How To Get People To Buy From You

How To Get People to Buy What You Have

A mini course on value perception in 5 sections

Probably the most important lesson I've learned as a business owner and marketer?

Value perception.

One of the biggest pain points of my coaching clients is struggling to convert their success as a corporate employee into a booked-out consulting practice or small business.

While they know they have value to offer, they struggle to get their potential customers to see it too. I believe that if you can fully grasp the concept of value perception and apply it to your business, absolutely everything else will be easier.

If you're a s e rvice-based entrepreneur, consultant, or freelancer and are selling yourself — your knowledge or skills rather than a product — then this is for you.

Welcome to my mini-course on value.

Part I: Thinking about value
Part II: Defining your value
Part III: Communicating your value
Part IV: Delivering your value
Part V: Measuring your value

Part I: Thinking About Value

Have you ever struggled to articulate your value and explain why your potential customer should pay what you ask?

Of course you have. Everyone has. When you're so close to your work and your message, you can easily develop a blind spot around the true value of your services from the point of view of your customer.

A common mistake I see made by businesses of all kinds is not understanding the real value they're offering. They talk constantly about product features or processes and how unique they are. They think value means low prices and are stuck in a race to the bottom.

But people don't buy things because of features or processes. They buy things for the benefit they'll see in their own lives. They buy them because they want some kind of transformation or result.

Value is created when you identify a need and create something to meet that need. Value is about going to a group of people who feel that need and telling them: I see you. I understand. I made this just for you.

It's about positioning something you have to offer as being useful and extremely important to have.

The easiest value propositions

Two easy-to-sell value propositions are money and time. They're both useful and extremely important to have. Money is the tool we all need to start the engine, and time is the world's truly non-renewable resource. Pretty much everyone understands in a millisecond the value of having more money. Some people understand the value of paying to have more time.

So an easy value proposition helps your potential customer to understand how your work helps them make money or save money, either directly or indirectly. Especially if it's adding profit to their margin.

Sometimes we can lose sight of this basic idea, especially if you work in a creative business. Your customer is not buying what you do or how you do it. They're not buying how long it took you. They're buying the benefit or the result: more money or more time so they can invest in other things. And therein lies the true value.

Understanding your own value builds confidence and prevents you from having to compete on price alone. You'll be able to position your services as a benefit rather than a cost.

Part II: Defining Your Value

Defining your value is about understanding all the benefits that make up your offer from your customer's point of view.

So we have our two easy-to-sell value propositions: money and time. Pretty much everyone understands that having more of those will benefit their lives. But our world doesn't run on just time and money alone. And in fact, focusing too much on money might devalue your services by making them seem purely transactional.

There are other types of value you want to consider when defining your value. We can think of them in the context of these five human needs.

The five human needs

The need for good health. We only get one body for life, and so we need to take care of it. My chiropractor in London understands value perception very well. His practice is called 'Body4Life.'
The need for happy relationships. Getting divorced or being cut out of a will can lose you money. But that's not what motivates people to maintain happy relationships. The dating and relationships counselling industry is booming because you can't put a price on love, friendship, and connection.
The need for certainty and security. We want to live lives free from worry, stress, and pain. If someone offers to sell us peace of mind, we'll pay handsomely for it.
The need for significance. We all desire to be seen, to feel special, and for our lives to have meaning. Understanding how you can offer just a tiny slice of this to your potential customer will make you much more valuable.
The need for excitement. While we enjoy certainty, we need to balance it with surprise, entertainment, and delight to bring joy into our lives. We also need change and personal growth of some kind.

The value lies in the eyes of the beholder. So it's essential to use empathy to see the value through your customers' eyes. By being able to offer combinations of value — eg. money + health + significance or time + excitement + connection — you have a higher chance of capturing their attention.

Drawing a value pyramid

In order to build a better picture of value perception, you can draw a value pyramid for your business. The bottom layer should be the most easy-to-grasp part of your offer: money or time. Then, you can stack on the additional layers of value your customer gets from you that might not necessarily be obvious at first impression.

The more combinations of value you provide, the more likely you are to stand out in the market and have your clients want to work with you again and again.

Your homework

It's time to evaluate your own value. What are you really selling and what are the combinations of value you provide? Whether you're a dance teacher, an IT consultant, or a graphic designer, it's absolutely vital that you understand what your potential customers are looking to pay for.

Create your own value pyramid with as many combinations of value as you believe you offer. In doing this exercise, you might realise that your offer has a solid base layer, but you haven't considered other types of value to place on top so you can't differentiate yourself from the competition. Or, you've been defining your value purely among the top layers — using words like "inspire," "empower," and "create" — and in the eyes of your potential customer, your offer comes across as a bit fluffy. A nice-to-have rather than an essential.

Why evaluating your value matters

Defining and understanding your own value builds confidence and prevents you from having to compete on price alone. A customer who appreciates the full depth and breadth of the value you provide will be a lot easier to work with than one who is just focused on price. It's also essential for you to understand where best to invest your resources in order to improve your offer.

Part III: Communicating Your Value

Is explaining what you do complicated? Do you find yourself saying or writing something different every time? Is the bounce rate on your website really high?

The struggle is real. Every single business owner and freelancer struggles with this. And I know, because as a coach and a marketer, this is the first thing I help all my clients with.

What you need is a Unique Value Proposition (UVP). No, not a Unique Selling Proposition (USP), because before you can sell, you have to be able to demonstrate value.

I'm going to introduce you to a simple framework you can use to create a bullet-proof Unique Value Proposition (UVP) for yourself.

The UVP is an expression of your promise of value to be delivered to your customers. It's a clear explanation of why someone should be interested in buying from you. Your UVP demonstrates how your offering solves your customers' problems and improves their situation, and it tells them why they should buy from you and not someone else.

It should be short and concise, ideally three to four sentences with a call-to-action about how they can buy from you at the end.

Here's my own Unique Value Proposition

As a Strategy Coach, I help ambitious people to play bigger in business with more ease, more freedom and less stress. I work with mission-driven entrepreneurs, independent consultants and expert-influencers.

My combined approach of coaching & consulting — Strategy Coaching — is designed to give you confidence and clarity on how to take your business to the next level, along with support and accountability during implementation.

If you've decided you're ready to be more purposeful, productive and present in life and business and start seeing the growth you deserve, then get in touch with me today.

You'll notice how I explicitly reference the core benefits of my own value pyramid: make more money (play bigger, take your business to the next level, see growth) and certainty and security (confidence and clarity, accountability) as well as the more life-changing value elements (freedom, purpose, presence).

When promoting my coaching services on my website, Instagram, and LinkedIn, I demonstrate my value offer of happy relationships by showing testimonials that mention how much my clients enjoyed working with me.

The language of your UVP

The less well-known you are or the more unusual your offering is, the more absolutely crystal clear your UVP has to be. You must use the everyday language of your customer, not your own expert jargon. The way you find out what language they use is by listening. Listen carefully to the language your existing customers use when they talk about what they need. Go out and talk to people at events. Find groups on social media where your ideal clients congregate, read reviews from your competitors, and listen carefully to the precise words and phrases they use.

There's a four-letter word I use with all my clients when it comes to copywriting: UCOW. Use Customer's Own Words.

Your UVP will likely evolve as you test and learn over time which words and phrases best capture the attention of your ideal customer.

Writing your own UVP — a checklist

When writing your own UVP, you should make sure it answers these questions for your customer:

What are you selling? It sounds obvious, but after researching hundreds of websites, I was surprised at how many people forget to actually mention precisely what they sell.
Who is your target customer? What you offer is not for everyone, and that's a good thing. As soon as you understand this, your message becomes a lot more effective. Be explicit about exactly who will benefit most from your offer and speak to the pain or challenges they're currently experiencing. The intention is that when your ideal client reads your UVP, they think, "That's me!" and contact you right away.
What makes your offering unique and different? Whether it's your team, your experience, your backstory, your method, your product, or your pricing strategy, be sure to communicate that special something that sets you apart from the competition.
What will the results be for them? Always make it clear what your customer can expect in return for working with you: more money, more time, more security, etc.

Where to use your UVP

Your UVP is your all-purpose introduction and should form the foundation of your own marketing. You should use it…

On the homepage of your website. It should be the first thing that someone sees. Nobody has time to roam around your website looking for answers. You need to spoon-feed people what they need to hear so they quickly press the 'contact' or 'buy' button, not the 'back' button.
Your social media pages for your business. In the clutter of Facebook and Instagram, it's even more important that you communicate your value quickly and clearly.
Your business cards. Why not print the first line of your UVP on your cards rather than just your forgettable job title?
Face-to-face interactions. Use your UVP as the structure for responding when someone asks you, "So…what do you do?"

Your words are the most powerful ingredient in getting people to see your value. Improving them costs very little, but it has a huge potential return. If you struggle to communicate your value, then I thoroughly recommend seeking professional help to find the right words. You simply can't afford not to.

Part IV: Delivering Value

Delivering your value involves more than just getting your work into the hands of your customer and taking your (hard-earned) money. It's about making sure they understand the full meaning of what they bought from you and how to use it, and that they see value in staying engaged with your business after making the purchase…and ideally coming back.

Delivering value is about continuing to show up, with generosity, whether your customer has made a purchase or not. Delivering value is my coach posting me a surprise box of prompt cards themed on the topics we're working on together. Delivering value is sending an article, an opportunity, or a useful piece of industry information to a customer who you're not currently engaged with.

Protecting the core elements of value in your offer

You have to deliver on the promise of value you communicated, every time, come hell or high water. You'll know what elements are at the heart of your own value proposition from when you drew your value pyramid (Part II). Protect these at all costs from ever being compromised.

For me, certainty and security are one of the pillars of my value proposition. I have to deliver confidence when I'm coaching, which means protecting my energy so I can be at the top of my game. Sometimes, this means I need to think of myself as an athlete or performer and take extreme measures to protect my health and energy accordingly.

For you, protecting your value could be saying no politely when a customer asks you for a rush job, or to deliver something that is outside your skillset or capacity. It could be refusing to compromise on the print quality of a certain paper, or paying extra to rent a yoga studio far away from a busy road for your meditation workshops. Delivering value is about following all the way through with the customers who already trust you and not being greedy by cutting corners or taking on too much at once.

Part V: Measuring the Value

Here's the final piece of the puzzle that many forget. It's not always easy to do. But if you can concretely measure the value you're delivering for your customers, the benefits will be huge.

You made your promise of value in your value proposition. A customer bought it, and you've delivered the work. Now what? How can you prove that the value was delivered? Only if you're measuring it.

This requires collaboration with your customer and extreme accountability. There's a risk. If you establish a way to measure the performance of the work that you did but nothing happened, then your customer might ask for their money back. But if you're able to prove that you did indeed deliver considerable value, then you have everything to gain.

Whatever you've promised in your value pyramid, you need to measure it somehow. In most cases, this requires staying in touch with your customers and asking them to report on the changes.

Did they indeed gain hours back in their day thanks to your support as a virtual assistant? (value = time)
Did they get increased social media engagement thanks to the cartoons you drew to explain their rather complicated and dry technology product? (value = significance)
Did they see an increase in sales thanks to your new product photography for their e-shop? (value = money)

Collect a testimonial from every good customer you have. And prompt them to talk about whether the core elements of value in your offer were delivered by asking them questions such as the above.

There are two reasons this is important:

You need your existing customers to demonstrate how they got the value you promise in order to attract new ones. People trust people like themselves.
You need to understand whether your current offer is indeed delivering the value you promise. Because if you're not measuring it, how would you know?

You can only become truly valuable if you're open to learning from your customers as much as they're learning from you.

If you've made it this far and this has helped you in any way, I'd love to know. Feel free to send me your own UVP created using my framework for feedback, or just tell me what you're working on. I'm glad to help.