Why you should revisit your value proposition after raising Series A
Raising your Series A means demonstrating you have found Product-Market Fit.
“We’ve developed a product. We’ve found a market that will pay us for that product. Let’s grow.”
So it can sound odd that now is the time to reassess your value proposition.
Don’t we just pour more fuel on the fire and go for growth?
I often come back to a quote from Job van der Voort, CEO of Remote which he made at SaaStr Europa 2023.
“Every time your company doubles in size, you need to think of it as a new company”
As a leader, you cannot look back and marvel in how far you have come, you have to look up at the size of the new challenge in front of you.
Having raised Series A, the new challenge is building a predictable, repeatable and consistent go to market function that will grow you from $3m ARR to $10m ARR and help you secure Series B funding.
That is going to require selling to an expanding set of customers, through an expanding set of channels and sellers.
Mapping a value proposition using a canvas
With my clients I like to use the Value Proposition Canvas from Strategyzer.
It is a simple backdrop to work from, and complements the Business Model Canvas that helps you map out a full business or product strategy.
The canvas is split into two halves.
Start with your customer segments
As you scale up from your initial customer set (sourced from your network, based local to your HQ, or through referrals) you’ll start targeting new segments:
Moving from SMB into Mid-Market or Enterprise
Moving from Enterprise into Mid-Market or SMB
From selling to one core user to a buying committee
From selling one use case (Sales) to another (HR)
From your domestic market to an international one
From selling direct to selling via a partner
From selling SaaS to selling additional services
Each of these different customer segments has different jobs to be done and challenges that they face.
If you attempt to scale up your founder-led sales operation into these new segments you’ll find decreasing levels of success as your PMF dissolves in the face of differing needs.
You’ll want to create a Value Proposition Canvas for each customer segment - different industries, different customer size, different geographies perhaps.
And you’ll also segment based on role - a CFO has a different set of priorities to the user, while the user has a different set of priorities to the administrator of a platform.
You may have more than ten customer segments - that is normal.
For each of these segments - you’ll work through:
Their jobs to be done - what does this role need to do (regardless of your specific product)? - sell products, buy products, raise money, hire employees, support customers.
Their gains - what are their ideal outcomes - something is easy to use, something that helps them sell more, something helps them hire faster, getting promoted, building a great CV.
Their pains - what prevents them from succeeding in their role - something that is difficult to use, something slows them down, something that makes them look bad, wasting money, employees leaving.
Map your Products and Services
Now you move to the left side of the canvas, adding in your products and services aligned to this specific customer segment.
Not every product or service you have will align to every customer segment - and this is why you have created multiple canvases.
There is no point trying to map your Enterprise security and governance products to an SMB free licence user.
For your specific customer segment, list out the specific products and services that are aligned.
Consider your SaaS products, any onboarding services, consultancy, or ongoing support services.
Now you’ll look at the two most important parts of the Value Proposition Canvas:
Gain creators - how do your specific products and services provide a gain to your customer that meets the customer gains you listed on the right hand side of the canvas?
How is your product easy to use?
How does it help them to sell more?
How does it make them look good?
Pain relievers - how do your products and services remove the pains from your customers that you listed on the right for this customer segment?
How does this product not slow them down?
How does it reduce attrition?
How does it prevent users getting confused?
Different customer segments have different value propositions
Having gone through this exercise, it quickly becomes apparent that your different customer segments require different value propositions.
An SMB customer takes very different value than a global enterprise
A legal representative takes a very different value from the product administrator
A channel partner takes a very different value from the end customer
These canvases can now direct your Go To Market teams in creating very bespoke content and processes that speak to the needs of each segment.
Create buyer enablement content for each customer segment
Buying is complicated.
It often feels like a journey through a dark tunnel with a small torch.
Vendors only show you what they want to show you as you get close to it.
You only see pricing after a demo
You only see the contracts after you shortlist the vendor
You only see the onboarding plan once you start negotiating
With the value propositions you can start to create content and buyer enablement tools that support each customer segment’s gains and pains and provide this to them upfront through your website.
Some suggestions:
A security micro-site for Infosec teams
An FAQ on the MSA and Order form for the legal teams
A requirements checklist for the administrator
A typical onboarding project plan for IT
A configurable business case model for the CFO
Revisit your Value Propositions after raising Series A
This all feels a long way from your founder-led sales into a single persona at a fellow portfolio company of your seed investor.
Instead of putting one foot in front of the other, take the time to go back to basics and redefine your value propositions before you start burning that hard won funding.
And if you need a hand running the process, I run these workshops for Series A teams.
Get started
Whenever you are ready, there are three ways that I can help you accelerate your revenue.
Buyer Experience Audit - I’ll impersonate a buyer researching your segment and company and let you know what I find. Ideal for planning your Revenue Operations strategy.
Business Model Design Workshops - I’ll work with you and your team to design or refine a business model for a new or existing product.
RevOps Impact Playbooks - I’ll help you implement one or more tactical processes across your revenue teams - content, referrals, testimonials, adoption and more.