Creating a Strategy: Week 1

Determine Where You Are: UVP, Current Customers, and Current Market

This week is the first in our 12-week series on Creating a Strategy.

(If you’re uncertain about the value of having a clear and shared strategic plan, check out our post, Money Lost: The Value of a Strategic Plan.)

Where Are You Today?

In order to create a strategic plan for the future, you must first know where you are. Knowing where you are means understanding:

• Your unique value proposition (UVP)
• Your current customers
• Your current market
• Your competition
• Your current challenges
• Any initial ideas and aspirations

This week, we’re looking at your unique value proposition, your current customers, and your current market.

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What is a Unique Value Proposition (UVP)?

A unique value proposition is why you are special. It’s why your customers buy from you and not others. It’s why you or your product or services are uniquely valuable.

For example,

• Caribou Coffee’s unique value proposition is its ability to offer good coffee and snacks in a comfortable environment in communities where it can become a community gathering space.
• Amazon’s unique value proposition is its vast selection, fast shipping, and hassle-free returns.
• Airbnb’s unique value proposition is its ability to offer unique and authentic travel experiences that allow guests to live like locals.
• For a local leadership development speaker, it’s his engagement style, his past professional experience, and his unique, diverse point of view.

Write down what comes to mind, consider it, and work on it, but don’t expect perfection immediately. You’ll revisit this as you work on the next components.

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Current Customers

Next, you need to document who your current customers are.

• Who buys from you?
• Who currently values what you offer?
• Why do they buy from you?

If you aren’t sure of the answers to some of these questions, go talk to your customers. Ask them why they chose you. Ask them what keeps them coming back. If you’ve never asked your customers things like this before, this is a good opportunity to open up this type of dialogue. It will create an opening for ongoing future conversations.

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Current Market

Do you know your current market? Said another way, do you know where you play? Are you a product or a service provider? What customer segments do you target and serve? Do you target large organizations, consumers, or small businesses?

For example, the local leadership development speaker is a service provider who targets large organizations that are committed to improving the success of the diverse leaders they have selected for their executive track training program.

By identifying your current market, you can use this to create focus. Alternatively, once you know your current market, you may choose to expand beyond it and intentionally push into new or different markets.

Regardless of where your strategic plan takes you in the future, you need to know your current market today. Write down a few notes on your current market. If you don’t know it, take some time to consider it now.

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Summary

Was this easy? Was it hard? How confident are you in your answers? Take this week and make sure you understand and feel confident about your UVP, your current customers, and your current market. If you need to do additional research or have some conversations, do so. We’ll meet back here next Tuesday and discuss:

• Your competition
• Your current challenges
• Any initial ideas and aspirations

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This is a newsletter from Northome Group. At Northome Group, we put the tools and techniques of design thinking to work for you and your organization.

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