The Secret To Increasing Value & Building Customer Loyalty

The Secret To Increasing Value & Building Customer Loyalty

Have you ever thought about what matters most for your clients and how you can add more value in what you do? If you have, I'm going to share a tool with you today that I think you will find super helpful to help. You really hone in on this so that you get some answers and you can continue to increase value in what you do and build customer loyalty. All of which are going to help you grow revenue. Hi, I'm Tim Fitzpatrick with Rialto Marketing where we believe marketing shouldn't be difficult, all you need is the right plan.

I want to thank you so much for taking the time to tune in. What I'm going to share with you today. I actually came across I can't remember where I found it or how I came across it. But when I did, it was super fascinating, and I think you will find this equally as fascinating. I did not come up with this. This was put out by Bain & Company, and then it was published, I believe, republished by Harvard Business Review.

I'm going to give you links to all this stuff in the show notes, so check them out if you want more details, but I'm going to give just a high level overview of this and my thoughts on it. But what Bain & Company did was they came up with 40 distinct kinds of value that business-to-business offerings provide customers into a pyramid. And there's five levels in that pyramid. Now they also did this for business-to-consumer as well. I'm going to spend my time today on business-to-business because that's the place that most of our clients play in.

But if you are in the business-to-consumer space, they have a pyramid for that as well. Okay. So like I said, I'll put those links in the show notes. 

The Elements of Value Pyramid

So here's the thing to keep in mind as I go through this at the base of the pyramid, the values at the base of the pyramid are very objective, right? Most people are going to agree that, yes, these things are important.

But as we go up the pyramid, the values become more and more subjective and personal to the individual. So you need to keep that in mind as you work through this. But you will see there are so many ways that you can add value. So I'm going to actually share my screen here so that you can see this. If you're listening to our podcast, don't worry, I'll walk you through some of these things, but click on the show Notes and check out the pyramids.

You can download this link as well, so this image. So I'm going to walk you through this and at the base of the pyramid, you will see table stakes. Okay, we have the five elements of value are table stakes, functional value, ease of doing business value, individual value, and then inspirational value, and the thing that I love about this particular chart, this is actually on the Bain website. You can actually click on the individual values, and it will give you more information, because some of these things, when you see them, they may not be completely obvious exactly what they mean by this.

The Table Stakes

But let's start with table stakes at the bottom. Table stakes, they're talking about specifications, an acceptable price. Are you compliant? Are you ethical? Keep in mind, when we're talking about table stakes, man, you got to have these. These are not differentiators. Buyers expect this. Okay. So you are not differentiating yourself by having table stakes. But if you do not meet these requirements, these values, I think it's a detractor for your business. Okay, so don't think that you're knocking it out of the park because you've nailed the table stakes.

People are going to expect it. But if I click on any one of these, this particular link shows you. So if I click on meeting specifications, it actually gives me a definition. Conforms to the customers internal specifications. Okay. What their specifications are you meet. Acceptable price, right. I can click on that. It says hey provides products or services at an acceptable price to the client. 

The Functional Value

Okay. Now, as we go up, we start to look at functional value. They've broken this down into economic and performance value. So talking about does your product or service help them improve top line revenue? Does it help them reduce costs? There's product quality. Right. Provide high-quality goods or services. Right. So do you provide a high-quality product? That's important. Scalability. Does your product or service expand easily to additional demands, processes, or tests? Right. Is what you're offering scalable? And does it provide innovative capabilities? Right. Does it help your clients innovate? 

The Ease of Doing Business Value

Then we jump up and we're now in ease of doing business value. And there are a ton of elements in ease of doing business. They're talking about time savings, reduced effort, transparency, configurability, stability. There's a ton of them here. So as you can see, when you look at this pyramid, there are so many different ways that you can add value, and so many people talk about, "Hey, we need to add more value." But they don't really have a framework that they can go to to say, "Well, how can we actually add more value?" That's the thing I love about this tool is when you are brainstorming with your team or with just yourself. Right. Maybe you're sold for newer and you're trying to brainstorm, "Hey, how can I add more value?" This is an awesome tool that you can go back to to look at, "Hey, does what I offer meet any of these values? Or can it meet them but I'm not actually taking advantage of that." There's a great tool that you can go through to really figure out and maximize the value that you're offering in your products and services.

The Individual Value

After ease of doing business, we're jumping up to individual value. This is where we're starting to get quite a bit more subjective, but marketability. Does it make users and colleagues more marketable in their field? Again, we're getting very personal. Does it reduce anxiety for the buyers and other people in the organization? Does it offer growth and development? 

The Inspirational Value

Okay. And then at the very top, we're looking at inspirational value. Right. We're talking about purpose here. So Bain hones in on vision, hope and social responsibility. Does your product or service help the customer anticipate the direction of its market? Does it give buyers and users hope for the future of their organization? And does it help the customers your customers be more socially responsible? Those are all very purpose driven.

How to Use the Elemets of Value Tool

Now, the thing that I love about this again, you can go back to this tool anytime you're looking at, "Hey, how much value are we actually offering?" Come back to this framework and look at it and you can start to say, "Hey, how many of these boxes are we checking off?" Now, there's a few things that are really important to keep in mind as you go through this and you use this as a tool.

One you can use this tool, obviously, to increase value. What Bain found is the more value elements you check off and the more levels of value that you employ in the pyramid, the more impact your business is going to have, the more you're going to encourage customer loyalty. And when you are offering a ton of value and you're increasing your building customer loyalty, your revenues are going to grow as a result of that. Okay. That's why I think this is such a great, great tool.

But the other thing that's really important to keep in mind as you go through this is this isn't necessarily yes, your product or service can check a lot of boxes off, but you can also find other ways within the buyers journey the customer journey to check off some of these value elements as well. So it doesn't all have to be out in your products or services. It can also be something else that you are offering in your programs, in how you do business. So keep that in mind. Super super important.

Conclusion: The Secret To Increasing Value & Building Customer Loyalty

But I hope you found this helpful. Like I said, if you want to check it out in more detail, go to the links that I've provided or just search Bain & Company Elements of Value. Bain & Company B2C Elements of Value or Bain & Company B2B Elements of Value. You could also search for Harvard Business Review Elements of Value because they published this as well. And you're going to find exactly what I'm talking about and exactly what I showed you here today. So if you are looking to increase value, use these as a tool.

I think it will totally open up your mind and really bring some things to light that maybe you haven't even thought about from a value-adding perspective, and I think it will be super super helpful.

So if you are running into issues with this and you need some help, okay, hop on over to our website at Rialto Marketing dot com. That's R-I-A-L-T-O Marketing dot com. I would be happy to chat with you. Just click on the Get a Free Consult button. I can help you push through your marketing roadblocks. If you've tried different tactics, nothing seems to work. You're not sure what that next right step is in that free consult, we will give you some clarity on what those next steps should be based on where you're at in your particular situation. So thank you so much for taking the time to tune in. Until next time. Take care.