You are not overweight, you are maximizing yourself. You are not a lazy person, you are energy efficient. You are not ugly, you have character.

The premise of writing a value proposition is to accentuate the positive, and rename the negative. Accentuating the positive is the easy part. The best way to do that is to make a list of all of the positive attributes for something. For example, we can take plain old oatmeal. If we were to accentuate the positive, we would say that it is nutritious, easy to prepare, its a good hot meal, it promotes a whole grain diet, it can help to lower your cholesterol, it makes wonderful cookies, and is easy to store (and is often the only thing left in the cupboard when you are out of food!). This component of your proposition should be the strongest and you will be spending most of your time here.

The next step is to address the negative aspects of the product. Oatmeal is not bland, it is mild, it is not soggy, it is moist and delicious, if you hate it because you were forced to eat it, then we say it was a staple food in your growing years.

Taking a two pronged approach is critical to the value proposition. If you only present the positive aspects without addressing and repositioning the negative aspects, your client will naturally address the negatives with you. If you allow that to happen, you are then on the defense. If however you include the negatives but reposition them as we did in the second step, odds are that your client will change his thinking on the negatives as they are presented this way and you will not be put in the position to have to defend those negatives later.

There is a fair amount of risk in this approach. The examples above provide a quick, simplistic demonstration. Don't get cute when addressing negatives because your client will see it a mile away and you will lose credibility fast. Make your points effective, valid, and professional. If something is just far too negative to the client's vision and goals, stay on the safe side and avoid those topics altogether, or better yet, make sure that your plan or part of it is designed to correct those things.

Learn more about this author, William Addison.
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