Value Propositions useful for average salespeople

One of the first perspectives initially identified in this blog was: The quality of the Value Proposition, based on the level of “compelling and believable”, determines the skill and effort required in the selling process.
For salespeople with average sales skill levels in enterprise “considered purchase" markets , effective Value Propositions need to answer these four customer questions:

1. Why should I take action now to address this problem/opportunity?
2. In addressing this problem/opportunity, what differentiating capabilities do you bring to the solution? [i.e. What do you do better than the competitive alternatives?]
3. What is the value to me of your differentiating capabilities compared to the value I would receive from the competitive alternatives?
4. Why should I believe each of these claims?

While we frequently think of foundations as being physical, information can also serve as a foundation. Just as firms can think of their balance sheet as being a foundation for the firms financials, the Value Proposition for a product, service, or solution serves as the foundation for the marketing programs.

There are more than one type of Value Propositions, each with a different structure designed to support different objectives.

• For markets driven by technical sophisticated buyers, the Value Proposition that is commonly used is "Feature-Benefit".
• For consumer markets, best described as impulse purchase, the Value Proposition structure is “For (target customers), (our products) provides (key benefits) and (key points of difference to competition)".

Many of the Marketing failures that occur in enterprise considered purchase markets occurs because either the "Technical" or the "Consumer" Value Proposition structure is used erroneously, therefore not providing the sales channels the information required for effective selling.