Regardless of the kind of business that you have, customers will always base their purchasing decisions based on the perceived value of the product or service that you offer.
It is, therefore, critical that you know how to highlight the perceived value of your business in the best possible way. Remember that you are just one out of hundreds and hundreds of businesses that offer more or less the same product or service, so an excellent perceived value will just help you stand out from your competition.
Perceived value in a nutshell
Perceived value is the only reason why people will ever buy your product or service. Period.
Think about this: before you book a vacation, purchase a gift or dine in a restaurant, you would most probably do a bit of research. You go on trip review sites, read amazon or yelp reviews of previous diners in that specific restaurant. You gather ideas about the best options available out there. You do all of these things because you want to have an “idea” of what these services or products can offer to you in exchange of your money and time. In other words, this is you trying to gain a perceived value of a business.
Every single time your customers go over your products or browse through your business website, they will always ask these questions:
“Is this product worth my hard-earned money?”
“Is this service worth my time?”
Obviously, it is your job to get people’s answers to these questions on the affirmative. You want both present and future clients to perceive the undeniable value of your products and services right from the get go. If you fail to communicate with your target audience the worth of your business, then do not expect that you will get their loyalty, trust, and support.
How is perceived value formed?
There are two ways in which perceived value is formed:
Based on the information you offer them
This is the reason why you spend so much time marketing your products and services. You work so hard building your website and distributing whatever marketing collaterals you have because these are effective in promoting the value of your products and services. Simply put, people will not know about your business if you do not actively make them aware of it.
What pieces of information about your business can you highlight to make your brand stand out?
What is that ideal impression that you want your products and services to leave on people?
Based on the way you make people realize how your products and services can make their lives easier
Will you be able to convince your potential customers that your products and services are great additions to their lives or even enough to replace what they are currently using?
One way to do this is to provide free or discounted trials to people.We do this here at the $100 MBA, offering a free course to our visitors as well as a complete trial of our program for $1.
Plenty of businesses out there offer trial periods and other freebies just so people will have an idea of the quality of the products and services they offer. The goal of these trial periods is to convince people that this particular product or service is SO good that they are left with no other choice but to become paying customers.
People need to be convinced that they will be experiencing a greater cost if they don’t avail of what you have to offer. Person A should realize that without your service, he or she will miss out on a very relaxing weekend, for example. Person B should be convinced that without your product, he or she will have to settle for something else, and that “else” is something that is never good enough for you.
This is your chance to put forward the positive impact that your business will make in the lives of people.