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· 3 min read
How to Write a Value Proposition That Works
Manesh Jayawardhana
CIO & Co-founder
“We help businesses work smarter.” Every competitor could put their name on that sentence and it would remain true. It excludes nobody, promises nothing measurable, and tells a visitor with a specific problem nothing about whether you solve it.
The test for a value proposition is not whether it sounds good. It’s whether it excludes anyone.
The three things it has to name
Who specifically. Not a segment — a person you could recognise. “Small businesses” describes everything from a one-person consultancy to a forty-employee manufacturer, and they have nothing in common. “Independent bookkeepers with ten to forty clients” describes someone whose day you can picture.
What problem, in their words. Including what it currently costs them. “Reconciliation is inefficient” is your framing. “Month-end reconciliation takes three days” is theirs, and it’s the sentence they’d actually say.
What outcome, concretely. Not “streamline your workflow”. What changes, in terms they’d notice: three days becomes an afternoon, a manual process becomes automatic, a weekly report writes itself.
Put together: “For independent bookkeepers juggling ten to forty clients, month-end reconciliation eats three days. This turns it into an afternoon.”
A forty-person manufacturer reads that and moves on. That’s the proposition working.
Why specificity feels risky and isn’t
The objection to naming a narrow audience is that it turns away everyone else. In practice the opposite happens.
A generic statement doesn’t attract everyone — it attracts nobody, because nobody reads it and thinks “that’s me”. A specific statement attracts the people it describes strongly, and those people tell others in the same situation.
Narrowing also makes everything downstream easier. You know which features to lead with, which objections to answer, which channels reach that person. A proposition addressed to everyone gives no guidance on any of that.
| Element | Weak | Strong |
|---|---|---|
| Audience | “Small businesses” | “Bookkeepers with 10-40 clients” |
| Problem | “Inefficient processes” | “Month-end takes three days” |
| Outcome | “Streamlined workflow” | “Reconciliation in an afternoon” |
| Test | Competitor could use it | Only you could say it |
Where features belong
Not in the proposition. A feature explains how the outcome is possible, and it belongs in the paragraph underneath.
The exception is when a feature is the differentiator — when the reason you can deliver the outcome is something structural competitors can’t copy. Then naming it early is the argument rather than a detail.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Writing something a competitor could sign their name to.
- Describing the product rather than the customer’s situation.
- Using internal vocabulary that customers don’t use for their own problem.
- Stacking three audiences into one sentence, which produces a statement addressed to nobody.
- Treating the proposition as permanent — it should change as you learn who actually buys.
How to do it with Value Proposition Builder
The Value Proposition Builder forces the three specifics.
- Name a specific customer, not a segment.
- State the problem in their words, with what it currently costs them.
- Name the outcome concretely.
- Apply the test: could a competitor put their name on this? If yes, it isn’t specific enough yet.
Other messaging tools are in the tools directory.
Frequently asked questions
What makes a value proposition weak?
Interchangeability. If a competitor could paste their logo onto your sentence and it would still read correctly, it says nothing. The test is whether it excludes anyone.
Should it mention features?
Only where a feature is the reason the outcome is possible. A list of features is not a proposition; a proposition explains why the features matter to one specific person.
How long should it be?
One or two sentences. If it needs a paragraph, the audience is probably too broad — and narrowing who it’s for usually shortens it by itself.
Final thought
Read your proposition and ask who it turns away. If the answer is nobody, it’s also attracting nobody in particular.