The main message of this story is that the best thing you'll ever say about your product, you won't write sitting and pondering in your office. Your customers have already said it, and they probably said it better than you ever could. Which means, quite frankly, my job is just to listen. More than anything else.

One product, a value proposition for every shipment

This logistics-tech company had a product that protected cargo, but "cargo" means different things to different shippers. Every segment carries a different fear about a different threat, and so the messaging would only land if it matched their exact pains. One customer might worry about transfer delays above all else, so a campaign about temperature monitoring wouldn't speak to their fears.

The original marketing solution was to list all the features that helped every client. It's a common quick-fix, but it meant there was no single answer to: "What does this actually do for me?"

The story was already in the room

While speaking with a real customer together with the company's marketing manager, we discovered the answer. In the call with the logistics manager, we asked questions that revealed his lived experience with the product. While it is easy to fall back on feature terms, we made sure to ask about the stakes involved.

As it turns out, he had protected cargo worth up to 25 million SEK, and multiple times manages to sidestep 98,000 SEK in additional charges throughout one critical shipment.

That one story clarified the overall value proposition: this was first-and-foremost a solution for high-value cargo. To cement this key value proposition, we turned this story into an asset for the company: a written customer story and a filmed testimonial. We designed it to represent the ideal customer, the shipper of high-value cargo, who could read it and think: "That's exactly my problem."

One reference point everyone could return to

The first benefit was clarity. Instead of having half a dozen value propositions, sales and marketing could view the customer story as a single north star for the kind of benefit a good-fit client should expect. It was also something to validate their messaging against if they doubted the clarity of new campaigns.

The alternative to this customer story was to keep improvising and creating a new value proposition for every sales conversation, and keep repeating every value proposition for every marketing campaign. The lesson isn't only to listen to your customers. That should be obvious. The bigger tip is to look out for the ones that rave the loudest, since they are usually your ideal audience, too.

What are your best customers already telling you?

Some B2B brands find that their value proposition changes every time they explain it. It can be simpler to think back to client conversations you've had and find the common thread. Or, listen to the customers that are the most enthusiastic about your services and distill their message into a clear story.

If you're not sure how to approach this for your business, let's talk.