What makes a prospective customer choose your product or service rather than going with some other company? Do you imagine it’s the great customer service you provide? Is it the wonderful relationship your sales rep establishes? Of course, these positive features will influence a prospective customer’s decision, but there is another aspect of your business that ultimately trumps all others: The unique value you offer in terms of product, service and expertise. This finding was revealed by CEB Global, and is discussed in a previous RefuseOrdinary article.
The concept of value is difficult to nail down, and I will explain why:
Imagine you’re a coin collector, and you have the opportunity to buy 3 unique coins from me, each in mint condition.
The first coin is a 1967 Kennedy half-dollar. The second is a 1972 Eisenhower silver dollar. The third coin is a 2000 Sacagawea golden dollar. Which of these would you be most interested in purchasing, and for how much, and why?
There’s no question that the coin collectors reading this article would not be interested in all these coins equally, nor would they pay the same price for each coin because the value placed on any item is subjective and sometimes extremely personal.
For me, the 1967 half-dollar stands out among the others because it was minted the same year as the half-dollar my mother slipped under my pillow when I lost my first tooth. For this reason alone, that particular coin has unparalleled value for me, and I’d be willing to pay more for it than the other two.
So how can you make sure your organization is providing unparalleled value to a potential customer?
Using the acronym “BID” as a guideline, ask yourself these questions about your products and services:
- Bold: Does your company boldly tackle a difficult challenge commonly faced by your target market? Are your results equally bold, or do they only address the problem minimally?
- Innovative: Does your company employ cutting edge practices, methods, and techniques?
- Difficult: Is it difficult for your prospective client to achieve similar results using only their internal resources? And is it difficult for your competition to replicate your solutions and your results?
Your company’s representatives can also provide unparalleled value by understanding the unique needs of each client, and when appropriate, share relevant industry insights for addressing those needs. In some cases, the unique value is amplified when a hidden challenge is uncovered in the process.
Here’s a real-life example—a case study featured on our website—of how this works:
Mark is a Regional Managing Director for Randstad USA, a very successful and prominent recruiting firm. He oversees three state territories with a young team of recruiters whose average age is 25-27 years old. He needed to get his numbers up as quickly as possible. He was short on time, resources and bandwidth. He scrambled for a solution and then decided he had two options for solving this difficult situation—either hire me or engage the services of an internal company trainer.
Which of the two of us offered unique value for Mark?
Each of us was able to deliver a unique combination of sales and productivity training in a one-on-one coaching format.
Mark valued his previous experiences of working with each of us.
The internal trainer had a longer track record of providing comprehensive trainings for Mark’s company, and I’d previously provided Mark with smaller trainings, and had also been a former recruiter with another company for 3 years.
Given these points, as far as Mark was concerned, he could have chosen to work with either of us.
Keeping cost down was also of value to Mark, and my bid was somewhat over his budget. For this reason, it would have been a no brainer for him to go with his internal company trainer, but he didn’t! Here’s why:
Again, Mark oversees a group of recruiters whose average age is 25-27. During our conversation, he learned about my having worked with, managed, and led hundreds of millennials in the course of my career. I’d overseen 3 separate internships, one of which placed within the top 10 sales internships in the nation. Using a similar coaching system I was offering Mark’s company, I’d also helped one of my interns achieve a production level that positioned her in the top 4% of her industry.
All these combined facts tipped the scales in my direction, and Mark concluded that what I had to offer was of unparalleled value to him. As a result, the first recruiter we put through the program received a 166% bump in personal billable production—in less than 60 days.
I’ll leave you with a couple things to think about:
- What unparalleled value could your organization bring to a particular market? Which markets would be the best fit for your company, and in what ways? Be specific.
- Consider how you go about presenting your company’s products and services to prospective customers. What aspects, including your information-gathering process (through the questions you ask) could stand to be refined or clarified, to insure that you reveal the unparalleled value of your organization in every presentation?
These questions are well worth exploring, and it’s imperative you identify your organization’s unparalleled value—for your own clarity. In doing so, you’re likely to bring your key points and findings front and center (and come out on top) next time you’re in the running against some “other” guy.
