Tom Bailey 0:07
Hello and welcome to succeed throught speaking the place for experts and entrepreneurs who want high value ideas to boost business results. Hello, I'm Tom Bailey. And in today's episode, I'll be getting to know Jose Palomino, who's the CEO of value prop interactive, and is the author of the book also titled value prop. So Jose Hello, and a very warm welcome to today's episode.
Jose Palomino 0:39
Oh, glad to be here. Thanks, Tom for the invitation.
Tom Bailey 0:42
Amazing, and whereabouts are you joining from?
Jose Palomino 0:44
I'm on this in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. So on the east coast of the US.
Tom Bailey 0:49
Awesome. Thank you so much. And I try to share one last thing about you before we did get started. So Jose believes that the ability to convey your distinct value proposition is a key to your success in business. And he shares the three key principles of effective value propositions, and also how to get yours into shape. And therefore the title for today's episode is how to effectively convey your value proposition and posts gonna show us how to do it in just seven minutes. So question number one today is who are your ideal clients,
Jose Palomino 1:24
typically small to mid market b2b company. So companies that either make things or industrial services very much in that in that category b2b could be professional services, but primarily tends to be more on the the the industrial categories.
Tom Bailey 1:41
Excellent, great. And is there a standard challenge that you say that they face generically across
Jose Palomino 1:46
the board? Yeah, actually is that same word generically, is actually a good towel. There. They are. Everyday dealing with the battle to D commoditize. To be not be seen as just another one offering a very similar service to lots of other companies their size as well.
Tom Bailey 2:05
And I guess I'm being seen like everyone else, what impact might that have on their business?
Jose Palomino 2:11
Well, they seem like everybody else, then what happens? four distinct things happen? Sales slowed down, right, so they don't get as many sales. Yeah, margins are always being pressured. Always. Yeah, sales cycles take forever, including things like, hey, we just got to think about it a little further, or something like that, if you had and, and then of course, just lead flow is slow. Because, again, why would anyone blow to you if what you're offering is the same as everybody else? You have generic category?
Tom Bailey 2:37
Of course, that makes complete sense. So for those people listening that feel like they might fit into this category of your ideal client? And what's that one piece of advice that you might give them to help them stand out in the marketplace?
Jose Palomino 2:49
deeply understand your customers biggest problem? Yeah, what a lot of small companies do is they deeply understand what they do. And they should, they should know what they do and how they do it. And they want to tell the world about how we do it. But it's much more important at that size company that you really have a better understanding this, you can get a better understanding of your customers challenges. Because then you can align what you do to them, and you'll sound and feel like you're something different, even if you're actually doing the same exact thing as somebody else.
Tom Bailey 3:21
I heard the other day someone talking about the principle of start with why and but it's not your why it's your customers, why is your absolutely brilliant? What's what's in it for them? I guess? And, and okay, so for anybody that's, you know, starting to connect to this message a little bit, what would you say is one resource that you can offer or share to help people solve this problem?
Jose Palomino 3:41
We have a number of them there at value prop.com, forward slash guides, and we've made a number of guides around things like targeting your customer making critical decisions, because everybody in the category of that small to mid market company, they really struggle with a lot of these things that we've tried to make it real easy for them to figure some of this stuff out even on their own.
Tom Bailey 4:02
Yeah, great. And I'm just gonna throw a random question in here that hadn't been prepared before. But and, you know, I noticed in the bio that it says that you have three key principles of an effective value proposition okay to dive into those right now. For
Jose Palomino 4:15
sure. Absolutely. So a value prop in is probably there's more than three, but three that particularly is an easy test was are you bringing anything new? So is it innovative? Is it actually indispensable? Is what you're doing useful over time? Yeah. And is it somebody inspirational. So you have to really work at then you say, Well, gee, we bend the metal, how is that going to be inspirational? It's inspirational relative to what your buyers used to see. Yeah. So if you've ever seen anybody geek out over like a gaming station, and somebody else standing next to them, like mom or girlfriend, a boyfriend thing, that's, that's boring to me seeing that stuff, but to somebody who's into it, it's not boring, and that's the whole point. You have to make it a little Sisley for somebody who is in the space and would know the difference
Tom Bailey 5:00
Yeah, at the sizzle, all of that. Great. And and so for anyone that wants to find out more or take that next step, and have you got a URL or a link that we can provide today that'll get people to get access to that.
Jose Palomino 5:13
Absolutely, they could just go to our website at value prop.com. That's vluerop.com. And you can also find me on LinkedIn as Jose Palomino. And I'm pretty easy to find on LinkedIn as well happy to connect with anyone.
Tom Bailey 5:25
Excellent. And what I'll do, as well as I'll post those, all those links in the show notes as well. So people can go and download the guides and get access to your website as well from there. So more a question to yourself, then what would you say is one of your greatest either mistakes or failures or learnings that you've had either in life or in business? And what did you learn from it?
Jose Palomino 5:46
Yeah, I think earlier in my career, not wanting to ask for help, because receiving that to be seen as weakness, and then learning and one of the best companies I work with. And this is fairly early in my career, but I had an opportunity to get some outstanding training. And they came up with a mantra that they trained everybody 10,000 employees, and it was never die alone. So the whole point is, and it really became part of the culture is like, if you don't know, something, ask, and that's become definitely a kind of a life Coda for me in terms of, oh, I don't know, something I asked even a client. I don't understand something. They tell me. I don't pretend I say, could you explain that to me? I never worry about what they might think about. Gee, shouldn't you already know that? I'd rather know. And so that's something I really learned. And it's very empowering, actually. And most people just appreciate it.
Tom Bailey 6:34
Yeah, I love that. And, you know, a lot of a lot of time here that the best leaders, you know, surround themselves by people who know more than them. And, and you know, that's okay to have that network around you. Absolutely. Right. And the last question for me today is what is the one question that I should have asked you today, that'll also bring some great value to our audience?
Jose Palomino 6:51
I think, what's step one, right? So somebody's listening to this thing. Like, what? Where do I start with all this? Right? Where
Tom Bailey 6:57
do we start?
Jose Palomino 6:58
Where do you start with the customer? Yeah, or the customer, the natural instinct is to start looking inside at your own stuff. How do we make it more efficient? How do we make it faster and all that can be necessary? Start with your customer? Do you really, really know your customer? Yeah,
Tom Bailey 7:15
yeah. I love that great advice. And, yes, start with why but make sure it's your customers why? And so Jose, thanks again, so much for your time today. I really appreciate you went on and sharing lots of great value with our audience.
Jose Palomino 7:26
My pleasure. My pleasure. Thank you.
