to most often. If all three sentences are interchangeable, no amount of rewriting saves yours. Change what you are claiming, not how it is phrased.
“Proof or delete”
Every claim needs something a buyer can check: a warranty in writing, a customer who will take a phone call, a photograph of the job with a date on it. A claim with no proof behind it survives about one meeting.
“The strongest ones exclude somebody”
Saying you are the wrong choice for the lowest price is a position. So is saying you only work within sixty kilometres, or only on projects above a certain size. A sentence that welcomes everybody has told the buyer nothing about whether it was written for them.
“Price can be the proposition, but it is the weakest one”
If you are genuinely cheaper, say why you can be and stay that way: your own transport, no showroom, buying direct. Cheapness with no explanation behind it invites the buyer to wait for somebody cheaper still.
What we do
What you end up with.
The artefacts this step produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
The sentence
One line in a fixed shape: for this buyer, in this situation, we do this, so that this happens, unlike the usual alternative. Fill in the five blanks and read it aloud. If you run out of breath, it is two sentences pretending to be one.
Result: Finished when your newest salesperson can say it from memory in a lift and a customer does not ask what it means.
The proof sheet
Three pieces of evidence sitting underneath the sentence, each one checkable by a stranger. Keep the customer's permission alongside anything that names them.
Result: Finished when each claim in the sentence has at least one piece of evidence on the page under it.
The rival column
Your two or three closest competitors' own lines, copied from their websites and their quotations, written next to yours. Update it once a year, because the thing that made you different in 2024 is what half the trade advertises now.
Result: Finished when somebody who does not know your business can pick yours out of the column without being told which it is.
The places it has to appear
Four places, listed on one line each. The top of the website, the first line of the quotation email, the WhatsApp reply to a price enquiry, and the answer your receptionist gives when somebody asks why you.
Result: Finished when all four have been changed and the person at the front desk says it the same way you do.
Where this fits
Three pieces of sales work, in this order.
This work sits inside sales process design, at stage 0, foundation. The audit comes before it, and sales management keeps it running.
Step 1
Sales audit
Find where deals are being lost and what to fix first.
Start here if you cannot say where orders are lost.
Step 2 · you are here
Sales process design
One written way to sell, from first enquiry to repeat order.
Start here if every salesperson sells differently.
Step 3
Sales management
A target, a review routine and someone who owns the number.
Start here if the team has targets and no routine.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
Is a value proposition the same as a tagline?
Who has to agree it before we use it?
Can we have more than one?
How do we know it is working?
How long does this take to write?
How much does it cost?
How long is the contract?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Where to go next
The work that carries this step further.
The rest of customer research
Or read the whole sales process in order.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.