How many times have you made a deal but barely made any money? Not making money on sales can close a business overnight. Stop discounting. Make more money by using this method instead: Value-based messaging.
How often have you heard your sales team say, “We need to discount our products to keep up with our competitors.”
Many business owners believe deals are the best way to entice their customers. While deals have their place, using this method will diminish your product’s value. Deals get your customers to focus on price rather than the value of your offer. This puts you in a race to the bottom with competitors who compete on price.
Once you use discounts as the focal point of your messaging, it sets up an expectation to wait for more deals. Customers are savvy. They’ll sit back and wait until they receive your discount email.
So how do you create value through messaging? We’ll give you three things you can do today to start changing your messaging to be value-based instead of based on discounts.
Step 1: Check Your Reviews
Many people wouldn’t think to start here. However, this is a treasure trove of benefits your customers say they enjoy about your brand. Start looking at your reviews and find words or phrases that are being repeated. What do customers find most beneficial about using your service? For example, if they say your company was communicative throughout the entire experience, use this information to create a value proposition centered around strong communication.
Step 2: Highlight Benefits, Not Features
One of the problems companies make is focusing on all the latest features their product has to offer. For example, “this product is made out of titanium steel,” or “this equipment uses 3.5 MHz of electricity.” For many consumers, their response to these facts is “So what?”
Features have their place, but if you’re trying to build value, you need to show how your product benefits your customers. If you’re trying to highlight that your product is quiet, explain the benefits this provides for everyday life. Create messaging illustrating a peaceful environment. Describe how customers will come home every night to a calm, quiet home so that they can relax with their families.
Once you use discounts as the focal point of your messaging, it sets up an expectation to wait for more deals.
Step 3: Showcase Stories of Transformation
Many companies mistakenly make themselves the hero of their brand’s story. Your customers are the hero. They don’t care about you as much as they care about what your product or service can do for them.
An excellent way to build value through your messaging is by sharing stories of the transformations customers experience with your brand. This creates trust. Once customers see how others are being transformed, it builds excitement for them to have the same experience. When they understand a transformation will occur, they are less likely to be focused on price. Instead, they’ll be envisioning the change they’ll experience and will be willing to pay whatever price you set.
Once customers understand the benefits, the transformation, and what you do better than everyone else, you’ll be able to sell based on value. The next time one of your salespeople says, “Hey, we need to add more discounts on the website!” here’s how you can reply:
How much value have you been building with our customers? Did you clearly articulate what we do better than anybody else? Did you explain how the benefits will improve their life? Did you show the transformation that our other customers have experienced with this product?
If you apply these three steps, you’ll see a drastic improvement in your product’s value and an increase in your average order value. Most importantly, your business will no longer be part of the race to the bottom.
Not sure where to begin? Contact Superkick Branding to schedule a free 20-minute consultation.