You will be able to run a short test that shows whether your value proposition is understood and wanted.
Farah was about to spend S$300 (an example figure) on ads for her online workwear shop. The headline was ready, the photos were shot, and she was sure the words were clear. The night before, she showed the ad to a woman from her block who had never visited the shop. The woman read it and said, "Oh, nice, is this for weddings?" Farah had written about workwear. Her reader saw occasion wear. That one answer saved her from paying to send hundreds of people a message they would have misread.
A value proposition is a guess until someone outside your head has read it. This lesson shows you how to run a short test before you spend money, and all it costs is a few conversations.
The test is simple. Show your value proposition, the headline and supporting line from lesson 4.1, to someone from your target group. Then ask them to tell you, in their own words, what you offer and who it is for.
Don't ask "is this clear?" or "do you like it?" People say yes to both out of politeness, and neither answer tells you anything. Asking them to say it back forces them to show you what they understood. If they describe your business the way you meant it, the words work. If they describe something else, they don't, however good they sounded to you.
When someone misreads your value proposition, it's tempting to explain what you really meant. Resist that, because every reader who sees your ad or website will be alone with the words, with nobody beside them to explain.
Instead, listen to how they describe it and note the words they use. Often the misreading points to a word that means something different to customers than it does to you, as "elegant" and "occasion" did when they made Farah's reader think of weddings. When she asked the same woman what she would call clothes for the office, the answer was "work clothes that are still modest". That plain phrase became the start of her next headline.
Rewrite the value proposition in the customer's words, not in more polished words of your own. Customers recognise their own language faster than they recognise yours.
The second question is the one most people forget: what would stop you from trying this? The answer tells you which proof is missing.
If a parent says "I'd want to know the teachers are qualified", your value proposition needs a credential. If an online shopper says "I'd worry about the size", it needs a size chart or an exchange policy near the top of the page. If someone says "it sounds expensive", they need to see the price, or something that makes the price feel fair.
Each objection points to a gap in proof. Collect them across your test and you have a list of what to add, ranked by how often it came up.
Friends and family are the easiest people to ask and the least useful. They know you, they want you to do well, and they fill in gaps from what they already know about your business. A cousin who knows you run a maths centre will understand any headline about maths. A stranger reading the same words on a phone at a bus stop may not.
Where you can, test with people who fit your target customer and have no reason to be kind. There are several places to find them. Online communities where your customers already gather, such as a neighbourhood Facebook group or a parents' Telegram chat, often have members willing to give two minutes of feedback if you ask politely and explain why. Past enquirers who didn't buy are another good source, since they were interested once and have nothing to protect. For a physical business, customers in the queue or waiting for a class can be asked while they wait, if you keep it short.
Check the rules of any group before you post, and don't collect personal details you don't need. You only need the answers, so leave names and phone numbers out of it.
If the only people you can reach this week are friends, test with them anyway and treat the results with care. A friend who still misreads your headline is a strong warning. A friend who understands it is weaker evidence.
Five people won't give you a statistical sample, but they are enough to show a pattern. If three of five describe your offer the same wrong way, you have learned something real. If all five say it back correctly and raise the same objection, you know what proof to add. You don't need a hundred people to find out that a headline is confusing.
Before you run the test in lesson 4.4, you need to settle exactly what you'll ask and where you'll find your five people, and the activity below is where you do that. Write the questions so that each one asks people to describe or predict, never just to approve.
Write the three questions you will ask in your test and the place where you will find five people from your target group.
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