Value Proposition Statement Template

About this Template

This stage is crucial for building a solid hypothesis for problem-solution fit. Use this template to brainstorm your first Saas solutions and turn them into assumptions for your value proposition. The key is to focus on the customer and their needs, rather than the technical solution. Prioritizing the customer's perspective helps you create a product that addresses their challenges directly. This approach increases the chances of achieving a compelling product-market fit. Always remember that success lies in how well your Saas solutions meet the authentic needs of your customers.

1. Create a map of potential customers

The first step towards creating your value proposition statement is to define a hypothesis of your ideal customer. While you will validate this hypothesis with a large number of interviews in the later stages of the B2B Saas Scaling Benchmark, you should be able to create a first hypothesis with your knowledge and a desktop search.

You can find the steps to do this in this template:

1.1 Map of Potential Customers Template

2. Brainstorm Solutions

By now you should have identified a particular need and have understood who your main customer persona is. Now it’s time to come up with ways to solve the customer need. While there are myriad ways to solve problems, eventually all solutions come down to a dozen well-known levers. You can get some inspiration from the typical examples of value propositions:

1.2 Value/Benefit Examples

Now that you've seen the examples above, it's now your turn to brainstorm ways to address your customers' pain points. While you should consider technical feasibility, feel free to think outside the box without restrictions. Remember to prioritize creating value for your customers and explore solutions beyond just technology. Keep an open mind and explore innovative approaches to deliver the best possible results for your target audience.

Focus on value for your customers, not on your technology

Go ahead and write down the solution hypothesis that best solves your customers’ pain. You should be able to come up with a dozen ways to solve your customers’ pain.

3. Evaluate your Solutions

Among all the solutions you came up with during your brainstorming session you should now prioritize 2-3 solutions to pursue further. We have created a template that will help you evaluate and prioritize your solutions based on the following criteria:

• Alignment with customers’ pain points
• Market demand
• Technical feasibility and scalability
• Revenue potential
• Resources and capabilities
• Time to market

TEMPLATE - Evaluate solutions

4. Define Value Propositioning Statement

The final step of this state is to define your Value Positioning Statement. This is a concise and compelling statement that articulates the unique value and benefits your Saas or brand offers to its target customers. It serves as a fundamental communication tool to convey why the offering is valuable and relevant to the intended audience. The Value Positioning Statement is the first step in creating your marketing messaging, and your company mission, and will help you create better investment pitches. Here is how you create yours!

While there are multiple theories on what makes a great Value Positioning Statement, we prefer Geoffrey Moore’s  framework:

For (target customer)

who (statement of the need)

our (Saas name)

is (product category)

that (statement of value/benefit)

For retail banks who struggle to retain customers our engagement platform is an analytics software that translates engagement metrics into actionable revenue metrics.

Here are a couple of value proposition statements from well-known SaaS products/companies:

For millions of the world’s most successful brands who struggle to reach their customers online, Shopify is the e-commerce platform that sells, ships, and processes payments anywhere.

For non-technical marketers who struggle with A/B Testing, Omniconvert is a Conversion Rate Optimization platform that enables you to optimize your website and increase conversions.

For the modern worker that tries to focus on things that matter, Dropbox is a modern workspace that reduces busywork.

Let's apply all four steps:

The goal is to map our potential customers and their hypothetical needs,brainstorm and evaluate which solutions could solve their challenges,and come up with a value proposition statement.

For our idea - "SmartBooks - AI-Powered Accounting Solution”

Task 1: Map of Potential Customers

‍Task 2: Brainstorm of Solutions:

• ‍Precise Automation: SmartBooks streamlines bookkeeping, reducing errors and saving time for finance teams through automated transaction categorization and account reconciliation.‍
• Efficient Expense Tracking: With OCR technology, SmartBooks simplifies expense management by swiftly capturing and categorizing costs from receipts and invoices.‍
• Automated Invoicing: SmartBooks generates and tracks professional invoices, improving cash flow with timely reminders for payments.‍
• Comprehensive Tax Compliance: Stay updated and compliant with changing tax regulations as SmartBooks calculates taxes and generates tax reports.‍
• Insightful Reports: SmartBooks delivers customizable financial reports for clear insights into your business's financial health.‍
• Data Security: Trust SmartBooks with secure encryption for safeguarding sensitive financial information.

Task 3: Evaluate Solutions - Done

‍Task 4: Define Value Proposition Statement

‍For retail banks who struggle to retain customers our engagement platform is an analytics software that translates engagement metrics into actionable revenue metrics.