The Value of Value

Every brand under the sun says something. You recognize it and associate it. This brand building mechanism begins in the value. Value is not just a B2B word. We shop at Wal-Mart because of the low prices and how you can “€œrent”€ stuff and bring it back. Sweet right? The promise of low prices and customer service is an inherent thought when shopping at Wal-Mart. Branding, value and configuration all play a part. These three words should be on sticky notes and in frames in your office. You should talk about them at the water cooler and dream about them at night. How will you deliver a promise to the customer? Why people should buy from you = value. First let me say you can have more than one depending on how you are using it. You should only need one and simply show the different sides of it as you use it. Remember what we sell, b2b or consumer, are things to solve someone’s problem. First know the demographic and their expectations, and then target ONLY them. Wikipedia links value to an equation:

Value = Benefits / Priceor alternatively:

Value = Quality received / Expectations

The reason for loss sales in B2B sales is a weak value proposition. Everybody has the best product using cutting edge technology that’s guaranteed to last for a lifetime. Simply put aside from the self promoting puffery what can you offer your customers? People don’€™t like to be wrong, especially if they’€™re customers. Does your value proposition give them a reason to leave their current brand? How do you convince them that you have a better offering? Never tell or come off like they’re wrong about the brand they’€™re using. Tell them a different story, a story so enticing you write your own check. When we were primarily doing design, namely flash, nobody in the area could compete with the talent we had on staff. We also could deliver in under two weeks and we were just plain nice (or at least I made sure of it!). When we moved more toward corporate entities, we focused on bringing raw data and first hand customer data directly from customers. Depending on the situation, we run with whatever is most important to the people we are after. This is why you don’€™t necessarily have to have only one prop. In closing, your value should be a sentence or two and convey everything about your offering. It should be so good, and I mean oh so good!! After this change(which is well worth it), you’€™ll feel notice a humongous difference, because you will truly know the heart of your business: The True Value!