Some days ago, my personal friend and valued colleague brander Ilana Berenholc I was interviewed on value proposition para el blog of filial brasileña HERE (Association of Image Consultants International). Here you can read the post title Value offer: You know what your? .

I found interesting translate (using Google) the Castilian if the Portuguese cost you. There goes that:

Value proposal: Do you know which one is yours?

a Brazil, image consultants complain that the market is saturated and, When we look carefully, the feeling is that all do the same. How to solve this problem?

This is a serious problem because, If the perception is that all do the same, simply become commodities. The increasingly low price to customer and does not care to choose one or other, because they see no difference between professional.

A personal branding, We work not only on how to achieve relevance and the difference, but especially in how to identify the value proposition: Why choose a consultant and not another? What is the value you will add one or the other depending on their experience, their skills, their values, their way of doing things?

Image consultants, What I would say is working its own brand, find their differential, separate their supply from the rest. Separating means adding more value than others. However, Easier said than done.

How would you define the value proposition?

I'm a publicist. For me, A brand is a unique value proposition. Thus, a personal brand is a unique personal value proposition. It is as important as what we do how we do.

The value proposition answers a question: What I solve problem? and also, In another approach what chance detected?.

If I say I am an image consultant, I am using a definition of my professional activity. But that's not a value proposition. A value proposition would say “I get my clients stand out and improve their career profile through my work”. This is a value proposition.

The value proposition focuses on your customer, not you. Speaking of image consultant, career consultant or personal brander does not solve any problem for the customer. The way to solve problems is explaining exactly how to reach your client from point A to point B.

To work the value proposition, I recommend answering these four questions:

• What is the problem we solve? (pain)
• What is the chance that detect? (gain)
• What is the need to satisfy?
• What are the benefits we bring?

Here are four ways to find our value proposition.

An example: If you define yourself as “senior manager”, I can not tell you solve problem. “Senior manager” only explains the professional category within the company. However, If you approach it as “We promote the development of professional certifications for different groups”, here I understand perfectly the problem-solving. In the first case, just you say what your position within the company, and second, give an answer to the needs of your customer.

Another example is Sarah Harmon, Head of Spain & Portugal Linkedin Talent Solutions, in their profile, instead of writing his professional qualification as office, wrote Chief Motivator @ LinkedIn Iberia, transforming the way companies hire, sell and grow. (LinkedIn chief motivating Iberia, transform the way companies hire, They sell and grow). Thus, explains the problem solving for companies.

Eye! We can not create a value proposition that is not grounded in reality

Our value proposition consists of a series of attributes. If we analyze a well known brand, for example IKEA, We recognize the attributes that are more price and design, attributes that nobody had joined before. Our value proposition consists of rational and emotional attributes, those derived from our values ​​more. And it's much more difficult to imitate an emotional attribute.

An example is a client with whom I worked: It is audit manager. All clients want to work with her because she is always cheerful, with a ready smile. She broke the established idea that auditors are very serious people, gray, you boring. Its value proposition is “Audit Manager, specializing in Real Estate and Infrastructure. Auditing with a smile.”

My advice to all professionals seem cloned others is thoroughly working your value proposition. I recognize that this is not easy in any process of personal branding, but it is the key to differentiate. I recommend that you make with the help of a specialist, a personal brander or someone who can understand the identity of the professional: How am I exactly? How do others see me? What are my hidden attributes I do not know?

Summarizing, the value proposition is something that answers three questions: What problems we solve, What opportunities detect, what needs we cover. To this end, we need to understand our main attributes, and we need the help of someone who understands how we really are. It is important to understand that we are made up of rational and emotional elements, connecting elements which are.

About values, affirm that convey is better to explain. explain it to me.

The person who is aware of your values ​​you can use them in its communication. But there are nuances. If I say I'm a caring person, I like helping others or I'm altruistic is one thing. If you see me on Instagram helping an NGO, I am transmitting these values ​​in a much more powerful way to explaining.

There are several ways to express our values; we can express in words, videos, images and other things. If someone posts a video on Instagram Stories singing with his daughter, that transmits vitality, joy, conveys a lot of information that would not allow another format.

We have to understand the game we got with social networks, knowing that each has its code. LinkedIn is not the same as Instagram. The latter allows us to not only show better who we are, but how we are. We must use more facts and less words. We must use all means not only to explain what our professional offer, but also explain who we are, how we are, and how we can help.

Is there a risk that professionals submit proposals for similar value?

Of course there. What happens is that we know very well our competitors, but our customers do not. Y, many times, who wins is the one who has the best SEO, who managed to position your website better than others. And that is something against which we must fight. Many times, the first to appear on the Internet is not the best.

The important thing is that we have this evidence which supports that are good and show we work in a way that no other works. We need to build on the momentum that good feedback from our customers can give us to fight these SEO experts.

The difference can come with testimonies of our work. This is the best way to fight against our competitors who do not have the same level that we.

I understand that Brazil is a country with lots of competition – there is no place in the world with so many professionals working in the same area. To this end, work the value proposition is critical.

The value proposition is only for those who already have experience or someone who is just starting now can also identify yours?

Both sides can identify and compete on equal terms. Someone who starts can not use his previous experience, but you can base their value proposition in its powers.

A young person has few vices and has the advantage of being able to adapt to customer needs to be less contaminated. It gives off more energy. And in common with experts, It has the support of its values, that may be the way they connect with their customers. Young people work more easily in the digital environment and can also use this competition as a differential. They also have a more modern and updated training, and more creativity, It is a brutal weapon.

Maybe young people will be more difficult to work with a president of a company 50 years old , but they can start working with other customer profiles. There is an English phrase I like a lot to be translated “Pick apples from the tree that are within reach of your hand first.”

Anything else to finish?

We need to use a crossmedia strategy, using many means. We have to get the idea that the off-line media have a unique advantage. If you appear in an interview for a TV show, within a few hours you'll be in digital television portal. You will benefit from the two environments – OFF y ON – in one interview. The same applies for a magazine, an interview on the radio (your podcast)… If I can give advice is that, although today there is a large digital offer, we must remember that most offline media are a mirror online, so it is worth not forget that there is a world wide audience, which also has digital impact.

Photo by Cody Davis on Unsplash