Low Price is Never Your Startup’s USP
By: Vishal Kataria
Tags: Leadership, Customer Experience, Marketing, Business, Startup

A price-centric discussion also indicates that customers don’t really know what they want. They look at the products as a commodity which they hope will help them achieve their goals. That’s why cheap products are a safe option. If they fail to help the customer, she can take comfort in the fact that she mitigated the damage.

Here’s what you need to understand.

We’ve transcended from the era of products and services into the era of value. This is an era where buyers expect you to not just know your product, but also have answers to their most pressing questions. According to research, 60% of consumers expect brands to help them make decisions. On a similar note:

“Business buyers don’t buy your product or service, they buy into your approach and perspective to solving their problems.” — Jeff Ernst, Forrester Research Group

In other words, your customer expects you to show her what’s right for her, and to be right when you do.

Can your product address the problems that keep your customers up at 2 AM at night? More importantly, can you show your customers the same?

If yes, great! You can engage buyers at strategic levels. If not, get to the back of the line until you slash prices to levels you cannot sustain. Then wait to go out of business.

Value is Invaluable

Enough of focusing on features and benefits. Start focusing on your customer’s most pressing problems. Show her how she can solve it, how she can be the superhero of her own story.

Enough of doing just the bare minimum to fulfill a customer’s order. Offer 5-star service, and make this experience predictable.

Then customers won’t just keep returning to buy from you, they’ll also turn into your advocates. And you’ll be okay to walk away from stubborn customers who still want to haggle on price.

The upside marketing funnel creates real value (source Ben Chestnut)

This is the strategy we follow at Content Sutra. We don’t want to do work worth $100 for $20. We want to provide value worth $10,000 for $1,000. We want our work to contribute to our clients’ business goals, not just be something that we finish and say, “done.”

We don’t just earn money now. We also feel gratified. Clients include me in their content marketing strategy discussions. They pay promptly, respect our time, and stick to the process we agreed on for ideation and inputs.

In turn, they appreciate the quality of our work and our obsession with deadlines and self-improvement.

If a prospect says we’re too expensive, we end the discussion amicably, fully aware that someone else who finds our services valuable is out there, waiting for us to connect with them.

When you offer more value than your competition, you’ll always find customers who are ready to pay a premium. Plus, the endeavor to add value keeps making you improve your startup itself.

In the age of value, the best growth hack is not funnel marketing or optimizing an email campaign by 7.47%. It’s empowering your customer to make her life better.

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +401,714 people.

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