Your CV is not your value proposition

A record of competence is not a reason to buy

Your CV answers a retrospective question: what have you done? A value proposition answers a prospective one: what can you change for this buyer, under these conditions? Both matter. They perform different jobs.

Start with the decision the buyer faces

Choose a recognisable buyer and a consequential problem. Specify the cost of leaving it unresolved, using the buyer’s evidence rather than an invented industry average. Then identify the outcome you can influence and the limits of that influence.

Translate the experience

Replace “twenty years in transformation” with a clear account of the work: who needed to change, what prevented progress, what you did and what changed. Preserve the distinction between what you led, what the team delivered and what other conditions contributed.

Use a proposition you can test

Try this structure: I help [specific buyer] address [expensive problem] through [credible approach], with progress assessed by [observable measure]. Ask three relevant buyers where it becomes vague. Rewrite before designing another slide.

Your next move

Take one past engagement. Write the buyer, problem, intervention, result and evidence in five short paragraphs. If the result cannot be substantiated, label it honestly and choose a stronger case. Precision does more for credibility than adjectives.