Traction - Aligning your value proposition to the right market segment & buyer persona

Revenue is the output of a value interaction between your company and your customers.

If your revenues are not forthcoming then you need to refocus and recheck your value proposition, product and market segment.

Maybe you are just trying to sell your product to a customer segment that has no interest because it is not a problem that they have …Maybe your market segment or customer has shifted priorities, and what was before a problem ,today is a nice to have and you must adapt to address the new reality.

One thing that you must keep in mind that you will not achieve your objectives by being the most aggressive or persistent — you will achieve them if your product & value is well aligned to the market segment and the customer needs.

Here are some of the tools that we use to reframe the value proposition and customer alignment.

We start with defining the value proposition.

Focusing on;

• Clear description of the product/service that you are offering

• Understanding of the problem that your customer is facing

• Path to solve such problem by employing your product/service

• Prove that you are the one that can solve it.

Then we turn our attention to the alignment of the product to the customer with a high level customer segmentation:

Focusing on:

Identifying the market segment that the product and its value proposition fits. If you already have customers and data — this is a great opportunity to understand what is working and where to “double down” — as you should segment your market segments into;

• Percent of sales that you derive from such market segment

• What is the corresponding gross margin?

• How long does it take you to acquire a customer from the first touch point to a sale?

• What is your cost of customer acquisition?

• What is your cost of customer management?

Once you have defined the top 3 market segments, then focus on each buyer persona for each market segment. When you define the buyer persona, you should also define the type of role that they have — are they?

• Technical buyer

• User of the product?

• Economic decision maker?

• Or are they a blocker to your product or service?

The value of the exercise is to help identify the path to follow by; clarifying the value proposition that your offer delivers and aligning it to the right market segment and buyer.

Keep in mind; As entrepreneurs we become enamored with the activity, but activity without results is wasted energy. Focus your efforts on solving a problem for the right market segment and customer persona, instead of pursuing activities that may keep you busy, but will not impact your revenues and objectives.