From User Engagement to Revenue

A Workshop Approach to Aligning Value with Buyer Needs

Do you have great product engagement that doesn't translate to revenue? You're not alone. Many companies face this challenge, and the solution often lies in understanding your buyers and delivering real value to them. Let's explore a recent case study that illustrates this common problem and its solution.

The Problem: Engagement Without Conversion

Recently, we worked with a client who had identified a pain point and attracted users to their solution. However, these users weren't converting to paying customers in meaningful numbers. Why? The users lacked the budget and authority to make purchases, and even their immediate managers couldn't allocate funds. They needed to strike the cord with someone even higher up and it was not happening. Sound familiar?

The Solution: Value Proposition Design Workshop

To address this issue, we recommended a value proposition design workshop. Here's how it unfolded:

1. User Analysis:

• Inventory Current Users: We inventoried everything known about current users.

• Jobs-to-be-Done: Identified their jobs-to-be-done, pains, and gains.

• Prioritization: Prioritized these elements and assessed our confidence in this information.

• Evaluation: Evaluated the current value proposition against user needs.

2. Buyer Persona Analysis:

• Repeat the Exercise: We repeated the exercise for the buyer persona.

Discovery: Quickly discovered a misalignment between the value proposition and buyer needs.

The Workshop in Detail

1. Build User and Buyer Map and take inventory of everything the team knows as of now of how users and buyers discover the product, learn about it, sign up, onboard and use it. This can be done during preliminary interviews with the customer. Here is an example user map of a made up productivity software solution:

   

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2. Ask the team to review the map and capture Pains, Gains, and Jobs of this customer persona as they go through it. Remind them that Jobs are what customers are trying to get done in their work and lives.

   Pains are anything that annoys customers before, during, and after trying to get a job done or prevents them from getting the job done.

   Gains describe the outcomes and benefits customers want to achieve.

   Remind your team to work 'together - alone' (i.e. reviewing and taking notes but not talking out loud).

3. Next ask your team to populate Pains, Gains, and Jobs on the persona canvas. 3 minutes per section should be enough:

   

4. Now it’s time to prioritize those pains, gains and jobs:

   

   And identify how certain we are in what we know about this persona:

   

5. Finally, list your current value proposition for it. You likely will start with the product or service (can also be features) and then will connect them to pain relievers and gain creators.

   

   

   Repeat these steps for all the personas. It takes about an hour to go through one.

6. Now review your value to persona fit. The best case scenario is that it addresses a few (rather than many) of the highest priority pains, gains, and jobs.

   Also review your knowledge of the customer: how much do you actually know about your customer? The less you know the more risk there is in your value proposition working for them.

7. Next, set your goal based on what you just found. You will likely want to become more certain in your knowledge of your persona and identify how you can create a better fit with them. Depending on your particular scenario your goal will drive the rest of the workshop - some sort of a solution brainstorm. In case of our client, we needed to brainstorm how to actually learn more about their buyer persona.

The Buyer Access Challenge

For our client, a common hurdle emerged: limited access to buyers compared to users. This scenario isn't unique to our client. So, how can you bridge this gap?

Strategies for Understanding Buyers:

1. Engage with Third-Party Think-Tanks and Networking Groups:

   • Join industry-specific think-tanks and networking groups to gain insights into buyer needs.

2. Offer Value to Buyers:

   • Provide value to buyers of teams already using your free trial (e.g., free enterprise membership for a month).

3. Conduct Outreach on LinkedIn:

   • Reach out to potential buyers on LinkedIn, offering insights in exchange for their perspectives.

The goal? First understand your buyers, then craft a value proposition that addresses their specific pain points.

In Conclusion

Most products expand or pivot their audiences before finding product-market fit. This value proposition design workshop can help you evaluate each new audience effectively.

Get Started Today!

Want to try this workshop yourself? Email me for a free Miro template to get started on your own value proposition design journey (marina@product-in-action.com).