Compete on the benefits side of the value equation – not on the price side.
If you would like to start at the beginning, please check out my previous “Death Spiral” entry…

Below are FIVE key steps you’ll want to take to shift the prominence of price in your dialogue with prospects and customers.

1. Master One Activity
Gause’s law of “mutual exclusion” provides a perfect foundation for identifying your unique promises. He stipulates that a species will only survive if it masters at least one activity better than its enemies do. It must run faster, dig deeper or climb higher. Identify the key areas that your company has mastered and will comprise your BOP (Bundle of Promises).

2. Ensure your value proposition surpasses the competition
To establish a compelling BOP you must know your customer, competition and yourself. Clearly there is a relationship between you and your prospect. However, that prospect is building the same relationship with your competitor. Develop a BOP that provides a value proposition that far outweighs that of your competition.

3. Empirically determine whether your BOP works
Your BOP must be: (1) “important to the customer,” (2) “perceived as relevant by the customer” and (3) “sustainable by you.” To find out what is important to your customer – simply ask. One method is to use a questionnaire (electronic or paper based). To determine what is “relevant” to your customer – test it out. Empirically determine whether this new BOP increases leads, conversion, sales and/or reduced cost. Determine whether you can sustain the new BOP. If you are not convinced that you can fulfill these promises better than the competition every moment of every day then don’t even start.

4. Let the world know
Once you’ve identified your BOP you must then take a stance. Let the world know. Develop a messaging hierarchy that guides you through the messaging that you should share at each touch point with employees, prospects, customers, press, brokers, investors, landlords. Communicate your promises very simply in written, verbal and visual form.

5. Live the promise
Live it through the way that your receptionist greets every guest from the first person who walks in the door to the last person late at night. Live it in all of your acquisition materials, from print ads to billboards, banners and Pay-Per-Click tiles. Bring the messaging into your website, marketing collateral, newsletters to employees and customers, and press. Be consistent.

You won’t remove price from your sales discussion, but you can shift it from the primary message to the secondary or tertiary message. Discover the high-value benefits that clients want and deliver those benefits seamlessly and consistently. Doing so will give you the power to compete on the benefits side of the value equation – not the price side.

I would love to hear your thoughts… Have you shifted the dialogue?