Adding Value Adds To The Prosperity Of Your Business
Your customers purchase from you for their reasons and never for your reasons!
Consequently, the more you know about your customers, the easier it is to communicate effectively with them. The more you know, the more loyal the relationship between customer and business. The more you know, the easier it is to “add value” through your products and services.
What do we mean by “add value”? Anything you (or your sales people) do to serve customers beyond their expectations is added value. This may require some out-of-the-box thinking when interacting with customers. Value-added selling is all about creating a pleasant surprise for the customer. It should be a fun and exciting way to exceed expectations.
Value-added selling is NOT dropping your price when the customer reacts negatively to the price tag. That’s discount selling.
Value-added selling is important for several reasons:
It allows you to separate both yourself and your business from the competition. . .
It creates a positive impression in the minds of customers. . .
It improves your “word of mouth” advertising. . .
It creates an up-beat, positive attitude at your place of business. . .
And it helps you keep more of your customers and earn more money from each of them.
There are dozens of ways you can add value to your daily interactions with customers. Here are a few ideas:
Send hand-written thank you notes. In the age of email, do you notice that few people send hand-written notes anymore? An email is nice, but a letter is different.
Use the telephone to follow-up. “How did that work out for you?” is a question that you could ask your customers. They’ll appreciate your attention to detail.
Send articles of interest to your customers or clients. “Saw this in our daily newspaper and it made me think of you.”
Deliver it for free. Why make your customer come to you all the time? Why not offer to stop by and deliver the product, free?
There are countless other ways that you can add value to your customers’ experiences. Think of two or three that would really make a difference for your business and put them to work!
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