Today, when so many products and services are viewed as similar commodities, it’s more important than ever to clearly identify what is your Added-Value so you can articulate it to potentail customers. Here’s some of the added-values that may apply to your company:
- Providing expert advise for better purchase and operational decisions. A client sells a certain category of fuel; talk about a commodity! Making life more difficult for the client is that the industry includes a few much larger companies, who can afford to profitably sell their fuel at prices below his wholesale price! So how does he compete? By helping clients think through related buying decisions that weren’t core to a specific transaction, but affect purchasing in general. This includes: estimating volume needs over time alllows the company to buy when market prices might drop (e.g., hedging), addressing storage opportunities, offering appointments to save wating time, etc.   What issues related to the use of the products and services that your clients use can be expertly provided by you?
- Bundling. Can you combine service/products into a cost-effective and convenient pacakge?
Think of McDonald’s Happy Meal: The company sells more than the basic burger and the client gets the entire bundle at a price below that of the individual components.
- Â Offering levels of service. By creating multiple service pacakges at different price points, you can meet clientss needs better. Packages may include different quantities and qualities of product/service (e.g., Bronze vs. Gold ACA health plans), and vary related issues, such as turn-around or delivery times. Dedicating staff to help specific clients is another example
- Frequent Flier Programs. Adding extra benefits to the high volume customer – gives them a reason to stay with you, and reduce your cost/dependency on new customers. Today’s automobile industry has generated very little loyalty among many low and mid-priced brands – leading the price/leasing competition as the differentiator.
What are some of the ways your company differentiates itself through added values? Share some of these practices. If you’re stuck, contact us and we can brainstorm with you!