December 15, 2021
Contributor: Amita Jain
Every software category has a multitude of providers with similar offerings. And most of those tools can look the same to a prospective buyer doing a cursory review.
但是,正确的价值差异erentiate your offering from products that otherwise appear to be equal to in-market buyers.
A well-formulated software value proposition can be the most important selling tool for your marketing and sales departments. It can quickly engage your prospects and clearly distinguish you as a unique SaaS provider.
What is a value proposition and why is it so important?
A value proposition is a sum of value (or benefits) that a buyer will receive from your goods and services upon doing business with you.
Gartner research on theNew B2B Buying Journeyshows that about 70 to 90% of a buying decision happens before a salesperson gets involved, courtesy of the high-quality information available on the internet.
When buyers are researching so much before interacting with you, a vague message about your product can lead them to miss the full story about your brand. A compelling value proposition, however, when webbed across marketing, sales, and customer success messaging, reinforces the importance and ROI of your product.
So, how do you create a differentiated value proposition for your software business? Follow these three best practices to effectively articulate your SaaS value proposition.
“We are better because ...” isn't the best starting point to formulate your value proposition.
The problem with this approach is it has little regard for the target audience’s needs and their buying challenges, and focuses too much on what the company offers. It assumes buyers have fully identified their needs and requirements before coming in contact with your brand touchpoints.
This leads to a value proposition that only provides information about the product, without giving clear insights specific to the target audience.
Differentiating your value proposition goes beyond just speaking about your software and services.
An important element of differentiation is to understand:whatinformation your audience is looking for (e.g., case studies, explainers, technical descriptions, software features or use cases),whythey are searching (e.g., to save money, or for a better workflow),whenthey are looking for it (what stage of the buying journey they are at), and then placing those answers where they are spending the most time researching.
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A value proposition primarily raises two questions: why buyers should buy from you instead of the competition and — importantly — why they must do anything at all.
The former focuses on the concrete value your solutions provide that’s hard to find elsewhere: good customer care, an integrated suite of applications for smarter processes, competitive pricing and glowing customer reviews, among others.
The latter is a source of emotional appeal to the audience's decision-making faculties, and it’s often overlooked. Most propositions concentrate on what a product does and its benefits. An effective software value proposition focuses on the customer problem it solves, not just positive results.
Here are some ways to improve your messaging to articulate a clear value proposition.
In a digital buying experience, buyers value software providers that can make the purchase decision easier to navigate.
As you zero in on your SaaS value proposition and integrate it across your marketing and sales communications, tailor your messages for buyers at different stages of their purchase journey.
Don’t refrain from customizing information for key personas and buying journeys, in fear of it limiting your audience. Generic messages in this hyper-digitalized era lead to content gaps and misaligned messaging, which impacts lead generation.
Look at what influences buying decisions and customize your message accordingly to the channel or audience. Here are some tips to tweak your software descriptions and value proposition messaging.
Finely crafting software value propositions is not formulaic; there are no fill-in-the-blank templates, and no one-size-fits-all solutions. As long as your value propositions are persuasive, help prospective buyers and open up sales conversations, they are a winning bet for you.
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Amita Jain
Amita Jain covers B2B content creation and strategy to help businesses reach their marketing goals. She received her master’s degree from King’s College London, U.K. Exploring the world of art and reading fiction are some of her usual happy distractions outside of work.Connect with Amita on LinkedIn.
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