I read a meaningful post by Thomson Dawson recently that speaks to the importance of focusing on outcomes versus services and also the need to develop a strong outcomes-based value proposition.

After all, buyers of professional services don’t buy things they buy outcomes. According to Thomson, “Your value proposition is the seed of all your business development conversations. To stand out from the slush pile, your business development conversations need to be rooted in a compelling value proposition.”

While I agree with both points, I do have an issue with the second. That’s simply because I don’t think that it goes nearly far enough to get prospects to notice you and move them to say, “tell me more.” Firms tend to spend so much time and effort crafting a singular, all encompassing “Value Proposition” when prospects need more.

Ironically, firms typically have more. They’ve created lots of value for clients by solving many different problems. Think about any client that you’ve had success with over time.  You’ve probably solved multiple business problems (increased sales, successful product launches, increased client retention, etc, etc, etc) and  therefore you have many ‘seeds’ that can potentially provide business development with tailored ammunition for attracting prospective clients. That’s powerful stuff because as you know clients typically face a variety of issues.

The bottom line is that you will increase your odds for attracting and connecting with prospects if you arm your firm’s marketing and business development with “outcomes” that showcase your ability to solve a variety of issues.

Actions you can take:

1. Identify the various ways that you have created value for each of your clients (problems solved, opportunities capitalized)
2. Write  a value proposition that showcases each outcome and also an accompanying case study that provides further detail. If it helps, you can also start by writing a powerful value proposition for each case study that you’ve developed.

We’ve developed frameworks for creating both powerful value propositions and case studies that will help you more effectively communicate your accomplishments and move more prospects to say, “tell me more.”  If you’d like a copy of this drop me a note.

Please share your thoughts including how you communicate your firm’s value.