March 30, 2017
Intangible qualities vs intangible benefits
Coming up “me focused” intangibles is pretty easy.
One I hear all the time from developers is:
“I write elegant code.”
Unless your clients are planning to wear your code to the Oscars, they don’t care how elegant it is.
BUT they might care about some of the benefits that elegant code provides.
For example:
- Easier to onboard new devs
- Better moral (lower employee churn) for internal devs
- New features can be added more quickly
- Fewer critical bugs in production
These items are all still intangible - i.e., it’s hard to put any of them on a balance sheet with an exact dollar figure assigned - but instead of being “me focused” intangibles, they’re “you focused” intangibles.
This becomes more evident if you imagine how you might incorporate them into a marketing piece, a project proposal or a sales meeting:
- “This will make it easier for you to onboard new devs.”
- “Your internal devs will not want to quit when they inherit this.”
- “You will be able to add new features more quickly.”
- “Your customers will encounter fewer bugs in production.”
Now instead of weak “me focused” intangible qualities, you have strong “you focused” intangible benefits.
Different clients are going to value different items from this list. Or none of them. Or others that I haven’t listed.
The way you determine which intangible benefits a given prospect values is to have a Why Conversation.
Not sure what they value? Ask.
Yours,
—J
P.S. Tomorrow is YOUR LAST CHANCE to schedule a coaching call with me before the price jumps. If you’re enjoying these emails but having a hard time applying them to your specific situation, book a call and I’ll get you unstuck