The value you provide in your business doesn’t just mean the products or services you offer. Here are seven ways a business can deliver value that become an incredible asset for anyone working with the team:
Connecting People
“Targeting Hawthorne, Torrance, and possibly surrounding areas of Inglewood, Garden, and Lawndale. Do you know any agents in this area?”
We got that exact text from a client last week and of course, we did know the perfect person.
The response from our client once we texted back with a solid contact? “Love it. I’m so excited if I can get this referral placed. I always feel like when you know someone it’s better, so thank you very much.”
And that’s how a beautiful referral relationship began.
The Takeaway: The value you offer in your business goes far beyond skills and service. Remember the reach and depth of the network you’ve created is like a secret value you can provide to your clients when asked … and it’s value that can generate real profits for them.
Providing Opportunities
We were recently contacted about a The Wall Street Journal series that required specific stories to fit within the theme. “Do we know anyone who might have that kind of experience?” They asked.
Absolutely we do.
So, an email went out to several clients we thought would be an excellent fit. Aaand a giant turtle named Jumby was thus given a chance at journalistic fame. (We’ll save the turtle story for another time.)
At little word studio, we’ve purposely positioned our agency as a “connector” so people reach out to us for the sources they need. Then, clients receive the media benefits of these connections. It’s not line-itemed into our invoices but it’s a known perk of working with our team.
The Takeaway: If you’re a connector, make it clear, so your clients feel proud – and get unprecedented opportunities – just by working with you.
Tapping into Awesome Service Providers
Another story: A client was recently hosting a big celebration and needed a videographer to cover the grand affair. We set her up with an experienced industry professional and it was the perfect fit.
And yet another story: We have a great referral relationship with one of of our clients – a global IT company that sets up cloud services and complex security infrastructure for large brands around the world – and it allows us to send clients their way. As part of our writing work for the company, we helped create case studies and testimonials, so we know first-hand how much their clients love the services they provide, and can refer them with confidence.
The Takeaway: When you have those service providers available at a moment’s notice, you can expand the value of your business by helping clients get all their needs met through you. It’s that one-stop-shop model of business that creates a seamless experience for your clients – and that’s worth a lot.
Brightening Someone’s Day
This one might seem a little abstract but hear us out: People don’t follow you for your specific content; they follow you for how that content makes them feel. If you have an online presence that’s uplifting, inspiring, happy, positive, enlightening, motivating (all the good things), you’re providing a value that’s impossible to quantify but an undeniable asset to your name.
The Takeaway: When someone knows they can go to your Instagram page or visit your blog or scroll through your website or open your newsletter and it’ll improve their mood, that’s worth a lot. And it’s an intangible quality few businesses are able to achieve. You can deliver value to the community you’ve created just by making your corner of the internet a happier place to be.
Providing a Path Forward
A client comes to us with a big career milestone about to be reached at the end of the month. How, asks the client, can I turn this exciting achievement into actionable business growth?
The path ahead was hazy and even though the scope of our work (the creation of a PR campaign) wasn’t necessarily to build that path, we’ve walked the path many times before and we were happy to walk it again.
So, in addition to creating the components of the PR campaign, we took our client’s idea and turned it into something real, with action steps and deliverables and deadlines that brought structure to the previously unstructured concept and ease to our client’s mind.
The Takeaway: There’s value in using your depth of experience to give form to the shapeless. When you provide a path forward they can’t see without you, they’ll walk with you forever.
Being a Project Manager
Hot take but any service provider is also a project manager if you’re doing it right.
The example: We write a luxury magazine for an awesome client and we were lucky enough to help them launch the magazine last year. There were a lot of moving parts – editorial for review, photos for the designer, story placements, ads, cover concepts, interviews – and we not only wrote the magazine but also served as a quasi-project manager, keeping things moving along and making sure everyone had what they needed to bring this publication to the finish line.
The Takeaway: Sure, it’s not in your scope of work but the more you can proactively assist with the completion of a project, the easier the project becomes for your client and the more willing they’ll be to do it again and again, with you and your services to guide them.
Delivering on those Little Favors
“Can you find the link to that article for me?”
It’s a two-second request but if you can get it done ASAP, it’ll mean everything to your client.
The Takeaway: For a small business, the little things are the big things. If can be somebody’s go-to, (even when the small thing they’re asking for isn’t necessarily on the list of services you provide) they’ll keep …
well … going to you.
Interested in the value we offer? Get in touch with our team today!
I love this! I often forget how much we bring to the table, or we can bring to the table. Articulating it as you did is very helpful and gives me some ideas on how I can bring some of those things to what I am up to.
Thank you!
Kim G. Stevens
Oh awesome! Love to hear that. It’s really so interesting to think about why someone would work with you vs. all the other options out there (beyond the awesome skills and service you provide, of course). I think these “secret” values are a big part of business growth 🙂 Glad this resonated!