There are a number of times in business where you are
tempted to jump to a solution without really considering your customers first.
This is a big mistake.
Setting Your Price
Recently we were trying to figure out where to position
ourselves for pricing of some of our products and services.
The obvious first step is to look at what your direct and
indirect competitors are doing and use that as a baseline. You can then pick
the low, mid or high point and go from there. They must know what they are
doing, right?
Wrong.
You will end up competing on features and price alone. A
commodity.
Start with Value.
Training Your Sales Team
We’ve hired a Sales and Marketing professional. Prior to
this it was just me and one of my business partners doing the selling.
The obvious first step is to train that person on our
product and services and then set some sales activity targets. If they are
experts on our products and services they can sell them better to our customers
and the targets will keep them focussed on selling.
Wrong.
Your sales and marketing will end up being focused on you,
your company’s needs and your products… not the customer.
Start with value.
Start with Value
Starting with value shifts your focus to your customer:
- How will they be better off after doing business
with you? - What are the goals of the business or person you
are serving? - What problems do you solve?
- What pain can you remove?
- Can you monetize the value you bring?
- Can you reduce the risk of doing business with
you? - What are the soft benefits to doing business with
you? - How could you tweak your products and services
to add more value to the customer? - How can you communicate this value to customers?
Then and only then can you head to the next steps.
How do you start with value?
