Will They Choose You? The Value Proposition Test

Losing work to someone cheaper and not sure why? Usually it's because your value can't be compared. This turns what you promise into something a client can actually check.

A four-page fillable PDF that converts a value proposition into claims a buyer can actually score.

Procurement takes a proposal apart into claims, and against each one it needs a unit, a number, a method of measurement and a consequence if you miss. Anything that will not convert is moved to the column marked qualitative, differentiators, or nice-to-have. That is where you are not counted, and your bid then gets scored on price and delivery date.

This is the instrument that does the conversion before they do.

WHAT'S INSIDE

The conversion — claim, unit, number, who measures it, how often, and what happens if you miss. A claim that stops before the last box is a forecast.

The six steps — split the claims, name the unit, put custody on it, write the remedy, write the exclusions, price the risk. Each one with the trap underneath it, because an unbounded commitment cannot be priced, and your own finance team will refuse it, correctly.

The six tests — units, custody of the number, consequence, exclusions, transferred risk, and the hostile read. Give it to someone paid to say no.

A worked example — one proposition before and after, with a number the seller can fail every month against data the customer controls.

Instrument No. 06 of The Assignment, published Monday 2 November 2026. A new task every Monday.

Who made this

I started Sweet Peanut, a Vancouver baby-clothes company, in 2006, grew it into more than 1,500 stores, including Harrods and Nordstrom, across four continents, and sold it. Before that I spent ten years in advertising at BBDO, Cossette and McCann, finishing as VP and General Manager of McCann Vancouver. Since then I've run my own consultancy, taught business school for sixteen years, and written marketing textbooks for Pearson.

Education, not legal, tax or financial advice. For your own business; please don't share or resell. If you coach or teach and want a licence, email me.