Features vs value

I got recently reminded of how difficult it is to take the perspective of the customer when you are trying to sell your product.

We were going through an exercise aimed at understanding what is the value our product delivers in front of certain pain points our target customer is facing. This was the pain point.

Uncertainty on whether people in the team are working under the most recent procedures or under outdated ones.

Right away, I listed the following under the “value” column.

Knowing that everybody in the team is working under the most recent procedures.

Then a colleague rightfully pointed out that was not a value, rather it was a feature of our product, something we were able to ensure with our solution.

The value, in this case, as we worked it out together, ended up being this.

Avoiding fines and delays due to having part of the team working under outdated procedures.

This is more measurable (fines and delays can be quantified), and it is more relatable for the prospect customer.

It was a great exercise, one that should periodically be organised across departments. On top of it, try to allocate time and resources to regularly interviewing customers and prospects about the pains they were feeling when they first got in touch with you. With these information on our side, it is possible toavoid talking only about what matters to us in the next campaign.