Great Value Is More Meaningful Than Price
We know better, but we still do it. Every time we are about to make a big purchase we excruciatingly get stuck on the price. Great value is what we should really be assessing.
We may grab a snack from the convenience store, a coffee at the trendy shop, or feed a dollar or two into the vending machine and think nothing of it. Bigger ticket items often cause us to pause.
Value In Action
Yesterday, I joked with some friends on social media about buying a new Range Rover. The most consistent part of several threads across a couple of days was price.
Price can be an easy way of saying “no.” Why is that so easy? Often because no one is considering the value.
What are you or your organization buying? What are the big-ticket items that have your attention? How will you prepare your personal or departmental budget for the coming year?
Price, although often negotiable, is very apparent. We see the numbers and analyze the fit. Is it affordable? Will it work?
The CFO or your CPA may choose some deeper analysis. What is the anticipated life, the costs associated with ownership, and what will it do, if anything, to the balance sheet? Smart people.
Great Value
All these things matter, but many of them are more connected with price than value. Is value important?
Truly the Range Rover should be about value. The purchase of a personal computing device should be about value. Our home, our furniture, about value.
In the workplace when we bring on a new employee, about value. When we invest in employee training and development, about value. That large capital equipment purchase, it should be about value.
Beyond the technical or mechanical evaluation of price, there is often the intangible part of value.
One thing is certain. Be cautious of low price, it is often not connected with great value.
-DEG
Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and corporate trainer. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.
