Writing a Value Proposition That Isn't Generic
Most value propositions could describe five other companies. A working method for writing one that actually couldn't.
The Generic Trap
"We help businesses grow with innovative solutions." Read that sentence again — it could be the tagline of a marketing agency, a SaaS product, a consultant, or a bank. That's the tell of a broken value proposition: if you could swap in a competitor's name and it still reads true, it isn't actually saying anything about you specifically.
A value proposition's job isn't to sound impressive. It's to make the right person immediately think "that's for me" — and just as importantly, make the wrong person self-select out quickly, before they waste your time or theirs.
A Formula That Forces Specificity
This won't produce your final marketing copy, but it forces the specificity a good value proposition needs, which most founders skip past on the way to sounding polished too early.
The formula
For [specific customer] who [specific problem/situation], [product] is a [category] that [specific outcome] — unlike [alternative], we [specific difference].
Every bracket has to be filled with something a competitor couldn't also claim. If "unlike spreadsheets, we're easier to use" is your differentiator, that's not specific enough — nearly every software product claims that.
Worked Example
Generic vs. specific, same underlying business
| Version | |
|---|---|
| Generic | "We help small businesses manage their finances more easily." |
| Specific | "For solo contractors who hate bookkeeping, Acme is invoicing software that gets you paid in 3 days instead of 30 — unlike QuickBooks, we don't require you to understand accounting to use it." |
The specific version names an exact customer (solo contractors, not "small businesses"), an exact pain (hating bookkeeping, not "managing finances"), a measurable outcome (3 days vs. 30), and a real point of difference against a real, named alternative. A reader either recognizes themselves in it immediately or knows immediately it's not for them — both are useful outcomes.
Where the Real Answer Actually Comes From
The specific version above didn't come from a brainstorm — it came from actually knowing what a solo contractor's real day looks like and what they say when they describe the problem in their own words. If you have any customers, existing or from user interviews, the strongest raw material is the exact language they used to describe why they wanted this. Founders who write value props from imagination tend toward generic; founders who write them from actual customer conversations tend toward specific, almost by accident.
Test Your Draft
Run your current value prop against these
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