I read "Winning in the AI Era: Secrets of Marketing Yourself": Creating a Unique and Key Value Proposition
I just started to read “Winning in the AI Era: Secrets of Marketing Yourself (opens in a new tab)》When I read this book, I actually had some objections to the title, because the original title was “『あなた』という Product を高く売る Method - キャリア戦论 をマーケティングから卡える (opens in a new tab)”, translated into Chinese, its approximate meaning is “How to sell “you” at a high price - thinking about career strategies from a marketing perspective”, which has nothing to do with artificial intelligence (AI) at all!
After reading it carefully, I understood the key point that the author of this book Takahisa Nagai (opens in a new tab) wanted to express - if “you” are regarded as a commodity, how should you stand out among many competing products and create a hot-selling and long-selling career?
Instead of worrying that your job will be taken away by artificial intelligence or other competitors, you should first find ways to empower and add value to yourself, learn to use marketing techniques, and become a sought-after talent without a fight!
People who can win in competition are actually people who “avoid competition”.
The author of this book is a best-selling and prolific author. Other works include: “Business Enlightenment from a Cup of Coffee: Mastering the Secrets of Profit and Innovation from the Most Saturated Market (opens in a new tab)”, “How to sell a hundred yuan Coke for a thousand yuan: defeat the marketing master’s flash sales method (opens in a new tab)”, “Win back your life! The time investment rule to create an extra 2,313 hours a year (opens in a new tab)” and “[By the way, let’s sell stars! How to create a new business model in the “hard-to-sell era”? )” and other books.
“Winning in the AI Era: The Secrets of Marketing Yourself (opens in a new tab)” This book only has about two hundred pages, and I read it quickly! The unit that impressed me the most was the part where the author talked about Value Proposition. In this book, he explains in detail how to formulate the correct competitive strategy and value proposition, so that each of us can effectively market ourselves and leverage our strengths.
Speaking of value proposition, I believe many friends are familiar with it. Wikipedia (opens in a new tab) points out that value proposition is the value that a company can provide to consumers through its products and services. This promise value must be based on meeting the needs of customers or potential customers and achieving the purpose of personal or business profit. In other words, if you can solve certain problems or satisfy customers’ needs, you will provide value.
In the past, I often introduced value propositions to students in some courses, and I was surprised to find that although many people understood the concept, they could not easily find a good way to create a value proposition. I think the author of this book (opens in a new tab) is very unique and worth referring to.
The author tells us that in order to win without a fight, you must create your own value proposition. At the beginning, think about what you can provide, not limited to what the other party wants. If you find that there are other options for what the other party wants, you must start competing. In the end, if you can become the only existence that the other party cares about, you can win without fighting.
Simply put, the structure for creating a value proposition is as follows:
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What strengths should you use (your own strengths)
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To whom (target)
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What kind of worries (needs) are targeted?
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How to respond (own work)
In other words, if you can closely connect your strengths, goals, needs and your work through this structure, it will not be difficult to create a unique value proposition!
This is no longer an era when you can rely on companies. No one can guarantee that your company will still exist five or ten years from now. If you don’t take the initiative to think about your own career development and only think about settling down in the company, if the company cannot survive one day, everyone will feel uneasy and scared. Therefore, business people in the future must think about how to build “yourself” and make yourself a popular commodity.
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Further reading
- I read “The Yield of Thinking”: Strengthen the four thinking skills and develop business thinking
- I read “First-class people read, where do they draw the line?” : Deep Thinking Techniques for Elite Reading: Don’t draw lines on existing beliefs, but absorb the unknown
- I read “Narrative Arc: Pulitzer Prize judges teach you to write good and popular interview reports”: My review of the interview writing career
Next step
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Vista Cheng speaks and runs workshops on AI workflows, writing and content systems for companies, schools and public agencies.
