Value proposition

What a value proposition is

A value proposition is one sentence that says who your business is for, what changes for that buyer when they hire you, and why you rather than the other choices they have. It is the sentence every other piece of material is checked against: if a page does not support it, the page is off subject.

It is not a tagline, which is shorter, vaguer and built to sit beside a logo for years; that is a separate job under taglines and slogans. And it is not a positioning statement, which is about where you sit in the market rather than what the buyer gets.

Who this is for

An owner who cannot say in one breath what the business does and why it is worth the money. Or one who can, but whose website, proposals and sales team each say something different. It also suits a business that has added services over the years and now describes itself with a list rather than a point.

If you already have a sentence you believe and everyone uses it, you do not need this. You may need the messaging framework that expands it into the claims beneath it, or you may need nothing at all.

What goes in it

The sentence has three parts, and each is a decision rather than a phrase. Who it is for. A specific kind of buyer in a specific situation, not "businesses of all sizes". Choosing means excluding, and the exclusion is the point. What changes. The result the buyer can see, in their own terms, not a description of your process. Why you. Something true about how you work that the nearest alternative cannot say, backed by a fact you can show.

Behind the sentence sits the evidence. For each of the three parts I record where it came from: a customer's words from a call, a line from a competitor's site that shows the gap, a fact about your process that proves the claim. A value proposition without evidence is an opinion, and buyers can tell.

I also write down the sentences I rejected and why. Three or four near misses, with a line each on what was wrong, stop the sentence being reopened every time someone new joins.

What you get

The proposition. One sentence, in two lengths: the full version of twenty to thirty words, and a short version of under twelve for places where space is tight.

The supporting paragraph. Sixty to one hundred words that expand the sentence with the strongest proof point for each of its three parts. This is the paragraph that goes under the home page headline and at the top of every proposal.

The evidence sheet. Two to three pages: each claim, where it came from, and what would make it false. Plus the rejected candidates and the reasons.

A forty-five-minute call. Walking through the sentence with whoever will use it most, usually you and whoever handles sales.

A worked example

An illustration, not a client. A commercial cleaning company with eleven staff describes itself as "professional, reliable cleaning services for businesses of all sizes". Every competitor in the region says the same three adjectives. Reading twelve of its recent quotes and listening to two sales calls shows that its actual buyers are property managers with multiple small buildings, and their recurring complaint about the last cleaner was missed visits nobody told them about.

The company has a text-message log for every visit and a same-day replacement crew, and has never mentioned either on its website. The proposition becomes: for property managers running several small buildings, cleaning that is logged the day it happens and covered by a standby crew when a cleaner is off. Three parts, each provable. The home page headline changes, the quote template changes, and the two sales staff stop describing the company differently. The adjectives go.

How it runs

1. A half-hour call. What you sell, who buys it, and what you currently say about yourself. No charge.
2. A fixed price in writing. Scope and number agreed before anything starts.
3. Reading and listening. Your website, your last ten proposals or quotes, your competitors' sites, and two or three recorded calls with recent customers if you can arrange them. About a week.
4. Candidates. You receive four to six sentences with the reasoning for each. We talk through them on a call and you choose, or send me back to combine two.
5. The final set. The sentence, the paragraph and the evidence sheet, with the walkthrough call.

Two weeks from first call to final sentence is typical. Three if customer calls take time to arrange.

What it costs

Quoted as a fixed price in CAD after the half-hour call, agreed in writing before any work starts, and not changed without your agreement. The price depends on how many customer conversations are needed, how many distinct buyer types you serve, and whether a supporting paragraph is enough or a full messaging framework should follow. The pricing page explains how fixed pricing works.

What happens next

The sentence usually changes the home page first, which is home page copy. If the rest of the site was written before the sentence existed, a voice consistency audit finds every page that now contradicts it. And if you have more than one buyer type, the positioning statement settles which one the business leads with.