It’s the VALUE, not the economy Stupid!

It's the VALUE, not the economy - Stupid!

Are you overwhelmed with all the tactics and tools that are available via social media and traditional media sources? Everyone seems to be a “guru” on this platform or that platform and has their “secret recipe” for building relationships and making money by investing your valuable time in the platform of the day. This week it could be Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIN or SnapChat, just to name a few. What do all of these platforms have in common? Clutter for one thing. . . post after post of meaningless gobbly gook or the politics of the day that all serve as distractions and compete with the messaging you are trying to convey to your audience.

So how do you spend your precious time differentiating yourself from the masses and do it in such a way that you have a chance at building a long-term relationship with current and prospective clients? Simple . . . provide VALUE and show you care!

What constitutes value? Anything that your target audience will deem interesting, informative and insightful. It can take the form of tips and trick; “how to” advice; “best practices”; tools to make their life or job easier; the list goes on and on. Some more common value delivery methods include eBooks, Videos, Podcasts, PDFs, Blogs, gifts (more on this later) and so on.

To be successful and stand out from your competition, you need to be committed to doing the hard work and providing value at all three stages of the sales process - before, during and after the sale.

Before the Sale - during your prospecting endeavors, you need to identify something of value that you can provide to your prospects that will get you noticed and solves a problem or creates and opportunity. For example, if you are engaging in direct prospecting (reaching out to someone that knows nothing about you - COLD prospecting, and you own a video company, perhaps you offer to produce two or three short videos for your prospect at no cost to them - zero strings attached. If you use lead generation tactics on your website and social media, offer a lead magnet (eBook, PDF, Video) that provides value to your prospective client.

During the Sale – this is the stage that we most often associate adding value or using “Value-add” selling techniques. The Urban Dictionary defines “Value Add” as a term used in service and retail industries, meaning to connect a service or additional product to a product at no immediate cost to the buyer. This cost is often included (read: hidden) in the base price, but is called out to make the customer feel as though they are getting more than they paid for.

For example, a local IT shop sells Dell computers and offers 24/7 service, telephone support and installation as value add items. What products or services do you offer and what can you add to the sale that provides real value to your clients? Wendy Connick in her article “Learn How to Add Value to Your Sales” provides some thoughts on this topic. You can view her article at https://www.thebalance.com/how-to-add-value-to-your-sales-2917448 .

After the Sale - your work doesn’t stop once the sale is made. You put a tremendous amount of time and effort into getting your clients, now is not the time to relax and slack off. We all know the numbers on the cost of acquiring a new client vs retaining an existing one. So it behooves us to find ways to keep clients happy. I am not talking about providing outstanding customer service, that should be a given. What I am talking about is what Gary Vaynerchuk calls “The Thank You Economy.”

In his video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbFJPsjAx28) he shares how his family’s wine company, Wine Library, once spent $350 on a gift for a first-time client that purchased a $117 case of wine that netted them $11 profit on the case. His Thank You Department discovered through the client’s Twitter feed that this client loved the Chicago Bears and was a huge Jay Cutler fan, so they sent him a framed autographed Jay Cutler jersey. Several weeks went by and no word of thanks from the client, however one day they received an order for $6,000 worth of wine. You see here is where word of mouth comes into play. The person ordering the wine was a friend of the man who received the Jay Cutler jersey! 

Now you don’t have to spend $350 on each client to show your appreciation, but finding what they love or are passionate about (through data mining their public social media accounts) and providing them something that reflects that, may go a long way towards retaining your client and growing their lifetime value with your company.

Most companies will not do what I just talked about because it takes tremendous effort, however if you are one of the companies that does incorporate a Thank You Department in your business you will surely separate yourself from the competition.

So to recap, one primary key to growing your business and maintaining clients is what? Providing genuine VALUE and showing you care every chance you can by putting in the effort and out-working your competition!

I hope these tips have been helpful to you. If you have any suggestions or feedback, please leave them in the comments so we can help each other stay on-time and maintain a great first impression.