Value Is What Something Is Worth

Value isn’t what something costs. Value is what that something is worth.

I have Montblanc Le Grand pen that I carry. That pen costs just over $500. Not a lot of people find value in a pen that costs as much as the Le Grand Rollerball. I have carpal tunnel in might right hand from typing so much, and with such poor form, that I almost never write anything. When I do write something by hand, you can take it to any pharmacy and trade it for a prescription for amoxicillin. My handwriting is best with a cheap Pilot G2 (10) gel pen. But the Le Grand was a gift from my mother when I graduated from college. To me, it is priceless.

You would never pay that much for a pen. But you might pay that amount or more to go to a concert or the theatre. The price of the ticket to an event may seem outrageous to some, but you easily trade your money for the value that the event creates for you, namely the experience. The value of the experience is far more valuable the money.

You might pay a lot of money to get the very latest and greatest technology, like a television or a smartphone. There are likely more people that would never pay what you pay for these things, because they don’t value them the same way you do. But the experience of the technology, or the bragging rights that come from being on the bleeding edge, provide a value to you that exceeds the price you pay for these things.

Maybe for you it’s clothes, or fine dining, or your car, or furniture, or rare 1st edition hard cover books. Whatever it is, there is something in your life that you pay more for because the value it creates for you make it worth the money you trade for it.

If your dream client’s challenges are important enough to cause them change, then it’s certain that the value created by changing is worth paying more to obtain. You don’t have to create greater value and also have a lower price point.

There are some people who pay more by being cheap. They perceive greater value by paying less for something, even if it costs them a better experience, better results, and a better outcome. They even have to replace what they buy more frequently. They know what things cost, but they don’t have any idea what they’re really worth.

Your job is to help people make the right investments to obtain the value that they want, to drive up the value created, not to help them focus find a lower price.