What Are You REALLY Selling? -- Day 7/365

"Real People.  Real Business.  Real Life."

Do you ever hear people use a word --- and you can tell they don't really know what it means?

Perhaps they have a shallow understanding ... or a confused understanding ... or no understanding at all?

Can you think of some examples?

...

One such word I hear on almost a daily basis -- which there is much confusion about -- is the word "value".  And in the world of small business... where your enterprise exists to deliver "value" to the world (and by deliver I mean sell)... confusion or misunderstanding about what "value" means can be lethal to your success (and survival).

As entrepreneurs, we must absolutely understand

why our market is willing to pay us for our product or service.

People are willing to pay you because you offer them something they value.  And value is in the eye of the beholder.  Look at it this way...

The guy who buys the expensive sports car, at a deeper level, isn’t really buying the car itself. Even if he’s not conscious of it, he’s buying what the car represents --- the image of success, the expression of power, the aura of sexiness … you get the point. The concrete object is secondary. The benefit it brings, intangible or otherwise, is the primary force driving the sale. 

That benefit -- or more appropriately set of benefits -- (intangible, tangible, emotional, experiential... whatever) is the value you offer.  The value you offer is why people will trade their time for money, and their money to get what you can give them.

This is true for a someone selling cars.  This is true for someone who fixes plumbing problems.  This is true for someone who gives kids piano lessons.  Wherever someone trades money for a good or service of any kind, this is true.

TAKEAWAY:  The more deeply you understand the real, value-related reasons why people buy from you, (1) the more effectively you can give them more of what they really want, and (2) the more effectively you will be able to sell them more of what they really want.

ACTION STEP:  What are you REALLY selling?  Grab a sheet of paper.  Start listing the things people receive from you in exchange for their money.  Start with the most concrete, most outwardly observable elements of what you deliver.  Then dig deeper, and deeper, and deeper... listing everything you have sold them from tangible, to intangible, to experiential, to emotional... until you can't come up with anything else.  Your list might start with "pitching machine" and end with "hope that they can achieve the dream of going pro someday" Then figure out what you have listed that your market values the most.  Figure out how to give them more of that.

Topics like this, frankly, are ridiculously important --- but often totally overlooked.  You have to know - REALLY - the value that you are selling to your market.  Until you are absolutely and totally clear on this, your performance will be marginal, compared to what it could be.

To Your Enduring Success,