What I mean by value add is your company’s unique blend of products and services, and how those are perceived by your prospects and clients. You may be the absolute best at what you offer, yet aren’t growing as expected. This often happens when you don’t effectively communicate your expertise.
Communication is key
What’s behind your value add? If you don’t spell out everything you do, starting with your estimates and proposals – to invoices, your value add could be overlooked. What does it take to provide your business solution? Infrastructure, research, surveys, reports, travel time, understanding the competition, proofreading, editing, revisions, design work, interviews, phone calls, industry schooling, and licensing? The list goes on and on, but are these communicated to your prospects and clients? If not, your value will be negatively impacted.
Expertise is a business value-add
Why do I pay my automotive dealer $95+/hour for labor? When I was repairing typesetters, our first-hour labor rate was $180.00, and that was 25 years ago. Hair coloring and styling can run $100.00+. And these rates are invoiced and paid routinely because there’s a perception of value associated with each service. The perception of your value can be elevated via marketing campaigns, blogs, case studies, testimonials, and so on.
Web hosting value adds
Among the value adds I envision as important for a web hosting provider, infrastructure, 24×7 support, and hands-on expertise rank high. Every provider, it seems, has bronze, silver, and gold plans. For providers, if your value add is eCommerce, disaster recovery, or managed services, how do you communicate what makes your service unique, and worth the price you advertise? If you offer collocation, how do your plans differ from your competition? Would two 20AMP circuits per rack be a value add, or simply norm? If you offer business class shared web hosting plans, would that be a value add? Certainly, value adds are competition-driven. Do your prospects and clients know how you differ from your competition? Telling them, or not, will impact your business.
