Value proposition workshop agenda

The shape of the day

Morning, buyer evidence. The session opens with what your customers said, gathered before the day. Recent wins and recent losses both, because losses are more informative and less comfortable. The group listens before it talks.
Late morning, the choice. Who is the buyer choosing between, and what happens if they choose nothing. This is where most of the disagreement surfaces, and surfacing it is the point of having everyone present.
After lunch, writing. The group drafts the proposition together rather than delegating it to whoever writes well. Delegating it is how you end up with something nobody in the leadership team will defend.
Late afternoon, pressure testing. Every line gets challenged as a buyer would challenge it. Anything defended with an adjective goes back.
End of day, agreement. One version, said out loud by each person present without reading from the page.

Where it gets difficult

Two points, reliably. The first is the buyer evidence in the morning, when a leadership team hears why people bought and it is not the reason they have been telling each other. The second is late afternoon, when the group has to give something up in order to be specific about who they are for.

Both are the work rather than an interruption to it.

What to prepare beforehand

Your last ten wins and last ten losses, with the names of who decided. Access to a few of those buyers so I can talk to them. Whatever you currently say on your website and in your deck, so the group can see the gap between the two.

Questions people ask

Can it be a half day?

Half days produce a nice line and no decision, because the argument that has to happen tends to happen after lunch.

Should customers be in the session?

Interviewed beforehand rather than sat in it. People are more candid one to one than in front of a supplier's leadership team.

Who has to be there?

Whoever can approve the answer. If that person cannot make the date, move the date.