Separating Yourself From The Competition: Harnessing The Power Of Added Value

In today's highly competitive business landscape, it's more important than ever to find ways to separate yourself from the competition.

The power of value added is a game-changer in this regard.

By offering unique and compelling value to your customers, you can differentiate yourself from others in your industry and build a loyal customer base.

But what exactly does value added mean?

It refers to any additional benefit or advantage you provide to your customers beyond the core product or service you offer. This can be in the form of exceptional customer service, personalized experiences, exclusive perks, or even educational resources.

The key is to identify what sets you apart and capitalize on it.

By understanding your target audience's pain points and desires, you can tailor your value added offerings to meet their needs.

Would You Like Fries With That?

Commonly labeled as upselling, popular restaurant practice asking if we would like fries with whatever we ordered can also be considered as adding value.

By definition, upselling is?a sales technique where a seller encourages a customer to purchase a more expensive item, upgrade a product, or add on extra features to make a more profitable sale.

But if the upselling also delivers real value to the consumer, it’s also an example of adding value.

The ideal value added scenarios are win-win situations: both the seller and the consumer benefit from the transaction.? For the restaurant the win takes the form of the additional revenue from the transaction, while customers enjoy fries with their meals.

Very early in legal training, I leaned about value added services.

Whenever appropriate in real estate transactions, purchasers were offered free wills.? Vendors were offered free will reviews.? The benefit to clients was the reassurance that their estate planning would align with the outcome of the real estate transaction.

For its part, the law firm enjoyed two inter-related benefits.

First, the free service will was a huge client-pleaser.? Satisfied clients, regardless of nature or area of service, represent the ideal and invaluable source of repeat and referral business.

And second, wills in a vault also represent the source of future revenue in the form of will revisions and updates as well as estate administration.

As my law practice grew, so did the opportunities to add value to my services.

One of my all-time favorites was the quarterly Preventative Business Practices seminar that I launched in collaboration with an accountant and an insurance agent.

Once a quarter, the three of would invite new clients to an event to learn about new developments in the law, tax and insurance.? We would take turns providing an update and then open to floor to questions.

These events became so popular that we started to charge a small fee, with the proceeds going to a local charity.

As was the case with the free will service, our clients loved the opportunity of learning new and preventive practices.? And as presenters, we welcomed the new business that each event generated for us.

Freebies & Value-Added Bonuses

The arrival of the Internet and digital technology, the opportunities to deliver value added services zoomed out of sight.

From simple blogging to complex online engagement and interactions, there is virtually no limit features and services that can help up us add value to our regular services.

From the Don’t Tell Them, Show Them Department, here are some examples:

• New Beginnings & New Opportunities: this is a free distribution eBook that I prepared early in the COVID pandemic.? My intention was to help service professionals position themselves to survive the pandemic.?? And by offering as a freebie, my intention was to offer a free sample of how I help clients.? Check it out.
• Late last year, as part of a series of articles about business planning, the concept of a SWOT analysis put in an unexpected appearance.?
• By way of follow-up, I offered my existing SWOT Analysis video course at a discounted price…and added another video course as a value-added bonus.? ?

Your Value Added Features And Services

How are your value added features and services working out??

Specifically, how satisfied are your clients with them?? How can the features and services be improved, enhanced to increase client satisfaction.

Similarly, how satisfied are you with your value added features and services?? How can the features and services be improved, enhanced to increase your satisfaction?

What’s that you say…you don’t offer value added features and services?

No problem… based upon your current understanding of these features and services, what benefit might you receive from offering value added features and services?

And what is one thing that you can do to start enjoying this benefit?