People think about value in a lot of ways, but the common denominator tends to be money. Weigh the benefit you expect to get from a product or service over its cost, and the difference is value.
That’s not wrong.
But if you want to elevate the value of an offering in the eyes of your customers — which, of course, you do — here’s a different formula for you:
Value = Joy – Pain
Value is Emotional
The equation is emotional, not numerical. It makes sense, because buying decisions are made emotionally. Yes, that includes B2B, even med tech.
In his book Under Think It: A Marketing Strategy Guidebook for Everyone, Adam Pierno explains how it works:
“We essentially weigh the joy we derive from a product. This is heavily skewed by the perception of the brand. [Our emphasis] Once our brains score how much joy the thing will provide, we begin deducting points for pain […] If the pain doesn’t cut too far into the joy, we act. We click. We subscribe. We buy.”
When you calculate the value equation this way, you’re forced to go beyond features and benefits and look at the bigger picture.
You think holistically, considering the entire universe around your offer.
That could include delivery times, training packages, warranties, maintenance, education, access to experts and manufacturing capabilities, not to mention the experience you’re delivering with your website, social presence and other communication channels.
Let’s say you’re a small medical device company and you’ve got an amazing product. What you haven’t got is the resources of the big players. Maybe you rely on channel partners for service, training, even manufacturing. Maybe you don’t have the most sophisticated, content-rich website.
You can still create immense joy in your offer. But you need to be clear on where you’re potentially inducing pain, and reducing value, and have answers for those things.
And juice up the joy. Have a story that wins, shape a brand that speaks to your audiences, be the company customers love to work with.
We can help with all that and more. Ready to amp the joy and improve your value equation? Let’s get in touch.