Small Business: Improve Business Results When Staff Understand How Important Value Is To Customers

Summary. People ask "How much is it?" and "What's it cost?" for two reasons: to find out if they can afford "it" and to decide whether the price or cost is good value. In other words, is "it" worth the money? Value is what really matters to consumers. And that includes consumers of ideas.

Consumers Determine Value. It doesn't matter how highly you value your product, your service or even your idea. If the person you're trying to convince doesn't see value in their terms, there'll be no sale. More importantly, the value you see is unlikely to be the value the prospect sees. And what counts is the prospects' idea of value.

Logic, Reason and "Common Sense". Unless you're absolutely certain that you and the prospect value logic, reason and common sense equally highly, forget these three concepts. They may help you to convince yourself of the value of your product or service. They won't convince the prospect.

Money As Value. "Value for money" is an ancient catchphrase. But it doesn't mean that value is only, or even mostly, expressed in monetary terms. And what's good value for money for one man may be poor value for money for his brother.

What's Included In Value. Value includes social status, ease of use, convenience, relationships, technical knowledge and understanding and lots more as well as cost or price. Prospects may ask and discuss cost. But value includes much more.

Value As A Solution. Perhaps the least commonly perceived value of a product or service is its value as a solution to a problem. Even prospects may not include this idea of. problem solution when asked how they assess value. But it's always there. There's an underlying problem or concern beneath every buying decision even though prospects may be unable or even unwilling to articulate it.

The Key To Expressing Value. When you discover the problem that the prospect wants to solve, you're halfway home. When the prospects see what you're offering as a solution to their problems you're almost home. You may still fail to "make the sale". There may still be elements you can't do anything about. But you'll be far closer to successful completion than the person who doesn't offer a value based solution to the prospect.

An Exercise For Staff. Ask your people to describe, preferably in writing, a major purchase they've made recently. Then ask them to write down why they chose that particular product over others. Ensure they avoid phrases like "value for money", "technical reliability", "reputable brand" and similar clichs.

You want them to think about why satisfying the concepts behind these clichs is important to them.

Finally, ask them what problems their purchase solved. When they realize the solution value of their purchase, they'll have learned a lot.

Other Staff Development Ideas.

Distribute this article to your staff, discuss the contents with them and ensure that they grasp the difference between value and cost or price.
Ensure your staff are well trained in effective listening, paraphrasing and non-threatening questioning techniques. Prospects' values will only be successfully unearthed by careful and respectful questioning.
Conduct exercises at which staff can consider your products and services from your customers' or prospects' perspectives. Compare these perspective with the "official" corporate position.

Conclusion. "Value for money" means different things to different people. Monetary value is only part of total value. When you and your people clearly understand this, they'll be well on the way to discovering and solving prospects' and customers' underlying problems. When that happens, you'll gain a great competitive edge.