Author of
The Gauntlet
Offering your product or service as the lowest priced alternative is a simple, efficient strategy.
Price is obvious to all buyers. It’s clear, direct and easy to evaluate. It’s often the same for everyone. Offering the lowest price is seductive.
But doing so makes your offering a commodity – discounting your expertise, diminishing your brand, and setting you up for a one-way journey down in revenue and profit. A purchase becomes just another transaction, producing no enduring value for the customer and contributing little to the sustainability of your business.
The opposite, more challenging strategy is to sell the value that your product or service creates for the customer.
Value is different for every customer. It’s derived from the benefits and knowledge generated by your expertise in employing your product or service. It resolves a short term pain in a manner that contributes to the customer’s opportunities and achievement of their goals.
Selling value requires a greater investment of time and energy to discover why resolving a customer’s short term need is important for their long term success. It provides the opening needed to leverage your experience and competency, to propose solutions that overcome obstacles and create enduring value for the customer. It changes a commodity transaction into an investment in their future, transforming you from peddler to partner. And in doing so, it strengthens the sustainability of your customer relationship and your business.
How often do you sell price versus value?
