What is it that you actually sell? Digging deep into the details of the service you offer will help you determine your Value Proposition, and ultimately fortify the foundation of your business. Asking and answering the questions posed on today’s podcast will provide you with the right information.
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Episode Transcript
Welcome back I’m Traci Simkins and you’re listening to Refined By Divorce, the podcast for women like you who want to rebuild a thriving life following divorce.
I teach you how to start a service-based business that will support you and your family financially, give you the flexibility you need to set your own schedule, and the independence to live the life you choose.
Being a small business owner is hard work, but I truly believe every wife and mother already has the skills and experience needed for success, I just give you the tools to make it happen.
Every episode we start with a short story of hope and inspiration of the Refined Rebels who came before us and paved the way.
Refined Rebel – Ada Lovelace
Today’s rebel was born in 1815 England, she was the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron and his wife Lady Byron. She was named after her half-sister, Augusta Leigh, and was called “A-da” for short. A-da Lovelace had a difficult childhood. Her father died when she was very young and her mother would often leave her in the care of her grandmother. Ada suffered from headaches that obscured her vision and when she was 13 she became paralyzed after contracting the measles and was subjected to bedrest for nearly a year where she began to develop her mathematical and technological skills.
When Ada was 17 years old she met Charles Babbage at a town party and this interaction changed her life forever.
Ada enjoyed opportunities that were not usually given to young, aristocratic women of this period. After meeting Charles, Ada was invited to see a small-scale version of his calculating machine called the Difference Engine. Charles was a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge, a position that was once held by Isaac Newton. Charles had become fed up with people making mistakes in lengthy calculations, so his idea was to build a hand-cranked calculator and Ada was completely captivated by this concept.
Even though there was little she could do to help Charles in his work, she requested copies of the blueprints of his machine. She was determined to understand its inner workings. Charles soon became her mentor and in the following years, Ada continued her mathematical pursuits. She was introduced to some of the greatest mathematicians of her time. She became friends with Mary Somerville, who discussed modern mathematics with her and talked in detail about Charles’s Difference Engine.
At the age of 19 Ada married William King, the Earl of Lovelace, with whom she had three children. While developing a family, she took some time away from math but picked it back up in 1841. She took on some advanced work for the University College of London and also continued to learn advanced mathematics.
By 1842, Charles Babbage had moved on from the Difference Engine and began working on a more advanced project, the Analytical Engine, a much higher-level computer concept. This year Ada discovered a paper written by a French engineer called A Sketch of Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, which was compiled from Charles’s lectures regarding his new concept. When she translated the paper into English, Charles asked her why she had not written such a paper herself. He thought she was more than capable. She responded by adding her own notes to the paper, which was three times more extensive, she added algebraic workings and even corrected some of Charles’s errors. In this paper, she included the world’s first published computer program, the Bernoulli number algorithm, Ada’s most groundbreaking work.
Ada Lovelace became the first known computer programmer. She identified new concepts and realized that the Analytical Engine could go beyond just numbers. Ada found that anything could be converted into numbers, such as music, language, or images, and that those could then be manipulated by computer algorithms. This was the first ever perception of the modern computer. She was described as, and I love this, “an enchantress of numbers.”
Unfortunately, Ada’s contributions to the world of mathematics and computer science were cut short, for she got very ill and died young. The second Tuesday of October has been named Ada Lovelace Day, which honors the contributions of women to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, or STEM, all over the world.
You can read more about Ada and the other refined rebels on the website at refinedbydivorce.com/refinedrebels
Your Service
So we’ve been talking about the foundations of a service based business, and we talked about the four parts that make up a solid foundation – The Infrastructure, The Service you offer, Customers, and Resources. Last week we talked in depth about the first layer of a solid business – the Infrastructure, and today I want to talk more in depth about the second layer – The Service that you sell.
In Episode 10, we touched on this a little bit, your service is your offering, the service that you sell, but it’s more than that.
You could simply advertise your service, just list it out and you may find people interested or who need it. But if you spend the time to really develop it further, you can make your marketing efforts easier and more affordable, it helps you build a brand and set yourself apart from the competition, all of that giving you a stronger foundation that will ultimately give you more success and longevity.
Ada was able to take difficult concepts and translate them into a simple binary language that could be understood and used by computers. Just like Ada, if you can take the service you offer and translate it into simple terms that your potential customers can easily understand, you’ll have more success in your business.
So how do you do that? Well, the easiest way I think is to identify the problem that you’re solving. Every service-based business provides a solution to their customer’s issue or problem.
Start if you can start off by figuring out what problem you solve or what pain points you address, the rest of this will be a lot easier.
So if you’re a personal shopper, think about the several types of customers you could serve and the reasons why they would want or need your service. You could be shopping for a single Mom who is too busy, an executive who just doesn’t want to shop but also doesn’t have the time, or someone who is housebound and can’t get out.
The more you can get into your customer’s shoes, the more information you’ll have to develop your Value Proposition, which is a statement that clearly communicates the benefits that you deliver to your potential clients and why they should choose you. It will help potential customers find your services and remain loyal customers. It’s the heart of your business. It will be displayed on your website and serve as the inspiration and jumping off point for your marketing. It will be the answer to the question “what do you do?”
So let’s break it down so that you can start to build it up. There are 4 elements that make up a Strong Value Proposition
Element 1 - Uniqueness
The 1st element of a Strong Value Proposition is Uniqueness.
You want to define and highlight what you and your business offers that is different from other companies in your market.
Do you offer something they don’t? Do you offer a higher touch service or more convenience? Is what you’re selling more valuable than the competition? Do you stand for values or have a culture that sets you apart? Think of all the ways you could add a special touch or make yourself stand out.
For our personal shopper, it could be a guarantee that produce will be fresh. And I don’t know about you, but it feels like every other time I order groceries, the produce will arrive molded, or it’s like they didn’t take any care to ensure that what I ordered matches what they are picking up. So just having a service that is top notch, I mean not even top notch, just acceptable will set you apart. Something else could be, you offer white glove service where you actually put the groceries away for them. I know sometimes if I do an order and it arrives right while I’m right when I’m in the middle of something and I don’t have time to put them away, that would be something convenient. So think about the things that would matter to you, what are the things that have bothered you in the past about the services that you paid for, and what you could do better. Another thing to do would be to try out several services that you’re considering selling so that you can get this information, but you definitely want to be able to set yourself apart from the competition so that you have that extra edge.
Element 2 - Benefits
The 2nd element of a Strong Value Proposition is The Benefit, or The Benefits.
These are the benefits your solution offers to your customer’s pain point or problem. This is what will actually sell your customer. It’s not the specific service you do, but it’s what brings them.
For example, a personal shopper offers shopping services, “I shop”, but what is it that you truly offer? What are you giving to the single mom? You’re giving her back time. For the executive, they’re receiving convenience. For the home-bound, you offer independence. That’s one less thing they have to ask for help on.
So try to come up with at least 3 of the most common benefits your solution offers to the customers that you want to serve.
Element 3 - Emotional Appeal
The 3rd element of a Strong Value Proposition is Emotional appeal.
When you tap into your customer’s emotions and appeal to their desires or aspirations, you’ll make a connection.
So taking the 3 benefits you’ve already identified, you want to expand on each one to include how it will make your customers feel or how it will help them achieve their goals.
In our personal shopper example, how does the single Mom feel when she gets back some of her time? How does the convenience help your executive achieve his or her goals? What does the independence feel like or mean to the housebound customer?
By identifying these emotions they experience when they use your service, you can connect with your customers on an emotional level and instill a sense of community and loyalty. You definitely want to be sincere and accurate, this is not hyperbole, you want to foster a genuine connection.
Element 4 - Clarity
The 4th element of a Strong Value Proposition is Clarity.
You want to use simple language, not technical jargon. The messaging should be easy to understand and memorable, and your potential customers should be able to understand “this is what I do, this is who I do it for, and this is what you’ll get out of it”. You can just write it all down in brainstorm format, and then you want to construct your Value Proposition Statement, which is made up of a heading, a two to three sentence subheading, three bullet points and an image. And all of these elements work together to convey the benefits you offer, who you serve and what sets you apart.
For the heading, you want to identify the main benefit you’re offering in one short, attention grabbing sentence, and then you’re going to follow it up with a 2-3 sentence subheading that provides all the elements we talked about. You want to make sure it’s unique, you want to explain the benefits, you want to appeal to emotions, and you want to be clear. You can then add the bullet points to point out additional benefits or differentiators, and an image to show how your client will feel when using your service.
Examples
There are several companies that can act as great examples:
InstaCart–
A convenient way to shop for groceries, quick delivery, vast inventory.
Amazon–
Low Prices, Fast Delivery and Large Choice of Products and Services
Rover – is a dog walking company
Dog Walking Made Easy – Lower Cost. More Attention
Loving pet care in your neighborhood™
Book trusted sitters and dog walkers.
This one I love , so VRBO, and I haven’t used VRBO, I’ve used Airbnb, I don’t know about you, but VRBO–
Travel Better Together
And then their recent campaign, they have been pointing out the difference between them and Airbnb, although they don’t exclusively say “this is why we’re different from Airbnb”, but that’s what they’re going after. So they say:
Only Your People – Private, Whole Homes
It’s very effective because they’re saying that hey we’re not Airbnb, we don’t give you just part of a home, we give you an entire home so that you as a family can travel together and there’s room for everyone in your family.
And this part I really like, they say:
Why would you share your vacation home with someone you wouldn’t share your vacation with?
I think that is so effective and it gets to the emotional part of selling, which is brilliant.
We’re still just building the foundation here, so it might take you some time to figure out exactly what your Value Proposition is, but this is just another step to developing a solid foundation. And it’s one that will change over time, this is not something that you’ll set in stone and it’s like that for the duration of your business. You’re going to change and adapt it, but if you can start off with a good set of information that will convey your message to potential clients, reach them on that emotional level, and differentiate yourself, set yourself apart from the rest, you’re going to be so much more successful.
And the Loyalty, that’s a huge part. You know it takes so much more to gain a new customer versus a repeat customer, so that’s very important. Make sure that the service you’re offering is a solid service and that you’re truly answering their call for help.
So this information, it’s not like this will be written out exactly how I tell you, with the heading and the subheading and the bullets and all of that with the image, it can be like that on your homepage and that’s what we call a Hero Message. Where there is that large picture, there is a heading, and the subheading, and then usually like a call to action. So that’s whatever you’re asking them to do, whether it’s go take a look at your services, or purchase something, or schedule a call. But all of that together is what makes up your Value Proposition and then throughout the rest of your website, and all your copyrighting, on your blog, in your marketing efforts, all of that will be weaved in.
So I hope that makes sense, I’m trying to break these steps down into chunks that are easy to bite off and not choke on. And getting this information out of your head and onto paper will help you develop something, and you know, it’ll take some time. You find out what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes you’ll see a great idea and you can incorporate it and make changes, but it is important to at least be thinking about these things as you are building your business.
So thank you so much for spending this time with me, like I said I’m anxious to hear what you come up with. I would love it if you would follow, rate, subscribe, do all the things. Get the word out so we can help more women to thrive after a divorce.
Next week we’ll be talking about the 3rd and 4th layers – Customers and Resources, and then from there we have some interviews coming up, and I have a couple of special episodes planned that I’m really excited about.
Have a great week!
Love In, Peace Out.
Bye.
