A value proposition describes the value that your products/services offer those who purchase them. It states the compelling reason people buy from us. The stronger we make the proposition through quantifying it during the sales process the more likely we will get the sale. The statement(s) can be governed by Social, Emotional or Functional values. More often than not, there is a preference for emphasizing one of the three.
I have always developed VPs for a typical product/service market segment and further developed them into value statements at a much more granular level. The tricky part, of course, is “value” can be a very relative term and, as a result, a different meanings to different folks. However, demonstrating a shared outcome with your customers should be the ultimate strategy of your organization.
To be able to achieve a shared outcome would mean that we have to be open to change. We have to be flexible in our provided solution, once we understand the problem? I would argue that most of the time it really is not problem – solution that we offer. What we really offer is being an alternative to a dilemma. An excerpt from the book, No Problem by Alex Lowy.
Decisions call for discipline and clarity; problems need a method, tenacity, and creativity, but dilemmas go deeper, demanding integrity, courage and the ability to tolerate ambiguity. This is because dilemmas cannot be solved. Rather than summing up neatly or disappearing, they stick around, evolving from one state or condition to the next. That’s the deal with dilemmas.
To handle dilemmas successfully, you need to redefine what you mean by success itself. In place of “win”, think “understanding”, instead of “profit” think “sustainability”… and soon.
If we do not have a defined problem- solution architecture can we really have a value proposition when it is being formed and evolved with a customer before, during and after the transaction? As the customer uses our product/service will the value offering become more of a co-managed proposition or a continuous conversation? Or in simpler terms, a Service Dominant-Logic proposition. 
These skills are not common to most salespeople. We expect to show up on most doorsteps with the answers, not questions. Outdated sales techniques are about controlling and framing the sales process. Even when we are taught by leading with questions, it is nothing more than a guided tour down a path to our pre-conceived solution.
Understanding is question driven and in order to understand we must have a fundamental desire to learn. To learn we must fail, we must start without thinking we have the answers, the solutions. Instead, we must discover “better understanding” through better conversation, not managed and automated processes. The strongest proposition will cease to be based on a problem-solution architecture. Instead, the value will come from the ability to classify situations or recognize patterns and adapt our offering accordingly. The tide may be turning from managing data to how well we can have a conversation.
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