If you’re an outfitter, we’ll go out on a limb and say you probably didn’t get into this line of work because you’re in it for the big bucks, or that you’re wild about pivot tables or pricing models.
Instead, you’re here because you truly love rivers, trails, snow, tall trees, and the look on a guest’s face when they step out of the boat, or clip off the zip line, or walk back into the lodge feeling ten feet taller.
As evidenced in our fireside chat with America Outdoors Executive Director Aaron Lieberman below, the outdoor adventure industry is built on people who are, “loud, passionate, bullish, stubborn, compassionate, earnest, and principled.”
And at Zebulon, we see each and every one of those beautiful traits on display every day – especially the passion. Our work is about protecting that passion: defending it, preserving it, and sharing it with our people.
That’s why we’re in the business of helping outfitters understand, in very concrete terms, their value proposition, and then helping them create more of it.
What A Value Proposition Really Means For Outfitters
Your value proposition answers one core question: Why should a guest choose you?
Why should they choose your trip, at your price, in your corner of the world, instead of any other option? In our experience, most operators start answering that by describing what they do, rather than why they do it. “We run Class IV whitewater on the Arkansas River” or “We offer guided snowmobile tours in the Pacific Northwest” or “We have quaint riverside cabins and a great restaurant.”
Arguably, these “what” details do matter – sure. But, the “what” is not the heart of your value proposition. Guests are not just buying miles of river, or hours on a snowmobile, or the view from a cabin. They are buying the why.
Maybe your real value proposition sounds more like: “We turn nervous first timers into confident conquerors in a single afternoon on the river” or “We give families who live on screens a day outside where they actually look each other in the eye.”
That why is what they remember, what they tell their friends about, and what makes them come back.
Your Guests Decide What Is Valuable
If you’re thinking, “But how do I define my value proposition?”, we’ve got a plot twist for you. YOU can’t. Only your guests can.
If grad school taught us anything (hey, we are a team of MBAs and CPAs, after all!) it’s this:
- The business owner, manager, or operator is not the authority on value. The customer is.
- You do not get to decide what is valuable. But your guests do.
Whenever someone stands at the front of the room and declares “this is valuable,” the market has a funny way of correcting them. Ever noticed that?
In essence, your job is not to declare value. Your job is to first communicate your “why,” next use your “why” to attract customers, and then embrace your inner Sherlock Holmes (deerstalker hat is optional) to sleuth out your true value proposition as demonstrated by your customers.
Every purchase made, every conversation at check in, every comment guests make at the takeout, and every online review left afterward, is a clue. Your guests are constantly telling you what they value in your offer, your company, your guides, and your ethos, if you’re only willing to listen.
Make Time for Clarity of Purpose
In the fireside chat below we discuss how, if America Outdoors wins a big policy fight on permits or liability, but members don’t know about the win or feel its positive repercussions, then AO hasn’t delivered the value its members need.
As Aaron sees it, AO and individual outfitters alike need “clarity of purpose, process, and identity” to realize their full value proposition potential.
Well, guess what? The same is true for your trips. Until the guest feels the transformative nature of it and can put words to it, the value is still hiding.
Using Financial Strategy to Uncover Value Propositions
Once you begin to uncover your true value proposition, everything else starts to click into place.
From a financial strategy standpoint, a concrete value proposition helps you:
- Price your trips with confidence instead of guesswork
- Decide where to invest in gear, people, and property
- Choose which offerings to grow and which to retire
- Focus marketing on the guests who love you most
In our work providing Financial Planning & Analysis to outfitters across the United States, we see the same pattern. Owners underprice experiences that change lives, then try to make up the difference with volume. They chase any booking they can get, even if that guest is not a good fit.
A clear value proposition lets you flip that script. You discover which guests you serve best, design trips and messaging around them, and then set prices that support healthy wages, sustainable operations, and future investment.
Your Data Is Full Of Clues About Your Value Proposition
This is where Zebulon’s inner data nerd comes out.
We built our Central Data Hub so outfitters can finally see their numbers clearly, no matter what combo of RezTechs you’re using. Revenue by activity, cost per excursion, passenger volume, lodging, retail, food and beverage – you name it. All those numbers become breadcrumbs in your Holmesian value prop investigation.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that data patterns tell a story. By keeping our fingers on the pulse of your data – and all of your data together, not just separate silos of it – we often make “Eureka” discoveries that lead to a much more robust concept of an outfit’s true value proposition.
Embodying Value Propositions In The Eddy
At it’s core, our Eddy peer group and its hand-crafted, year-round curriculum exist to help outfitters discover, sharpen, and live out their value proposition.
We start the season with “Start With Why” and our Zebulon-original “multi-vision” exercise, so owners and leaders can reconnect with what they want to create for themselves, their businesses, and their communities.
We move into delegation and responsibility charting so leaders can spend more time developing that value and less time buried in tasks someone else could better shoulder.
We spend a month each on employee engagement, grading, and mentorship so your team understands the promise you make to guests, and how their role supports making that promise a reality.
Value is not simply created in the owner’s head. True value is harvested in the daily behavior of your staff, and group members plant those seeds with intention every time they log onto an Eddy meeting.
A Commitment to Communication
In our chat – you can watch the full video below – Aaron talked about AO’s long history of advocacy work for outfitters across North America. From public lands policy, to waiver language, to big bills like the Explore Act, AO has won major victories that directly protect your ability to operate.
The challenge they face is familiar. For years they did the work behind the scenes and hoped members would see the value. Today, they are making a promise to tell that story more clearly. Aaron’s message is that AO wants to clearly represent the people it serves, and to advocate fiercely to put tools in outfitters’ hands that they can actually use in their businesses.
That is value proposition work at a national level. Together, AO and Zebulon are trying to make sure outfitters not only survive, but thrive, protecting their passion and using it to generate greater value.
At the end of the day, your value proposition is not a bland line in a business plan. It is the lived promise that you make to every guest who trusts you with their time, their money, and their loved ones.
You already change lives for a living. When you name that clearly, and commit to building a stronger business around it, you’re protecting and reviving the passion that brought you here in the first place. If you’re ready to discover your value proposition, then create more of it, we’d love to hear from you.
