The Process

This checklist provides an overview of what you need to consider as you develop your association’s value proposition statement.

1. Gain approval. Tell leadership why this is important and get their commitment to support this initiative from development through implementation.
    
2. Identify target audiences. You may target more than one group when developing your value proposition. For example, you may want to focus on brokers, large producers, and specialty groups. 
    
3. Determine if you’ll do the research yourself or if you’ll hire a third party to assist with this process.
    
4. Do your research. Determine the method you will use to collect input from your important member groups. Use a survey to get an overall satisfaction ranking and uncover what’s most important and/or a focus group of a diverse collection of your members. The goal is to verify and then clarify member's greatest needs, and determine whether your association delivers exceptionally well in those areas.
    
5. Collect and analyze data to find similarities in the two to three target member groups you chose. Look for similarities and the most relevant needs that all of the member groups have in common.
    
6. Consider your competition. Which of your possible messages do the best job at differentiating you from your competition?
    
7. From your research results, brainstorm key message themes that answer "Why would a member choose our association over another?”, "Why should a member open our mail?” or "For what should a member look to our association as the go-to source?” Link up what your association does best with what members say they need the most.
    
8. Develop your value proposition. Begin creating your message and identifying two or three value proof points that tell members the benefits your association provides. Your value proposition can be a few lines of text, a paragraph of content, or a mix of the two. Work to make it short, but rich with their words.
   
   DISCLAIMER: A value proposition is not what you want to do well. A credible value proposition is a promise of what you deliver on today. You can work to improve in an area of business to include later, but it cannot be part of your value proposition if it’s not something you do very well today.
   
   Refer to the Core Standards Value Proposition for messaging examples.
    
9. Before finalizing your value proposition, take the message to your leadership to explain the process so that they understand that this effort begins and ends with the member, using member's words and answering "so what?” in a clear and simple way.
    
10. Tell a story with graphics. 

A picture says a thousand words. Putting your value proposition into a graphic format with words and pictures together will help to convey the message. This can range from a small graphic "logo" of your value proposition to an overall design for your value campaign.
    
    Download Core Standards Value Proposition Graphics and User Guide.