What is your commercial offer? Why should someone hire you? Does your offer, or Personal Value Proposition, match the needs of the employer?
Your Personal Value Proposition (PVP) is a statement you make about yourself and your work history to convey an understanding of how you work and what you have to offer a prospective employer.
It is sometimes referred to as the “30 second elevator pitch” which is best employed when someone doesn’t know much about you. It is also one of two good responses to the question: “Tell me about yourself”.
Depending on the circumstances, stage in the recruitment process and nature of the meeting, you need to convey all of your PVP wholly or in segments, directly and/or indirectly as the relationship develops.
Your PVP is also your personal checklist on whether an employment offer meets your key needs on culture, tasks, potential and workstyle. So, what are the key elements of your PVP?
A good role, one in which you can thrive, requires three key features to be aligned with your employer, partner or clients. Three aspects that must align to you needs for you to thrive:
Values
Your values must match those displayed by the employer, not those claimed by the employer. Otherwise, you cannot maintain commitment.
Role
Your suitability for the role must be supported by:
- Your “commercial offer” or Personal Value Proposition; evidenced by your track record of achievements and experience
- Your aspirations; the next role should serve an identified purpose for you
- Your style: you must be suited to the type of role and work environment.
Fit
The nature and style of the key people in your immediate work space and reporting chain must be compatible with your personality, otherwise success is unlikely.
Understanding what you can do and who you are, is essential to communicating your offer to a prospective employer or client. It also assists with confirming the degree of match with your key VRF issues which helps you decide whether you have a good chance of thriving in that role in that organisation.
This is your personal value proposition (PVP)
Typically, the content of a PVP statement would be similar to:
- I have been working in this field for x years and at ZZZ for the last y years performing tasks and projects.
- My core skills include
- And I work best: << >> type of environment and with << >> types of teams and types of people.
- My major projects and successes include << >>
- where I performed << >>
- and achieved the desired outcomes of << >>
- I am successful in what I do because I << >>
Key issues to address include:
- How long have you worked in this field? Work History
- What made you get into this field in the first place? Interests
- How you like to work and interact with others: Personality
- How have you expanded your knowledge in this field? Commitment
- What gets you out of bed in morning to do this work? Motivators
- What would be the one key thing you bring to my team apart from your technical skills? Your unique offer.
- Examples of what do you do best: Credentials.
Accordingly, you must be able to articulate your personal values, your work skills and your personal style.
Useful content comes from your:
- Personal style
- Values
- Reputation
- Skills
- Hard technical skills and know-how; identified from your key achievements.
- Soft skills and people management.
- Achievements; track record, key successes.
Now develop the list of skills and attributes you want to use to convey your PVP.
- Create a list of your recent roles and technical know-how skills built up from your training and experience. This is your technical capability.
- Gather a list of words that describe your personal style and attributes.
- Create a list of your “soft skills”, (your interpersonal skills).
- Combine these into your PVP.
NOTE: Your PVP is not a rigid, unalterable speech but self-knowledge about these key facets. This self-knowledge enables you to convey the messages in part or whole, depending on the circumstances.
In other words, self confidence about who you are and what you have to offer.
If you want to chat to us about shaping your personal value proposition do not hesitate to contact us