“I wish I had invented blue jeans. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity – all I hope for in my clothes.”
—Yves Saint Laurent
It’s easy to fall into the trap of piling on complexity to prove your worth.
Gotta stack that value, right?
Hold on.
Don’t be so proud of what you know or sell that you prioritize your definition of “value” over that of your buyer.
This is one of those Pareto Principle moments: 80% of the value of your product comes from 20% of the information. The ratio is actually probably even more lopsided than that.
Learn what they care about — how they count value. It probably won’t be how you add it up.
I’m not just selling you to sell what they want to buy, but I’m trying to convince you that in order to ship and sell your knowledge efficiently, don’t focus on the things you just don’t need.
Don’t get fancy. Just get it finished.
Your customer wants transformation.
That means they are “somewhere” and they want to be “somewhere else.”
You need to be able to vocalize that transformation — even if they can’t do it that effectively — and show them how your thing will get them from here to there.
That’s it.
That’s the value they’re seeking. Not all the fluff and mumbo-jumbo (I’ve always wanted to use that term) you’re packing into your stuff.
Once you narrow it down to the most valued product, you won’t believe what people will pay for it. You’ll start to feel a little guilty charging that much for so little.
You’re wrong. They’re right. They know what they want, and you’re giving it to them. Nothing more, nothing less.
Blue jeans work because they do exactly what the customer wants to them to do. That functional value needs to be built into everything you do for your audience.