A couple of weeks ago at the DCBKK conference, I attended a session on hosting virtual summits.

What struck me about the speaker was that they created excellent offers for every stakeholder in their virtual summits. There was a compelling reason for businesses to sponsor their virtual events, to present as a speaker, and to attend.

A clear and effective value proposition is fundamental, but it’s something that many of us (mea culpa) tend to gloss over.

Here’s the V1 rubric for identifying growth opportunities in a business that I proposed a couple of days ago:

  • Create new value
  • Extract predictable profit from this value
  • Deliver value independent of the entrepreneur (Maintain)
  • Expand without explicit direction from the entrepreneur (Grow)

For identifiable edges in “Create New Value,” a sub-component of this would be:

“Customers can express your value proposition and enough will buy based on it.”

If this is true:

  • Who you’re trying to serve (customer) know what you can do for them (value prop.)
  • It’s validated as coherent because they can repeat it back to you.
  • It’s validated as valuable by behavior in a purchase.
  • Some number (enough) will buy to validate this as a general trend.

An easy, maybe hard? question for today is:

If you asked a customer what a product or service you offer does for them, would it match your marketing?


Featured image depicts a lecture in a knight academy, painted by Pieter Isaacsz or Reinhold Timm for Rosenborg Castle as part of a series of seven paintings depicting the seven liberal arts (Rhetoric being this one.) Used under public domain.