Creating an Impactful Professional Value Proposition

Written by:

Ernie Humphrey

Constructing and refining an elevator pitch are about as much fun as writing a resume, but the risk of not having and delivering one can keep your career on ice. I have always found it challenging to create and manage my own elevator pitch, so I began to ponder how I could help all professionals create and manage an elevator pitch. This blog shares the “secret sauce” for anyone to create an impactful value proposition in 15 minutes or less.

I have come up with five questions that people can ask themselves to discover the ingredients to craft an impactful professional value proposition:

What good things do your current or previous boss(es) have to say about you?
What good things do your current or previous colleagues have to say about you?
What good things do your current or previous team members have to say about you?
What good things do your professional peers have to say about you?
What good things do your banks/treasury services providers/technology providers have to say about you?

The following are 5 steps anyone can use to create a quality elevator pitch (professional value proposition):

Ask yourself the above 5 questions and write down your thoughts.
Review your LinkedIn recommendations and see if you see trends and how they describe the value of what you have done and how you have done it.
Define 3-5 key attributes that define how you deliver value in your professional life.
Communicate with your top 3 job references. Ask them if they were called asked about you relative to the next job on your career path, what three things would they all say about you?
Reconcile the information from your conversations with your references, your thoughts, and key trends you see in your LinkedIn recommendations to create/improve your professional value proposition (elevator pitch).

Here are the three pillars of my current professional value proposition:

I have a unique and unparalleled professional background: I have worked in academia, I have worked at a publicly traded corporation, I have worked as a senior leader at a leading professional association, I have worked at a start-up, and I have founded three companies.
No one knows the Office of the CFO like Ernie: I worked as the Director of Treasury Services and as a Director of the Corporate Treasurers Council for the AFP, I helped build the largest online community of senior level financial professional from the ground up at Proformative, I currently serve as an Executive Director for the CFO Alliance, and I have developed, moderated and moderated hundreds of webinars and dozens of seminars developed to improve the performance of corporate financial professionals in addition to overacting with thousands of them in speaking at conferences over the past 10 years.
I have a passion to learn, educate, innovate and collaborate: You can sense my energy and passion as soon as you meet me. I am a recognized thought leader in many areas including treasury, working capital management, expense management, professional relationship management, acquisition integration, online marketing and educational program development and delivery. I have risen from entry level to senior management positions in multiple disciplines. I will share my innovative piece for when I meet you in person!

An impactful value proposition is an asset to any treasury career. It speaks to what you have accomplished, how you do it, and the value of working with you and investing in building a relationship with you.

Stay tuned for the next blog in Managing Your Professional Brand in Treasury series!

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