If you want something, you tend to buy it these days. Our economy affords us convenience and luxury for most items. In the old days, we may have waited for Christmas to get our wishes. Today, we gratify desires and can buy whenever, wherever.
If your buyer has access to material goods, this minimizes their perceived value in many cases. Giving an iPod to a prospective buyer may be a carrot for engaging your value proposition, however, those that really want one, tend to have one now. Your audience effectively becomes the late adopters that hesitate because of cost or disinterest. This is the case if it is not novel or scarce.
What is valuable to your buyer? In today’s economy, intangibles are increasingly valuable. Connection, love, meaning, success…these all are pursuits that are timeless. It used to be that information was of high value. That was because it was harder to come by. She who had the information held value.
Today, information is a commodity. You can find it wherever your fingers take you on the internet. In fact, there is a sea of it that drowns most people. What is lacking is meaning and ideas. Meaning is metadata. It is information about the information. It is analysis, organization and direction.
Ideas are thinking creatively about the information to produce higher value. Information in and of itself lacks value. Driving information towards purposeful ends creates wealth, opportunity, and value.
Your buyer is looking for ideas. If you are positioned as the person who can deliver ideas that stick and help your buyer towards higher levels of success, you increase permission and access. Today, the exchange is simple. Bring value and increase loyalty. The hard part is the hard work of generating ideas and suppressing the urge to sell before having permission. If you can get into the ideas business and out of the sales business, you have created a free cross-subsidy that elevates your value proposition.
