We live in a global marketplace. The prices that consumers are willing to pay are based on two principles, perceived and real.
Real value is based on how your product or service solves a problem for a consumer. If they are hungry and your business creates their favorite dish, you’ve offered a proposition that encompasses both options.
You solve a real problem (hunger) and have perceived value (the consumer likes it).
If you want to dominate your marketplace today, adding massive value to your offerings is essential for success. You don’t always need to improve your products or services to reach that outcome.
10 Best Ways to Add Massive Value to Your Business
Adding value changes the difference between a product’s or service’s price and how much a consumer pays. Businesses can improve revenues and increase profits by increasing the gap between these two metrics. Examples include adding features, expanding a service territory, or offering something specific.
The equation for a successful business is relatively simple.
- Offer something that isn’t available in your current market.
- If you have competition, deliver a better value to customers than the other provider.
- Follow up with the consumer to ensure their ongoing satisfaction.
People purchase things to solve problems. Although individual definitions vary, your goal is to create added value to this sales equation. What can you do better than anyone else, and how does that help someone?
As you explore the answers to those questions, these options add massive value for customers to enjoy.
1. Always Submit High-Quality Work
The best way to add value to your business is to under-promise and over-deliver. That doesn’t mean you should purposely undersell your products or services to create a better impression.
Take a third look at what you offer instead of only two to ensure there are fewer faults or mistakes. Instead of rushing through a project, take your time to have everything right and ready for the client.
Everyone makes mistakes from time to time. When that happens, have a policy in place that customers can see so that they know what to expect from you.
When evaluating the quality of the work you offer, it helps to ask the following questions to see if improvement areas are possible.
- Could the products or services solve more problems than the initial efforts suggest?
- How can each transaction become more efficient?
- What steps could be taken to improve customer satisfaction?
Customers increasingly seek personalized services and bespoke products that meet individual needs. If you can develop add-ons through new features, approaches, or product evolutions, you’ll be in a better place to dominate your marketplace.
2. Be Your Own Customer
The best way to understand the experiences your business offers to consumers is to be a customer of your own company. Learning first-hand what people encounter when checking out and managing logistics makes it much easier to see where improvements are possible.
Could you improve how your meetings occur when customer support is necessary? Would there be more sales if you presented more information about your industry, products, or people?
Some businesses think they understand the pain points of the average consumer, but perception is often different than reality. When you put on a customer’s shoes, you’ll discover how to remove obstacles or communicate more efficiently.
Both attributes provide massive value to your business.
3. Think About Your Business Structure
Business owners tread carefully in potentially dangerous or tricky situations when they think litigation might occur. Some company types expose your personal assets to a possible judgment, which means you could lose your house, commercial properties, and family savings with one critical error.
Four business types are typically available in the United States and throughout the world. Each one has different pros and cons to consider.
- Sole Proprietor. This business is the cheapest to form and doesn’t require a formal name. It also provides zero protection from customer liability and mixes your finances together on one tax return.
- Partnership. With this structure, you’re creating a business with pass-through income that doesn’t offer a corporate veil. Your personal assets are still at risk.
- Limited Liability Company. This option is the most popular one for small business owners because it provides choices. You can get pass-through income while having corporate protection for your personal finances. If something goes wrong, you can generally have the business take the brunt of the problem.
- Corporation. There are two types of corporations, an S-Corporation or S-Corp for short, and a C-Corporation, commonly referred to as a C-Corp. Provided you keep your personal and business finances completely separate and follow all legal requirements, your personal assets are protected, but the business becomes an entity unto itself. You’ll have numerous reporting duties, filing responsibilities, and regulation compliance issues to juggle. This option is typically the most expensive one.
A sole proprietor naturally limits their liability because of their personal asset exposure. General liability insurance can offset some of those concerns, but at an added cost.
If you want to add massive value to your business, consider updating its structure to support your customers better. That might mean changing from a sole proprietor to an LLC, or converting your Limited Liability Company to a corporation.
4. Offer Something 100% Unique
What makes your product or service stand out from other competitors? The unique features you provide attract customers to your brand and expertise.
The best way to add value in this category is to conduct market research. What problems do customers in your targeted demographics face? Is there a way for you to solve them more efficiently or at a lower price?
To add value in this area, you’ll need to conduct market research. What do people want right now that isn’t currently provided?
Once you discover an opportunity, provide products or services that contribute to your profits (not just revenues) to help your business grow.
5. Increase Production
Ideally, faster production doesn’t contribute to lower quality standards. The goal is to work more efficiently while maintaining or improving what customers receive.
By producing more units or offering services to additional clients within the same timeframe, you can improve revenues and profits.
One of the best examples of this principle is the assembly line. Each worker focuses on a specialty skill or task before sending it along to the next station. When Henry Ford introduced this concept to his automotive business, the time it took to build a vehicle dropped from over 12 hours to 93 minutes.
Many companies are looking at artificial intelligence to add massive value in today’s climate. This technology can evaluate huge data blocks, identify customer behaviors, and create targeted messaging that attracts consumers to their products and services.
Some workers can increase productivity by being held accountable for their assigned duties. When a company reaches an efficiency peak in this area, look at various implementation and manufacturing processes to add value to the business.
People expect to receive something from your business when they complete a transaction, even if shipping is part of the equation. When you can increase delivery speed, you’ll add a significant and valuable resource to the customer interaction. That might mean outsourcing some tasks, such as payroll or IT services, to focus on what you do best.
6. Be Willing to Ask Questions
The best way to find information about what your customers need is to ask them relevant questions. Far too often, the approach businesses take with this option for adding value involves a simple “yes” or “no” response.
You’ll get more information with an open-ended question that lets someone express their needs with clarity and precision. Instead of filtering responses to fit into different boxes, you can discover what is important to them.
It is not unusual to receive positive and negative feedback during this investment. Try to avoid taking constructive criticism personally. Remember – the goal is to grow your business by finding ways to help others. The information will help you achieve that result.
7. Review Your Bundles and Packaging
First impressions matter. When you ship items to consumers, it’s not your goods that they’ll see.
The first impression comes from your packaging materials. What are you doing to create a positive experience from the beginning?
- Environmentally friendly packing materials communicate to customers that you’re concerned about taking care of the planet.
- Reinforced cardboard and extra padding show that you care about the dangers and details of shipping.
- Decorative components reinforce your brand value before the container is ever opened.
Bundling and packaging don’t have to involve the shipping process. What purchasing levels, discounts, or benefits series could you put together to add more value to the transaction for consumers?
A common method of securing revenues while reducing costs is to offer a pay-in-full feature. Imagine that you pay $100 per month for a service. That’s $1,200 per year.
What if you provided a $200 discount if someone pays for a year in full today? You get $1,000, and the customer receives a year-long relationship with your business. If they walk away, you keep the cash. It’s up to the consumer to fulfill the entire value of the transaction.
8. Treat Your Frequent Buyers Right
A frequent buyer program ties into the idea that when people purchase items from you more, they see your service, benefits, products, or pricing as beneficial. Each interaction develops loyalty that you want to encourage even more.
People like to earn rewards. Customers fly thousands of miles or stay in specific hotels because they want to build miles or accumulate points.
You can add value to your business by adopting similar principles. How can you reward someone for sticking with you instead of going to a competitor?
One of the easiest ways to start making changes in this category is to create or adjust your service levels. Many rewards programs offer gold, silver, and bronze levels to indicate participation levels. You can do the same with what you offer, creating different qualifications or opportunities based on what people are willing to pay.
9. Simplify the Process
When you create efficiencies within the manufacturing and delivery chain, you can reduce costs while keeping prices consistent to add value. Customers receive a similar benefit when you can make it easier to use what you offer.
Each interaction should be as simple as possible to encourage B2C interactions. Amazon’s one-click interface to purchase some items is an excellent example of this principle. By removing all but one obstacle from a transaction, it is much easier to achieve impulse buys and instant gratification.
Your value-added simplicity likely needs to start with the lead generation process. Most businesses can also improve their after-sales support.
There’s a direct correlation between sales and simplicity. If it only takes one step to get what a customer wants, you might generate six sales out of every ten attempts.
As the number of steps increases, the complete sales figures begin to tumble. If it takes ten steps to finalize a transaction, you might be left with one sale out of ten attempts.
Here are some questions to ask yourself to see if interaction simplification could add value to your business.
- What processes are currently necessary to create customer interactions and sales?
- Are there any items or steps that can be lost without losing the networking value between the business and the consumer?
- What options could be improved to simplify the entire process?
The average customer completes 90% of the standard sales funnel before visiting your business or website. They’ve come there because they anticipate finalizing a sale, but they’re also looking for an excuse or reason to avoid spending money. Don’t give them that reason.
10. Develop Customer Service Improvements
Companies use customer service as one of their primary competitive advantages. The marketplace changes rapidly while industries evolve. If you can stay on top of those changes while helping people solve problems, you’re adding a lot of value to each transaction.
Although we’d all like to think that we’re perfect, the truth is that mistakes will happen. Negative experiences and outcomes occur, even when businesses proactively attempt to prevent those outcomes.
A well-trained customer service department can reduce friction and de-escalate situations, while striving to help people have a better, more positive experience.
Some businesses are moving their customer service to a tier-based system similar to a rewards program. Consumers can qualify for different levels based on how often they buy things, need specialized help, or need dedicated managers for enterprise-level solutions.
Assigning a specific person to handle unique or challenging cases communicates to the consumer that you care about the situation. They’ll have a direct contact to speak with instead of a random representative on the phone, allowing them to immediately have their needs addressed.
You can achieve results in this area by focusing on these customer service specifics.
- Practice active listening whenever possible, even if you disagree with the premise of the customer’s argument.
- Try to empathize with the situation without sounding fake or condescending.
- Use positive language – focus on what is possible instead of what can’t be done.
- Look for areas of common ground while emphasizing your knowledge of the products or services and the situation.
When you communicate clearly with a customer, you’ll leave fewer ambiguous moments that can lead to overthinking. Try to create a resolution for each interaction so that it feels like the engagement was worth the person’s time.
Do You Need to Start Adding Value to Your Business?
The best way to add value to any business venture is to focus on the things under your control instead of what cannot be accomplished. This mindset ensures that add-on adaptions increase a consumer’s interest in the product or service. In return, fewer resources are spent on prospects who are less likely to buy something.
It can be tempting to stay within your comfort zone as a business owner. I’ve fallen into that trap myself.
When you know what revenues are coming in each day, you can budget for the expenses and settle into a nice profit margin. You can find success there for a while, but eventually, someone else comes along to take your spot.
Why does that happen? Perhaps they can offer the same product or service for a lower price. Maybe they have more experience, or they can deliver faster.
What I’ve discovered about that comfort zone is that zero growth occurs. You think you’re making progress because the checks keep coming, but you’re actually standing still.
Adding massive value to a business with these ideas is a way to get those feet moving again. It isn’t easy to take risks, but it’s usually worthwhile. Even if a failure occurs, the lessons you’ve learned can take you toward the next project or opportunity.
