Mastering the Art of Your Value Proposition
Most high-level professionals have not mastered the art of the value proposition. This is a problem. Here’s why:
If you don’t have a strong value proposition, you won’t be able to effectively answer the age-old interview question- “Why should we hire you?”
So in today’s blog, I want to clearly define HOW you can confidently talk about your assets, skills, and the value you bring to the company interviewing you.
WHAT IS A VALUE PROPOSITION?
A value proposition is a summary of why YOU are THE perfect person that can solve the problems in the company right now. In a nutshell, it’s a way of expertly pitching yourself as THE top contender for a role.
Your Value Proposition goes beyond just what you say, but also HOW confidently you say it.
Knowing and being able to confidently ARTICULATE all of that information about yourself isn’t exactly an easy thing to do alone... That’s why you’ll need to work in advance to create a killer value proposition that REALLY sets you apart from the competition.
HOW TO MASTER YOUR OWN VALUE PROPOSITION
There are three main steps to creating a stand out value proposition.
1. Know What Problems You Solve
To dive right in, reflect on your top level SKILLS.
For example:
What are your innate strengths?
When someone calls you and asks for help, what are they calling you for?
What do you most often get complimented about?
Own your unique value!
Are you great at customer service?
Are you the one who designed the workflow that’s been keeping your team going strong?
Are you the one people go to for advice about a difficult patient or client?
Take stock of ALL of your greatest achievements, abilities, and natural gifts because the ability to confidently articulate them during an interview is a HUGE factor most employers look for.
2. Ask People Who You TRUST (Colleagues, Coworkers, Mentors, Etc) What You Are Good At
Reflecting on your biggest assets isn’t always easy. So, a fantastic way to get a good perspective about your value as is by asking those around you. That means that you should have an open talk with your colleagues, coworkers, mentors, friends, and family to get a varied consensus about your skills!
You can join a community or start one of your own if you don’t have a network already in place. So, call up a mentor you really trust and have an honest chat or tap into your tribe to start seeing what they see!
GAIN A COMMUNITY AND DESIGN YOUR OWN CAREER
3. Know How to Differentiate Yourself from Others
You’re almost at the finish line and you GOT THIS.
The final step to mastering your value proposition is putting the information from steps 1 and 2 together to distinguish how YOU stand above the competition. That means putting your finger on exactly what makes you different from the other people who can solve the same types of problems as you.
This is something that is not always easy because it can be hard to objectively look at ourselves. We can sometimes undersell ourselves or oversell. We can miss what is most stand out about ourselves because we just don’t see it. So I’m going to share the process, which you can go through this on your own, or I encourage you to get professional assistance (I’d love to help!) to have a sounding board that is able to identify your secret sauce.
When it comes to differentiating yourself, maybe you know your personality makes you a hit with customers. Maybe you trained with a leader in your field, giving you an extra edge. Whatever it is, take note of your UNIQUE abilities and why you’d make an especially great fit for the role you’re interviewing for.
Once you have all of this information in hand, it’s time to write it all out. I would encourage you to run it by members of your network to get their thoughts.
From there, it’s all about practice!
Speak through your value proposition out loud rather than running through it in your head. You can even try to record yourself and then you can review it to make sure your confidence comes through. The more you practice speaking your value proposition, the more comfortable you’ll be talking about yourself and let’s face it, confidence (not only competence!) lands jobs.
Ready to land your dream job?
Learn about my 4-step process for interview success.