Maybe a better question to start us off should be
“do I have anything that will be of value to others?”

Let me explain a little bit further, and this is important in any form of sales, not just online.

What actually is value ?
It’s a belief, a belief in somethings worth to us
So who determines the value of something ?
Yes the seller puts a price tag on it, but here’s the point, the buyer determines its value – to them

So are you saying Mark that value and price are not the same thing ?  Yes absolutely 100%
There is a price tag we apply and there is the ‘percieved value’ that the customer places on the product / service, and these are definitely NOT the same thing!

And this can get very tricky with digital information products, the value lies in the information itself, its accessibility and ultimately the anticipated impact or desired outcome of its use. The perceived value (what the customer thinks about it) is affected massively by how we position and package that information. (I’ll do more on creating high ‘perceived value’ in another post soon)

You’ll notice that none of it is about what it actually costs us plus a bit of profit !

All top salespeople know that to sell on price is a quick way to the poor house, as there is always someone who will undercut you. Top performers sell on value!

The customer in their decision making process will seek to compare the two,
the asking price against the perceived value they anticipate they will get from the purchase,
using a very specific primal brain formula which goes something like this.

Amount of pleasure gained (or pain avoided)
: compared with :
The Amount of pain (reduction in financial security)  by paying for it

It might go something like this-

• How much time will this save me ?
• How much effort will this save me?
• How much money will this save me?
• How much money will this bring me?
• How much more comfort will bring this me?
• How much struggle will I avoid with this?
• How much more status will this bring me?
• How much ‘happier’ will my life be?
• and
• and
• and

Balanced against

• How much pain or discomfort do I feel about paying the asking price?

They weigh it up based mostly on how they feel (emotions) and come to a conclusion.                Buy it, bin it or wait !

So as entrepreneurs and online business owners, if we get this fudamental distinction on price and value mixed up, or we dont get it at all, it can cost us dearly.

Here’s another thing to think about
If our own pereception of the value of something is less than the percieved value the cusotmer places on it, we will undervalue it and most likely underprice it or give it away.

A personal example:

I created some courses quite a while ago on a personal development topic which I delivered in person as workshops and talks, I had DVD’s made from the recordings.  At the time I valued highly the content and products. It was new and exciting.

Fast forward 7-10  years, the courses and products are still exactly the same great content, (it’s not material that gets dated).
However I have moved onto other things and new projects and in doing so forgot the value in these items. I had lost sight of the value of these products to others and effectively parked them.

When they were first created they were highly valuable to me and to the people who attended and bought them, truth is they still are, I just forgot about that, they stopped being new and exciting to me. That material helped me so much and thats why I shared it, and the truth is it will still help others, in short it never lost it’s true value to others, only in my mind.

Hoping this little post gets you to consider value and price a bit deeper and would love to hear your thoughts on the topic.

Here’s to great value,  good prices and lots of sales

In success

Mark

And should you wish to check out some amazing value go here