Select Your Audience

The target audience for customer value propositions is the key target user. Applied Product Marketing:

• Identifies the predominant audience(s) who will use the product
• Develops a profile (or buyer persona) that helps demonstrate that audience’s experience of the product

Choose Their Best Alternative

Your product solves a problem for your prospects. Your prospects will usually have a number of alternative solutions from which to choose. One of those alternatives will likely stand out as the most compelling selection for your prospect. Applied Product Marketing:

• Identifies this best alternative
• Researches its attributes and claims to build a profile
• Compares it with your offering

Quantify Your Value

When compared with your prospect’s best alternative solution to their problem, your product should offer a number of advantages. Applied Product Marketing:

• Identifies these advantages
• Works with you to quantify each advantage

Determine Your Similarities

When compared with your prospect’s best alternative, your product will probably present a number of areas where your solution is equal in value to the alternative. By understanding these areas of similarity, you can quickly dismiss them in your discussions with the prospect. Applied Product Marketing identifies these areas of equal value.

Identify Your Trade-offs

For every solution of interest, your prospect will weigh the value of the option with the cost. We often consider trade-offs in a negative light. However, trade-offs are simply the balance inherent in any change. When the trade-off cost is small when compared with the total solution value, the decision to invest in the solution is fairly simple. When the cost of the trade-offs exceed the solution value, the purchase is unlikely to occur. For this reason, we give equal focus to the identification and quantification of the trade-offs your prospect would experience with your offering.