In the ever-expanding market, adding value to your product is essential if you want to stand out. Though the number of products keeps increasing in the market, value-added products are still in demand. Adding value to your product might seem like a pretty straightforward concept, but there is a lot to learn and understand to use the leverage of value-added products in the market. Let’s dive into the concept of product value and how to use this to ace the market.
What is Product Value?
Product Value refers to the benefits the product offers to the target market. It is a valuable tool for assessing the key benefits of a specific product. The value of a product directly influences its design and pricing of a product.
If product value to customers is high, the pricing strategy can be adjusted accordingly. Likewise, the value of a product to customers can inform a product’s development roadmap. Product value is not a fixed measure, in that it can change over time (i.e. perceived vs. real value) and is often impacted by external factors such as competitors and market conditions. The overall value of a product is the degree to which it meets or exceeds customers' expectations.
Examples of product value
There are a variety of factors that determine the product value, but examples from real-life situations are best for understanding these factors.
Here are some examples of product value that you may help define your own:
- Availability: Customers can access the product online or offline.
- Convenience: The product is available on multiple devices, including mobile.
- Speed: This product performs its task quickly and without lag or delay.
- Cost: The product is more affordable than its competitors.
8 ways to increase the Product Value
In order to increase product value, it's important to think critically and understand what makes a great customer experience. There are several ways to increase the product value. Let’s look at 8 ways of adding value to your product!
1. Prioritize Customer Relationship
One of the most important factors in adding value to your product is making your relationship with customers a priority. 80% of customers state that a positive customer experience is just as important as a company’s products or services.
No matter how innovative your product may be, if the customers don’t buy it, it has no value. And to make a customer buy it, you must build a trustable customer relationship.
When you give priority to your customers, they will feel important and it will leave a positive impact on their minds about your brand and your product. They will feel more interested in buying your product and feel like they are a part of the brand.
2. Refine After-Sales Services
In after-sales service or after-sales support, a consumer receives assistance after purchasing a product. After-sales support allows brands to benefit. In fact, 96% of consumers are likely to leave if a company provides poor customer service. It can, however, increase customer retention and encourage repeat purchases if it provides the after-sales service customers deserve.
Quality post-sales service is important because it helps the company to build a stronger relationship with customers, reinforce its brand image, increase customer satisfaction (thanks to an optimized purchasing experience), prolong the lifetime value of customers, and boost the chances of repeat buying. It connects you to the customer and leaves a positive impression on their mind.
3. Provide Expert Advice
The key to being able to provide value as a sales professional is to understand that you have to provide a level of advice that is dramatically higher, more sophisticated, and more valuable than those of your competitors. When a customer receives expert advice, they are more likely to make the right choice for their product, which increases their level of satisfaction.
4. Different Service Levels
Providing a higher level of service isn't the only way to differentiate yourself. Rather you can add different levels of service based on someone’s size, frequency, or amount of purchase. When a customer does business with you, you might like to offer them gold, platinum, or silver levels of service they qualify for, are willing to pay for, and will receive.
5. Increase Delivery Speed
One of the ways to differentiate yourself is to guarantee some sort of on-time or faster delivery. The on-time delivery of goods is well known and accepted as one of the key components of charging full or maximum pricing. Speed delivery makes your service more convenient for people.
6. Offer Bundling and Packaging
The idea behind bundling is to save consumers 7-15 percent on the value of a grouped package over purchasing the items separately. When you give a full package offer to your customer, it makes it more lucrative and convenient for them. But you have to be able to put together desirable packages, purchasing levels, and a series of added benefits that are significant in value and are themselves, a whole lot more valuable than simply the product is by itself. The consumer typically compares prices before making a purchase, and the consumer loves choices because they make them feel in control.
7. Dedicated Personnel
This is especially useful if the product or service is technical or requires support. Knowing someone else's account, products, machinery, equipment, or ways of doing business makes it much easier to do business with them. You can handle your customer's accounts personally in such a scenario by assigning dedicated account representatives.
8. Focus on educating
The best way to provide value to your prospects and customers is to educate them on a topic they care about. Taking an education-first approach helps you establish trust with your customers as they become their go-to resource for information. Once trust is established and the prospect is ready to buy, your offering is far more appealing because you have already demonstrated value instead of pushing the sale without any proof of value for the buyer.
While you can’t stop the fluctuation of customer valuations, you do have the power to exert a positive influence. And these 8 ways can help you add value to your product and give you the power to have that positive impact!