If You Don’t Build Value Now, You’ll Lose Customers Later

Quantified value has been an underlying theme both with me and with several of my clients lately.  First let’s define what we mean by value. 

Value = what I perceive it’s worth – what I pay you. 

If the Value number is a positive and high number – that’s a good thing.  If it’s low or even negative – that’s a bad thing.

So how do we make this equation work to sell more things to more people more often?

1. What pain or frustration does your customer feel if they don’t use your product or service? (if you’re FedEx, missing a deadline, losing a new customer, how much is a new customer worth?)
2. What benefit do you provide your customer? (cleaning service: 5 hours of free time)
3. How does using your product or service improve the life of your customer? (Amazon.com – shopping for obscure books on your time, not driving to a bookstore and ordering books – 1/2 a day)
4. How will (specific) things be different? (web conferencing service – save travel dollars)
5. What happens if your customer does nothing? (they continue experiencing what they currently have)
6. How will using your product or service affect performance? (new computer system; faster processing)
7. Will your customer save time?  In what ways will they save time?  How much time?  How much is this worth to them?

They key with these examples is to focus on key results and experiences that your product or service impacts.  Don’t be afraid to attatch dollars to benefits.