Blog FPO

Value Proposition Is a Growth Process

This guest blog post is by Christine Saunders President for Halymre

For any organization, value proposition is the fundamental building block of growth. Understanding the process of managing your value proposition is vital, but challenging – especially for non-profits. 

For many non-profits, the concept of growth is complicated by the fact that your members are your customers and they are also your owners. This reality can hinder the discipline and dim the clarity needed to build strong, resilient value propositions. Personal agendas, passionate advocates, and what I call “last-year-itis” are frequent culprits.

At best, the sign of this roadblock can be a well-intended, intuitive guess, sounding something like “I like this and benefit from it, so everyone else must too.” At worst, non-profits can be moved to try to focus a value proposition by consensus, which ends up having the unintended consequence of stymieing their growth. 

Developing discipline around managing your value proposition is the single best investment any non-profit can make in its future.

The do’s and don’ts of a value proposition process

Built over eight years of consulting to association boards and executives, here is my list of top value proposition do’s and don’ts.

Do…

  • Centre it on the voice of the member: Find a dispassionate method for measuring the voice of your members. From custom research to marketing analytics, there is an approach for every budget.
  • Analyze data and revenue: Take a critical look at your membership performance and revenue trends and patterns. Money talks and these numbers must be analyzed for insights.
  • Embrace your competitive position: Everyone is fighting for your audience’s attention. Who could steal precious seconds of your members’ time, and what are those organizations doing well? Be honest and clear – and learn. 
  • Make it regular: Find the frequency of checking in that’s right for your organization. The greater your ambition and upside (and downside), the more frequently you should check the pulse of these indicators. From quarterly to biannually, our clients run the gamut, but it must be regular and it must be a standard management process.
  • Get outside help: If your team is too busy running your daily race, get some help. You may need certain marketing, analytical or facilitation support to keep the process honest and avoid staff’s naturally occurring biases. 

Don’t…

  • Make it a “blue sky” event. This sounds fun and innovative, but not when it comes to your value proposition. Honest, disciplined analysis is the best investment of your time and resources for your future resilience.
  • Embrace “last-year-itis. Sometimes this sounds like “we tried that.” The right idea needs the right time and the right execution, so keep a list and revisit it in light of a new year and new times.
  • Ignore the elephant in the room. Many times we work with clients who – to us – seem to know there’s something holding them back, but it feels like an untouchable conversation. In my experience these “elephants” do actually hold organizations back and need to be tackled. 

A value proposition is a vital internal statement of an organization’s worth in its marketplace of services and influence. It clarifies the organization’s reason for being and helps it to say “no” as well as “yes” to programs and services. Associations that treat it as an ongoing, evolving process succeed. 

Now that you have learned about the do’s and don’ts of the value proposition process, check out our tips for crafting strong value propositions

Halmyre has released their latest report: Growing Value: Findings of Halmyre's Non-Profit Value Proposition Survey. This is based on the 2022 survey of Non-Profit Executives about value proposition, member engagement, pricing strategy, and data intelligence.

Click here to get your complimentary copy of the Report.

---
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Halmyre President Christine Saunders is a marketing consultant to service-based organizations, a strategic advisor to marketing executives and leaders, an entrepreneur and a hobby farmer. Prior to founding Halmyre in 2014, Christine owned a traditional integrated marketing and communications agency specializing in financial services, public services and not-for-profits. Her education is in politics, ethics and philosophy.

Photo credit: Pexels.com

Equitable Practices to Consider before Establishing Indigenous Land Acknowledgements

One of the main goals in doing an indigenous land acknowledgement is to respect and honor Indigenous People and their Tribal Nations and acknowledge the indigenous traditional lands where we do our work. However, one begs the question – is this enough; is it performative?

Read More >

Creating Community Agreements

Community agreements are guidelines or norms created by a group to establish a mutual understanding. They can be used to ensure that a group’s behavior aligns with its values, they may be referred to when conflicts arise, and help set the tone and focus for your time together. Here's how the Event Garde team addressed this recently:

Read More >

After Action Review: A Critical Component to Event Planning

When we talk about successful event planning, the emphasis is quite often on the word “planning” and all the tools and techniques we employ to ensure a successful event. But what about after the event? Let’s take a look at a few ways we can use an After Action Review (AAR) to help wrap up an event planning cycle and guide us in future events.

Read More >

5 Facilitated Conversations You Can’t Afford to Put Off in 2023

As Aaron returned to a regular work schedule this week, it occurred to him that now’s the time to both reflect on our current level of facilitation knowledge and confidence, as well as take stock in those important conversations we need to have before we get too far into the minutia of the day-to-day meetings and tasks that are almost inevitably creeping into our calendars. Here are the five must-have conversations.

Read More >

Shaking Up Your Volunteer Strategy

The handwriting has been on the wall – associations have consistently failed to fully resource their volunteer systems.  We have in the past 2 years innovated our education and digital strategies, our decision-making models and our workplaces. To a certain degree, we innovated our member engagement strategy as well – and left the volunteer strategy to age another year.  Here's a new volunteer management model for 2023 and what it looks like.

Read More >
By: Kara Nacarato | Nov, 18 2022
Best Practices

Considerations for Year-End Well Wishes and Gift Giving for Your Members, Customers, and Staff

As the holiday season and year end approaches, many organizations look for ways to acknowledge the season with their members, customers and staff. But this isn’t always an easy task and depending on your audience(s), coming up with the right messaging and/or gift-giving idea is crucial to ensure your well-intended gesture reaches your audience as imagined. Whether you are looking to say happy holidays, happy new year, or a simple “thank you” for your support, it is important that you take time to formalize the appropriate messaging and gift-giving options for your audience.

Read More >