Selling Values, Not Price

During the past 2 years of business I have learned that selling the values behind our services at Spoke is a much more effective approach compared to selling our services based on simply on price.

As small business owners and entrepreneurs we are constantly evaluating and fine-tuning our products or services but we tend to shy away from how we talk about and improve our salesmanship. Broadly, sales encompasses pricing, messaging, and market differentiation. I find that early-stage and well-established businesses both struggle with this concept of selling. More specifically, the simple model of “this is what my costs include, thus this is what you (client) pay” is not truly a sustainable, long-term selling model. A more effective selling model is one that includes selling to value rather than selling the inherent costs (time, technology, over-head) of those services directly.

When I’m pitching Spoke’s services, for example, I know that I’m not really selling our services but the value behind those services, for that particular potential client. I’m selling the improved market exposure that can be derived from a more active web presence. I’m selling an increase in quarterly earnings due to improved website navigation features that resulted from our UX audit. I’m selling the confidence a client feels when showing up to an industry conference with newly-rebranded marketing collateral and matching business cards.

A few things to keep in mind with selling to value:

1. If you’re struggling to determine the value in your services, consider the human emotion that directly ties to the result of your service — confidence, trust, pride.
2. Your value is often derived from the outcome that you provide to the client but there are also instances where your value is derived simply from the process of delivering your service. For instance, the process that we use when creating a new logo and brand identity is research-intensive because we want to understand how the current brand is influencing the client’s audience before making any changes. That end deliverable is obviously valuable to the client but the process and lengths that we take to make sure that the deliverable is a good fit for the company is also where much of its value lies.
3. When working under an agency retainer model, your value is often derived from accessibility. Rather than a project-based approach that involves a rapid start and then an abrupt “stop”, the retainer provides value in it’s ongoing access to your company’s resources, knowledge, expertise, tools, and industry understanding — whenever the need arises for the client.
4. Your name recognition can also hold an extremely high amount of value when selling your services. Most people prefer to use services if they believe that they can trust in a brand name. Alternatively, if your name is unrecognizable or little-known, you may have to strike your selling proposition in some other value.
5. Your value will probably change over time as your company grows and as your services evolve. If you work within a variety of markets and industries, your value can even change from client to client. Small business, for example, work with Spoke because we can offer a high-quality service value at an attainable price-point. Alternatively, large businesses work with us because they like the intimacy and trust that they develop with our small, personable staff.