Team New Horizons is a premier, international sales and marketing organization providing the most comprehensive, cost effective business development, legal, and identity theft solutions for families, entrepreneurs, businesses, institutions, and their employees. We partner primarily with business to business professionals, brokers and agencies, and sales professionals to offer unarguably the most requested services in the United States,Canada, & the UK. Our mission is to be a premier resource for small business owners and entrepreneurs seeking information, resources, and inspiration to grow their enterprises and protect their business concerns.
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An inspiring testimony for professionals and families who desire financial independence: time, money, and freedom. The Humphrey's testimony is inspiring.
noun: value proposition; plural noun: value propositions
(in marketing) an innovation, service, or feature intended to make a company or product attractive to customers.
So you’ve decided to step out on faith, or rather run from uncertainty and indentured servitude, to become immensely successful and enjoy the bountiful fruits of financial independence. Bravo! You believe you offer the best, most exciting, the least cumbersome, most credible, exquisite, most aesthetically pleasing, the greatest, most tantalizing experience on the planet. And you know what, you may just be right.
BUT IT DOESN’T MATTER
Until you understand and overstand your value proposition, effectively communicate it as poignantly as possible, and take the value proposition to the marketplace with as much or more zeal than the actual product or service itself. Here are some things we all need to be reminded of and understand.
THE PUBLIC IS SKEPTICAL, VERY SKEPTICAL
We have been lambasted by terms like the best, most, least, number one, etc., ad nauseam. We don’t believe it and don't want to hear it anymore. When you begin your pitch or begin to tell your story to a prospective client or potential investor (especially) employing these adjectives, you have just reduced your value proposition to:
Here’s the thing. You nor I don’t determine what’s valuable and what’s not. The market does. Ok, so you really are the best graphic designer, comedian, painter, photographer, consultant, café, or offer the best service or product. 90% of success in business is simply showing up, and the remainder is about quickly identifying what’s important to your audience, and telling a compelling story that resonates with what’s important to them.
In other words, you’re the best videographer in the world. You are elite. What if I simply desire to take a photo of or record a moment using my IPAD or phone, post the moment so it can be made available for immediate public consumption, and as long as it doesn’t sound like nails on a chalk board, and it doesn’t look like a scene out of a thriller video, I’m good?
In a world of short attention spans and overwhelming desire for immediate gratification, sometimes good enough (whatever the public decides that may be) is good enough. More often than not force feeding caviar isn't going to work when some of us just want to take a bite out of medium steak. Tough truth.
Doesn't mean you shouldn't insure that caviar is available, but you get the point.
FACTS TELL & STORIES SELL
Forget what I just stated for a moment. Take an analytical time out. In this fast paced world of instant messaging, social media, split second commerce, and the millions of blink decisions we all make; particularly those of us who are running, really, really fast, we become exhausted. At some point, we begin to gravitate towards things that have meaning and can elicit an emotional response that feels good or safe. Something that really speaks to our own individual circumstances.
I believe ardently and can produce voluminous amounts of data that speak to the fact that the company - LegalShield - whose services I’m proud to promote offers families, entrepreneurs, and business owners the best value out there; particularly as it relates to issues of identity theft. However, before I pass out at night (I’m on a 90 day run, and there’s no room for fronting here), I see these commercials from a competitor that can’t stop the bad press due to inadequacy. Yet people still continue to snap up the inferior services like skittles. The competitor does a better of job of telling their story. Bottom line.
So your hair salon, clothing store, devilishly delicious choco-choco latte cupcakes, or you’re highly credentialed, experienced, with incredible professional consulting acumen is by leaps and bounds better than the competition. People still have to be able to identify with you, and you have to know where their eyeballs or eardrums are leading them.
I sat down with a business owner yesterday. The individual did not care that the service I shared would cut their business expenses by 50%. Did not care. The only thing that was important, was can you make sure my partnership agreement is airtight, and I can acquire credible sound advice and instruction regarding my intellectual property considerations. All other benefits were an afterthought. This person is very, very sharp. The brochure clearly illustrated our service more than addresses the aforementioned concerns, yet it still didn’t matter.
What mattered was when I was able to communicate how I, along with several other clients employed the service to address the same needs: the ease of the process financially and from a time savings perspective; the peace of mind that comes from having complicated matters addressed; all the angst released, allowing one to simply move on to the next important decision without being paralyzed by indecision. Book-ended by why I was excited about helping them achieve their goals, and seeing the success that was waiting for them.
What is the story behind your secret recipe? How did the financial principles you are sharing change your life for the better? Why when you’re composing a vision statement, recording a song, or recording a video....... it feels like a comfortable, warm bath on a cold winter night? How will the 2 hours one spends sitting in your chair not only improve them aesthetically, but leave them more feeling more confident, informed, or offer relief from the cacophony that awaits them? What sacrifices had to made to open that gym, and how did it chisel your mind frame, and inspire you to do the same for others? What are their stories?
MARKETING MATTERS, ALL MAN DOES IT MATTER!
Sorry. I just ran out time. To be continued. Think chia pet. Kardashian. Beyonce. Apple. And if you haven't figured out YET how to communicate your value proposition, hire or enroll someone in your endeavor who can.
In the meantime check me out via Twitter @jsbuford and if you like this post, LIKE/SHARE the post.
01/05/2016
My personal quote of the week. "What you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe and enthusiastically act upon must inevitably come to pass. ” - Paul J. Meyer