Tom Reilly, an internationally recognized motivational speaker and expert in value added selling says: “There are two types of value you can provide your customers: perceived value and performance value.
“Perceived value is a promise that you make. It’s the sizzle on the steak. It’s the gift-wrap on the package. It’s everything you do to build customer anticipation and expectations for your solution. This includes packaging, brand name, expertise, reputation, knowledge, etc. These are qualitative examples of how you bring value to the customer, and they generally describe who you are.
“That your organization is a one-hundred-year-old company gives peace of mind to many buyers. They perceive great security in dealing with a centenarian organization. That’s the essence of perceived value—it gives your buyer a warm and fuzzy feeling when they buy from you. Perceived value is sensory: how things smell, taste, look, and feel.
“Performance value is the proof behind the promise. It’s the steak behind the sizzle. It’s the profit impact you have on the customer’s business. Performance value includes things like greater efficiency and effectiveness. Giving customers the opportunity to do something they have been unable to do is performance value. Performance value is what you do for the customer.
“When your solution helps the customer use their product more efficiently, manage their people more effectively, or chase a piece of business successfully, you are delivering quantifiable value.
“Perceived value may get you the business, but performance value brings the customer back. Perceived value serves a useful purpose in getting buyers excited. Performance value plays a bigger role in customer satisfaction and retention.”
Here’s a quote from Michael Bloomberg’s book, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, about planning versus acting quickly:
“While our competitors are still sucking their thumbs trying to make the design perfect, we're already on prototype version #5. By the time our rivals are ready with wires and screws, we are on version #10. It gets back to planning versus acting: We act from day one; others plan how to plan—for months.”
Bloomberg’s quote on action reminds me of a saying we hear around my business: “I’d rather have a good decision made quickly, than a perfect decision made slowly.” Think about that.
The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are some of this year's winners, some of which are terrifically innovative:
1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people, that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The Bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future..
4. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
5. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
6. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
7. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
8. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
9. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
10. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
11. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
12. Glibido: All talk and no action.
13. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
14. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
15. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
16. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.
“Perceived value is a promise that you make. It’s the sizzle on the steak. It’s the gift-wrap on the package. It’s everything you do to build customer anticipation and expectations for your solution. This includes packaging, brand name, expertise, reputation, knowledge, etc. These are qualitative examples of how you bring value to the customer, and they generally describe who you are.
“That your organization is a one-hundred-year-old company gives peace of mind to many buyers. They perceive great security in dealing with a centenarian organization. That’s the essence of perceived value—it gives your buyer a warm and fuzzy feeling when they buy from you. Perceived value is sensory: how things smell, taste, look, and feel.
“Performance value is the proof behind the promise. It’s the steak behind the sizzle. It’s the profit impact you have on the customer’s business. Performance value includes things like greater efficiency and effectiveness. Giving customers the opportunity to do something they have been unable to do is performance value. Performance value is what you do for the customer.
“When your solution helps the customer use their product more efficiently, manage their people more effectively, or chase a piece of business successfully, you are delivering quantifiable value.
“Perceived value may get you the business, but performance value brings the customer back. Perceived value serves a useful purpose in getting buyers excited. Performance value plays a bigger role in customer satisfaction and retention.”
Here’s a quote from Michael Bloomberg’s book, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, about planning versus acting quickly:
“While our competitors are still sucking their thumbs trying to make the design perfect, we're already on prototype version #5. By the time our rivals are ready with wires and screws, we are on version #10. It gets back to planning versus acting: We act from day one; others plan how to plan—for months.”
Bloomberg’s quote on action reminds me of a saying we hear around my business: “I’d rather have a good decision made quickly, than a perfect decision made slowly.” Think about that.
The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are some of this year's winners, some of which are terrifically innovative:
1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people, that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The Bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future..
4. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
5. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
6. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
7. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
8. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
9. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
10. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
11. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
12. Glibido: All talk and no action.
13. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
14. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
15. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
16. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.
