Sherpa Alliance

Like anything we offer, the key is a compelling value-proposition, which I define as:   Value-for-Money, factored by Risk/Probability, all teeter-tottering on Trust. 

·         Value: the impact you will have in improving the customer’s business, directly and indirectly

·         Money: the total cost of the customer’s investment, not just your price

·         Risk/Probability: the probability that the project or process will be well executed to deliver as promised and the inverse of probability, risk, that it will not.

·         Trust: your track record and credibility, and the confidence the customer can place in you overall

In addition, the customer will be asking:

·         Why at all? (why should I even consider being in the market for these offerings as a substitute for my current solution?)

·         Why you? (and why not your next nearest competitor?)

·         Why now?  (and why not later, maybe much later?)

If your value-proposition is not compelling enough, the customer will have unclear answers to these questions and will dither, at least for a period of time and maybe forever.  Think about how you can make your value-proposition more compelling by working on the individual parameters, maybe in some creative, unconventional ways for these unconventional times.

I once ran an Aerospace Division providing integrated information systems/solutions, serving commercial and military aerospace customers, up against the biggest and the best competitors (Rockwell, Honeywell and Teledyne, amongst others).  After a long, protracted selection process (of providing proposals, demonstrations, pricing and making numerous presentations) a major international airline selected us saying, “we just feel better about you guys”.  The whole value-proposition equation teeter-tottered on trust.