The people who dedicate themselves to strategy have a very bad press among their peers talk less of the general public.

I remember once I was watching a series “The Big Bang Theory”  and in one of its episodes, one of the protagonists (a theoretical physicist) asks his doctor girlfriend: “What have you done today? “She replies that she has done several operations and that it has been a good day and asks: what about you? He stays thinking and says; Well, I've been thinking and…yes, I wrote a formula on a blackboard!”

I could relate to that, my job is to think, read and from time to time stick a post-it on one of the canvases that I have around the house, because my job is to generate profitable business models , something that is a bit like a driver's license, you do it once and then you just need to make small changes, but if you don't do this job, I assure you, everything else won't work.

So today I have decided to write about the advantages of spending time defining the value proposition – the heart and soul of any business model – and how to do it.

With a well-defined value proposition you can:

1. Create value:

People mistakenly believe that the value proposition is just a phrase such as "I help someone to do something" but nothing is further from the truth, working on a value proposition consists of your entire organization having a single objective: to create value for your ideal client .

2. Realise who your ideal client is:

To define a value proposition, the first thing you need is to work on discovering the ideal client for your products or services.

3. Know your client better than yourself:

The value proposition forces you to know your client perfectly so that you know what their problems, motivations, pains etc are...

4. Focus your efforts:

Once you understand what the customer benefits of your product or service are, you can make them perfectly match them by investing only in those tasks that cover them.

5. Design products or services that are sold safely:

By knowing perfectly the needs of your client, you can clean your product or service of everything that does not add value or that your client does not give importance to.

6. Get premium prices:

When you discover the ultimate motivator of your client and you know how to give him what he wants, you can command higher prices than your “competition”, since you will be in another market: one without competition.

7. Customers come to you:

By being clear about who your ideal client is and their problems, it is easier to know what springs to touch to attract them to your products or services .

8. Know where to look for more clients:

It also maximizes your investment and recruitment since you know exactly who you are targeting.

9. Customer Development:

When your entire company works to add value to a certain customer, it is really easy to know that other products can be fitted over time to maximize the lifetime value of your customers.

10. Have a great tagline or brand mantra:

The main thing for a tagline to work is for it to be able to inspire and emotionally connect with your client, and this can only be achieved with a good definition of your value proposition.

Interesting, right?

As you should already be clear, the first step in developing your value proposition is to meet your ideal client and for this you have several options:

If you already have clients:

1. Pick your 3-10 best customers and tell them you're offering them something free in exchange for a phone/skype/live chat. In it, soak up who they are, what they do, are they married, children, educational level, hobbies... Nothing is irrelevant, you have to know them as a person and also what they like about your product, about you.
2. Once you have several interviews done , discover the patterns that are repeated in all of them customer archetype and your empathy map, I assure you that you will be surprised. So make your .

If you don't have clients:

Then it's your turn to do the detective work:

1. Find out who your competition is, what they offer and what they don't.
2. Detect a gap in that market that you could cover with your strengths and knowledge.
3. Read competitor blogs, especially comments, and find out which customers are missing out on your offering.
4. Discover repeating patterns.
5. Make your customer archetype and empathy map.

Do not leave it, start right now to define and discover the advantages of your value proposition . I assure you that it will be worth every minute you spend on this task.