April 27, 2023

Can you sell LMNs based on value?

People send me messages like this all the time:

“I love the idea of value pricing, but I use LMNs, and it’s impossible to sell LMNs based on value.”

And then I’ll ask:

“Do your clients know what an LMN is?”

And the person will say:

“No, not really.”

And then I’ll ask:

“What does an LMN do for your clients?”

And the person will say something like:

“It drastically increases customer retention.”

And then I’ll say:

“Then stop trying to sell LMNs. Sell ‘drastically increased customer retention’ to people for whom lost customers are exceptionally costly. You probably don’t even need to mention LMNs in your marketing.”

What does LMN stand for?

Nothing. I made it up. It doesn’t matter. The point is that if your buyer doesn’t know what an LMN is, they aren’t going to want to pay you for it.

Here’s the thing...

You can’t value price APIs or DSLs or PWAs or CGIs or RWDs or whatever your TLA tool of choice happens to be if your buyer doesn’t understand what it can do for them.

Why?

Because these TLAs are all tools. And tools aren’t business outcomes. A tool may help you reach a business outcome, but the tool itself has no value to a client.

Sell the business outcome you can provide, not your skill with some tool.

Yours,

—J

BackRandomNext