by Steve McGowan

"The man who will use his skill and constructive imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar, instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to succeed." - Henry Ford

Difficult to argue with that isn't it? And trust me I am not about to start.

As sales people and account managers we are constantly exhorted to look for 'added value' for customers; to create extra value opportunities.

Of course this is crucial for any organisation looking to maintain a happy group of customers, grow their revenue and edge out competition.  Again, no argument there, however it seems to me that we need to think very carefully about what 'creating value' really means to us but most importantly what it means to our customers.

We think of it in terms of 'going that extra mile' or providing that extra service. And too often it is lazily actioned as 'give them something extra free of charge'. What we throw into the pot could be the latest widget that our team has produced; sometimes one that has little intrinsic value of its own, hence the freebie.

However it could also be something that has genuine value that we feel the customer should appreciate and herein lies the issue.

The trouble is that this careless, one size fits all approach, mostly provided free, can have several unfortunate consequences.

Firstly have we really achieved our aim? Have we actually created value? We have certainly added cost to ourselves but we may simply have exceeded expectations. The value has merely been transferred, at the expense of our profitability.

And secondly how does the customer see it? Disappointingly it is, in my opinion, a truism that something given free has little value. We may see it as a massive additional concession on our part, which should delight the customer and engender loyalty.

So how disappointing it is then, when the customer simply nods at our magnanimous offer and moves on to something that they consider more important.

I am not in any way proposing that we stop searching for opportunities to add value for customers, far from it - but I do believe that we need to make it count and to make it REAL.

And to do so we need to think carefully in each instance, using direct customer insight into what it is that we can do that will add recognisable and appreciated value. Instead of giving away stuff that they didn't ask for and will probably never use it could be:

• As simple as offering greater insight into the business processes that support their value chain and how they might be able to improve them.
• It could be the continued support of their business case and access to expertise within your organisation.
• It may be something as intangible as a referral to likeminded companies or invites to events, or access to valuable resource material etc.
• Or it could indeed be the free addition of product - but crucially product that they have expressed a need for.

The sales result of creating added value may be financial, but it can also be less tangible - a referral, the opportunity for further orders, agreement to act as a reference etc. So we need to be creative also about our objectives when entering into the process.

Finally a thought on who is best to spot opportunities for creating real customer value. The answer is of course your service staff - consultants, support engineers, customer response teams and even your finance people. They have daily and close access to the customer's operations and their feedback is a great starting point for the clues as to what will really be appreciated.