So the green dot is, say, Pea and Ham soup (my favourite). The ripples of value spread out from the centre. So you want to brainstorm all the things that you think are good about the soup offering - for example, it's organic, it's in a tin, it uses locally sourced ingredients, it's low fat, it's a special type of ham, it contains a hint of mint, 50% lower salt, the tin has a cool design on the label, you have a good reputation, Heston said he liked it in a Sunday magazine.......you get the picture. Then you think wider and write down all the related things; you have cute delivery vans, it's your Granny's recipe, you can make ten tonnes a day/only one tin a day, keep going until you think you have exhausted the list.

The next bit is easy, rank them - use whatever method you usually use (I can send you FIVE ways to do this if you want, drop me a line). Then put your favourite as the first ripple in the circles. And so on.....

Once you get to about 10, stop there, let's do the next bit.

In the boxes related to each ripple, write down what it is that is really, really good about this particular ripple of value. Use the discipline of my version of SWOT - see the essay on CEILINGS - and try to have a Devil's Advocate in the room so you don't just have a love-in. When you have done this, you might start to feel warm and happy about your stuff, it looks good!

Now, finally, add another set of boxes:

Now you write down what you think is of value to your clients. Let's say you have identified your ten best ripples of value, now you work out how to leverage them as much as possible.

At this point you can revert to the CEILINGS idea again and compare what you have created versus what you think the competition has.

The point here is that this is easy to do, doesn't take very long and gives you this lovely one-page view of what really happens when you make an offering. Ban all talk of price until the end - because you may feel differently about your pricing after doing this exercise.

Finally, if you can transfer the idea to a piece of A3 paper that folds in the middle and have a lovely print out of it, it acts as a great reminder for salespeople about why your offering is great - reading it before/during a sales call gives confidence, ideas and aide-memoires.

GOOD LUCK!




This is an abridged version of the full article. Number 130 of 144 of Simple Bright Ideas.

Copyright © 2015 by Steve Boyle

All rights reserved. 

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Permission to re-publish this article can be obtained by sending an e mail to steve@formatraining.co.uk


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