One problem most of us suffer from is feeling undervalued (the V in the WEVL acronym – see https://www.facebook.com/groups/scienceofcopywriting/permalink/1001723616825243/).
It matters because the easiest way to sell our services is through value not cost.
We move our clients away from thinking about how much it will negatively affect their wallets, to how much it will positively affect their lives.
Both perspectives focus on the future, but only one of them is a winner. We survive only through hope, and hope comes from optimism (the most pessimistic people still have hope – even if it’s only hope that others will agree with them when they rain on our parade).
What exactly is value? Here are three factors.
The first and most important is time. If you aspire to become the world’s first trillionaire and you’re currently 20 years old with a life expectancy of 100, then you have 80 years left to do it.
That means you need to earn $1bn every month for the rest of your life. Our first thought is probably “that’s impossible”. That is where we go wrong.
We are conditioned to believe that some things are impossible. Why? Because it’s easier to make judgments that everyone agrees with (the wisdom of crowds). It’s an ego thing. If there’s one thing us humans are in love with, it’s being proved right (and doing it without wasting energy).
The second is quality. Commodities are cheap. The value of commodities will always be the lowest possible (they represent true market values).
Avoid commodity at all costs. Let your competitors become the commodities of your market. Let them do all the things everyone else does (it’s easy to be a commodity).
Focus your attention on quality and stand out. People always pay more for quality because that’s what they value.
The third is quantity (or volume): “size matters”, “buy one get one free”, “think big”, not to mention the counter (which is also about quantity/volume): “small is beautiful”, “big things come in small packages”, “from acorns to mighty oaks”.
We value bonuses when we’re not sold on the product. Bonuses are commodities (they’re given away free because they have no value – but most of us choose to ignore that – bonuses work for that reason, but they’re not necessary).
Apple’s “think different” sums value up perfectly, as does the most used slogan in advertising NEW.