Overview
- Why you could be delivering too much value
- How it stops people from buying your service
- How it stops your business from growing
- How to turn things around in your business
As I went into business, everybody told me to deliver value to customers.
And so I did.
What nobody told me was too much value can have a negative effect.
Not only makes it harder to close sales and scale your business but it also keeps you struggling for cash.
It wasn’t until we started to cut features from our services that we saw an increase in sales.
So what do I mean by too much value, and how can you see if this is affecting your business?
HOW TOO MUCH VALUE IS CREATED (Over-Over Delivering)
In the beginning, we were so eager to learn and grow that we went out of our way to deliver for every client.
We wanted to impress them.
We wanted them to feel they got the most for their money.
So we added some extra features to our service.
But then, as we learned more, we felt some new things were important and could benefit clients.
So we add them to the service as well.
Before we knew it, we had built a monster.
A monster that looked like this:
We thought we had built the best thing ever and everybody would love it.
Not really…
HOW OFFERING TOO MUCH VALUE MAKES SALES HARDER
Clients come looking to solve a problem. As we told them about our service, their response caught me off guard.
They said things like:
“We don’t really need this”
“Why would we want that?”
“We don’t have the capacity to manage this”
After all the work we invested to develop the skills and processes.
This was pushing clients away.
Later, I understood that from their perspective, a couple of things were happening:
1. They saw the features as extra work for them
2. The unnecessary features added complexity and ended up confusing customers
3. Some features just reminded them of the things they should be doing but aren’t
4. Lastly, they felt I was trying to sell them something they didn’t need.
And so, all these made me look less trustworthy.
As I tried to explain the different parts of the offer, they started to compare us with other providers.
Once comparing was easy, they started to tear our offer apart.
“If we take this out, would it be cheaper?
“How much would it be without that?”
Now, we are tailoring the offer to each group.
And that means investing working time in a less profitable project.
Not an ideal situation.
DELIVERING TOO MUCH VALUE ALSO KEEPS YOUR BUSINESS FROM SCALING
Having to deliver services that don’t provide a return on investment, costs you money.
Plus, they add unnecessary complexity to your operations.
In the beginning, you are learning, you are exploring what works, and what people want.
You have the time and the capacity.
It’s an investment, it’s ok.
But, once you figure it out, you need to stop adding features to your service.
And eliminate all the extra stuff nobody is using.
At the end of the day, it’s a business.
You may enjoy doing it, but if you are trying to transition out of delivery, you have to stop it.
Because after a certain point, every extra unit of work, will not necessarily provide you with a return on your investment.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
When I compare how our service looked at the beginning and what it looks like now, it’s so much simpler.
I would have never believed it.
But the reality is we have more business now, and we also get to charge more for it.
Why?
Because even though we are doing less, we are delivering more.
More of what customers really value.
Everything is designed to fulfill the client’s needs, not ours.
This has allowed us to get really good at doing fewer things.
And that became our competitive advantage.
So look at your service, what are things customers are trying to take out from your offers?
Are these features part of your service because you think they are important?
Those tend to be the extra stuff people don’t need.
Start there and see where it takes you.