How To Master the Art of Value Creation

So, I’m going to help you learn how to master the art of value creation. All people care about are the results that you can give them and if you’re not giving them any results it’s going to be a long walk home in the rain.

Some people love taking their time to help others solve their problem because they get to charge more money by taking more time to do what doesn’t really take that amount of time.

“What we are now seeing in the age of technology is much quicker leaps to results than ever before.”

If a plumber comes into my house and snakes my sink and charges me $67 for a full hour with a $20 service charge and hints that this is a bigger problem and tells me to give him a call if the problem persists vs. the plumber who comes out and tries to just sell the $1400 fix, what do you think I’m going to do? Pay the $97 and try to fix the long-term problem my way.

When I (inevitably) fail, I will probably call the guy that I think I can trust because he pointed me in the right direction for the least amount possible. The value was established in the relationship, not just the service. He did a good job on a smaller scale first, then scaled as our relationship grew. That’s value creation.

How long does it, or should it, take to do something and move on to the next thing? Less time, more money. We are all looking for the MVP or Minimum Viable Product in order to solve our problems. I’d rather spend less money and get my problem solved, even temporarily, than loads of money to have a big box of I don’t know what that can solve my problems. AT LEAST IN THE BEGINNING! Does that make sense?

That’s what successful people are doing in today’s marketplace and have always done. When I was an 18-year-old kid, I sold $2000 vacuum cleaners door to door. I would get in the door by offering to shampoo the carpet and then create value by pulling dirt out of everything, I will show them the dirt on these little pads, creating that $2000 value over a two-hour period. People were horrified! 

What does Minimum Viable Product (MVP) mean?

A minimum viable product (MVP) is a development technique in which a new product or website is developed with sufficient features to satisfy early adopters. The final, complete set of features is only designed and developed after considering feedback from the product’s initial users. Basically a product or software that is very specific and easy to use, rather than broad and complicated requiring much time and effort.

This concept has been popularized by Eric Ries, a consultant and writer on startups; most people recognize him as the Lean Startup Guy.

Techopedia explains Minimum Viable Product

A minimum viable product (MVP) is the most pared down version of a product that can still be released. An MVP has three key characteristics:

• It has enough value that people are willing to use it or buy it initially.
• It demonstrates enough future benefit to retain early adopters.
• It provides a feedback loop to guide future development.

The catch to this development technique is that it assumes that early adopters can see the vision or promise of the final product and provide the valuable feedback needed to guide developers forward.

This suggests that technically orientated products used by technical users may be most appropriate for this type of development technique.

We have come to this point in time in the information age that we think that we have to overload people with content in order to be valuable.

Position Yourself and Your Client For Success

Who is right, Google or Twitter? Does it take a 3000-word article (which is what Google wants from you to SEO well) or Twitter who says you should be able to get it done in 280 characters?

The truth is if you can get your customers results quicker than your competitors you are going to win the market. If you can get done in 6 weeks and 5 hours what takes your competitor 6 months 70 hours, and the cost is the same, who wins?

The problem we have is that we have an insane way of looking at things based on an erroneous curve. What if we cut out half of the content in our books and only gave students the things that they are going to really need in order to maximize their education or their degrees? Nobody wants to honestly think that not all of that information and all those classes are worth every penny or every dollar.

So then, here are a few things that you have to focus on in order to master the art of value creation…

1.) Talk about the Transformation and the Results

What is the desired situation of your market or niche… Figure that out and then you put together the system that will help them get that desired result. Nobody cares how much you know about the subject or how smart you are because it is not about you it’s about them. It’s about their outcomes, their transformation and their results.

As these transformations take place you have to become a student of not only their success but also of your own. This is why Apple continues to release new phones every 18 months and even send updates through out those cycles. Your products are not finished and are not as good as it going to be.

2.) Price on the Value

You want to figure out how much it is costing people to stay where they are at and apply a fix. What is the value that the service is going to bring to them each month? That’s what the value is and it’s ok to crunch numbers to satisfy that value. What I’ve learned is that things are actually much more expensive and time consuming than we even ever realized and we are usually undercharging, not overcharging. That is applicable only if you are genuinely helping your customers truly fix their problems.

If you are not, then your product or service is worthless, I believe most people have decent enough products they just have not figured out their MVP yet and they suffer much longer than is necessary because of that.

3.) Bare Minimum of You

Your system is what sells, not you. We become egomaniacs when we constantly think that everybody needs to buy us personally in order to get their problem fixed. The truth is that they don’t need you to fix all their problems, they need a solid system that they can put in place and then you can support them from a distance.

The plumber does not need to come back out himself as long as he provides a capable replacement who can do the job, a follow-up call securing the job, and the confidence of the customer. He is attainable but not quite and the client knows that.

4.) Allow Your Key Metrics To Show You Additional Revenue Streams

The inevitable question that people begin to ask you is “Do you also do _______?” Music to the ears of any successful platform developer, innovator, creator, artist, or service provider because now you have entrenched yourself as the authority or expert and you can either develop that solution yourself or outsource it and take a commission. This is never a bad situation.

Many people who started out in one niche allow feedback to become the indicator of where the business needs to actually be.

The plumber does not need to come back out himself as long as he provides a capable replacement who can do the job, a follow up call securing the job, and the confidence of the customer. He is attainable but not quite and the client knows that.

It’s OK To Put Your Value Into Different Packages

The path of least resistance is a great path but not the path that gets the best results.  The wonderful thing about longer paths to success is that they often weed out the pretenders from the real deal.

My under grad degree was in Biblical Studies, and my first job out of Bible college was as a youth pastor in East Los Angeles. The first two weeks of that job absolutely stunk because I tried to give my kids 4 years of Bible to help them fix some of their everyday problems. But then I realized I had to tweak what I knew and put it into a system and message that worked for them, on their level.

What happened? What do you think happened, my little group exploded and all of sudden I’m was put in charge of other ministries to see if my system and formula would work there. After some time, two prominent members on the board took me to lunch and offered me the whole church.

Give fantastic value in the front end and then massive value in the middle (another offer) and then finally the backend (a back end offer). We tweak our massive knowledge and position into a great front end offer and when the customer understands it and applies that into a result and starts getting wins, then you get them the next level. Obviously the next level is where it’s at but folks have to grow into that, more results and more wins. If you try to force that people will just distrust you.

Quit Trying To Force It

People forget that natural laws are the most powerful forces that we live under every single day. They do not bend or break for anybody and of these natural laws, GROWTH is one of the absolutes of something when it is healthy.  We don’t have to force things to grow, nor should we try to force things to grow too early by over watering or over fertilizing because then it will die. Every plant and every human starts out the same way, as a seed.

The front end offer should never be chincy and should absolutely solve a problem for your client but not necessarily everything. If you give all that information in a complete box that they unpack all at once most people will fail… but a couple different products broken down in proper order will continue to give your customers massive value and give you the best chance to helping them transform and get the value creation that they really want.

This also gives you the best chance to take all your knowledge and wisely break them down into simple offers that work best for your client over time and not try to get them all in at once. Ryan Diess over at Digital Marketer taught me that all business is still h2h (human to human) and not b2c or b2b, etc. When we act like humans interacting with humans a lot more can happen in some really simple, but yet profound ways.

I don’t know about you but I want to make an impact on people’s lives and add as much massive value to them as I truly can. Let’s be better creators and innovators, not for the sake of marketing but for the sake of enriching people’s lives, families and businesses at the very highest level that we can… quit marketing and start simply being human again.

I currently am offering a free training that goes into more detail and showing people how to do all of this effectively. Getting massive value into the market is only going to end one way… successfully! So if you have a few minutes join me at my How to Grow Your Platform and Explode Your Business Training… click here to join me at my next webinar.