If you’re marketing your SaaS solution without a compelling
and consistent value proposition and messages, you’re doing something
wrong.
Without a value proposition – a crystal clear explanation of
who should buy your solution, what problem it solves for them, and why they
should buy it from you – you’re missing an essential foundation for all your
marketing efforts.
You may be cranking out papers, email campaigns, adword buys,
videos, or whatever. But without a compelling value proposition, told
consistently through all of these programs, it’s hard to have any real impact. You may well be wasting your marketing
budget. (See “To
deliver a consistent message, you need a script.”)
An effective value proposition and messages should have a
fairly long shelf-life – a few years wouldn’t be unusual.
After all, it’s tough enough to get the attention of your target
buyers. Revamping your messages every few weeks, trying something
different in every marketing deliverable, would make that job impossible.
But don’t read that as the 11th commandment: “Though
shall not change your value proposition…ever!”
As the market changes over time, your value proposition and
messages may need to be adjusted as well.
As markets mature, new buyers are likely to
come into the market. “Mainstream buyers”
or “laggards” may displace the initial cadre of more adventurous buyers. They may be less enamored of cool technology,
and care more about support, training, security, and stability. (See “Pivoting
from early adopters to mainstream buyers.”)
As solutions become more widely adopted, or new competitors
come into the market, it may be that buyers’ expectations change. A feature that you once touted
as new and novel, may no longer be so new or novel.
Over time, it may be that more people are involved in evaluating
your solution. Purchase decisions are no
longer made by a progressive sales branch manager or a technical head in
development, acting on their own. Now they involve corporate
IT and senior executives.
Keep your finger on
the pulse
OK then, how do you know when changes to your value
proposition are needed?
Stay in touch with your customers, that’s how.
And not just through training or the customer support
team. Dedicate someone to talk regularly with customers,
especially new customers. Ask them why
they’re buying, who’s involved in the decision, and why they chose your
solution.
Don't worry. No giant, multi-page survey is required here. A few open-ended conversations over the
phone, done every month or every quarter, will reveal a lot of information –
enough to detect important shifts in the market. (If you don’t want to allocate an internal
person to this task, get
in touch with me. I’ve done them on
behalf of several clients.)
You don’t want to be constantly fiddling with your value
proposition, but you cannot simply set it and forget it forever. You don't want to find yourself talking
to the wrong people with the wrong message.
