Tips to Standardize Your Value Proposition Across Your Company
As a marketing student at DePauw University, one of the first concepts I learned about was the value proposition. It’s a critical element of marketing and requires clear, concise communication.
But what happens if your marketing department can’t be everywhere at once?
If you’re at an enterprise-level organization, it can be easy for the value proposition to get lost or misused. How can sales teams in the field, marketers in-house, HR recruiters and everyone in the mix stay on the same page? It seems impossible!
Don’t give up! Here are just a few ways that you can standardize your value proposition across the company.
1. Document your value proposition
This one seems obvious, but as marketers, we sometimes forget that team members outside of our department don’t know the ins and outs of what we do. After you’ve been through the process of creating a value proposition, keep the material that got you there handy. You can use it to create a standard document that outlines your value proposition. The document can also help team members outside of marketing with some background information on your company’s key differentiators. You can also include notes on your customer’s voice and tips for how to use it.
At DePauw University, I learned about the importance of a company’s value proposition. Making sure that others in your organization have access to a standard value proposition document helps everyone stay on the same page.
2. Share it internally
I know it’s hard to get people to read email. Sending another attachment with a PLEASE READ subject line is probably not going to help anyone at your office with a better understanding of your value proposition.
Another option is to take all of the documentation from #1 and put it into a presentation. Make it fast-paced and fun! Then you can offer to share it at other department’s meetings. This will help your peers around the company better understand the value proposition. And maybe the presentation will spark ideas for how they can use it in their own work!
3. Consistently ask for feedback
People like to be asked for their opinions. And marketing needs to hear a variety of opinions and feedback in order to work! So a great way to get the internal feedback you need is to ask. Set up meetings with your brand stakeholders in sales and HR. Ask them to share their thoughts on the current value proposition. How is it working for them? What would they change? Then use that feedback to help company leaders see opportunities to update the value proposition to support revenue. Then you’ll ultimately have more buy-in across departments for the value prop – and more people to help you make sure that it’s being used the right way.
These are just a few ways to support a standard value proposition at your company. What others do you recommend? Send me an email or a comment, and I’ll be glad to update this post with your input!