Proving Value

Positioning your business and execution are key to realizing value

Showing, delivering, or proving value is what business deals on. Deals don’t get done without perceived value. Value is the measurement of the utility of the goods, services, ideas, or support you are providing. So what? You may have never thought about it in your business, but potential and current customers accepting your value is what drives your growth, or lack thereof. Firms need to learn how to articulate and prove their value to gain traction and establish a sustainable business. Victors grab value, while the losers lack value.

Official Definition

We’re not talking about principles or standards, although those support business value by offering the fundamentals for trust, which is the bedrock of business. For the purpose of this week, we’re talking about worth, or monetary use.

Importance of Value

Without value, you have no business. In the long run, it doesn’t take an economist to realize that lacking value, is lacking a future in business. Sure, in the short term you can sell anything, but over time that’s not sustainable. You must bring forward a reason to buy whatever your thing is. Value is the background for that reason.

Value or potential value is a differentiator in what makes people invest in your business, buy your product, or trust in your service offering. It’s the underlying basis for trust.

Selling without value, voids trust. You’re selling beachfront property on a cliff, at a steep discount when you sell without value. It’s like selling a car without a warranty of some kind.

Value isn’t always obvious, and many times you must educate your clients on your value. Don’t expect them to just get it. They often don’t, as they see you as every other provider, unless you show and prove a reason why you are different. Value also differs based on the basis for the value assessment and the factors considered for each firm. That’s value. Proving why you are better than the next firm, and your potential or current client realizing it.

How do you prove or establish value?

You must find ways to establish the following fundamental vehicles for value:

• Credibility

• Trust

• Rapport

• Coach/Consultant mentality

• Showing results and performance

• Fill the need with your service or good

• Delivery above what you cost

• Financial, potential, opportunity, and intrinsic properties

Value isn’t forever - it’s always up for interpretation and reduction or growth. Everyday value is earned and acknowledged through striving for excellence and delivery, every single day.

How to establish value

It’s not always concrete so you must find the formula that works for your customer or industry. The recipe for value realization is yours to create based on your market.

Here are a few ways you can show value:

• Showing your character by doing what you say you will do

• Delivering free value to earn right to get paid, establishing genuine willingness to help

• Explain and show that your “cost” or investment saves money, time, streamlines process, or generates growth

• Make it so clear that they feel stupid to say no

• Show what you provide that is different or above and beyond your competition or the market

• Make connections for them by finding professional ways to share what you have done, who you work with, and the results you have generated for business outcomes (references, case studies, warm introductions, memberships, social proof)

• Be yourself, with genuine confidence in what value you provide

If all else fails, you need to look in the mirror and see if you believe your value and are doing all you can to articulate it and prove it. If these approaches aren’t working, sometimes you need more chances at the plate, meaning a higher level of activity. In other cases, maybe you need to improve your ability to communicate your value.

Personal Experience

Explaining, showing, and proving value does have some personal nuance. Not everyone has the same style in how they explain or deliver value. I have seen amazing business people that are all over the place, unorganized, and even their delivery is no different. But it’s part of their unique charm and likeability, and in some ways it’s their own genuine form of consistency and communication, it’s just different to others. In some cases, these are the best at forming partnerships. Lack of detail and polish is actually a super power because it allows for partnership and vulnerability in a natural way. Focus on people versus process in an extreme sense.

What works for me? Leaning on credibility and confidence with market presence. For me, it’s a sustainable approach of establishing my name in a pool of potential clients and ensuring that when they need help, they know who to call.

Above all, delivering value through formidable execution- that’s what matters. Action and execution is where the magic is, backing-up the value you have been explaining.

Hopefully, this added a little value to your business or your career. Thank you for reading. Please repost or share with someone who may benefit from this edition.

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