Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. - Albert Einstein http://www.mindscape-hm.

com/focus-on-providing-value-not-making-money Why do some members do not renew their subscriptions? Why do enterprises that are good candidates to be part of your association do not become a member? If you have not asked yourself these questions, you have probably found that you are told I dont have money and its too expensive. Both reasons mean that this person do not finds enough value in your association and is not capable of seeing what the association can do for him and the company. If that is like that, it means: 1. You are not offering enough value to your potential members and the ones who abandon your enterprise o 2. You are not communicating the value that you offer in an effective way. First of all, I would like to establish a difference between the definition of price and value, as many people believe that value and price are the same, when they are actually very different terms. Price is what you pay. Value is what you get. Warren Buffett Price is what a product or a service costs, and it is normally determined by the existent offer and the demand of this product. If a product has a good value for several people, it usually has a good high demand. If the offer is little, it will be expensive, however if the offer is high, the price will be reduced. One good example of that is water. Value is what a product is worth for you or even how much would you pay for that same product in a specific moment. That value is not the real price, but how much you would actually pay for that product. For example, if you are at home and someone comes to sell you some bottles of water in 1 euro each, you would probably not buy them as you can obtain all the water you want from your faucet. On the other hand, if someone tries to sell you that same bottle of water in the desert after a long walk without any water, you would probably pay a lot of money for it as the water has much more value to you in that specific moment (and the offer is much more limited). The product is the same indeed (bottle of water), but the value has changed. You must consider that even if the price of the products is the same (for example, the price of a specific t-shirt in a brand store), the perceived value by two people is different and that is one of the most relevant factors that will determine if one person buys it and the other do not. The value that a person gives to a product is their decision. The price that a product has is decided by the enterprise that commercializes it. If the enterprise manages to increase the perceived value of the product, it will manage that more consumers buy that product without modifying the price. That is one of the biggest goals that publicity fulfills.

This concept is also applied to the association. Increase the perceived value of your association and you will see that those who were not becoming a member, will eventually do. If your members are not becoming associated partners is because they are not perceiving the value of what you offer. In this case, you have the following options: 1. To reduce the price of the subscription to the association, in order that the value of it rises above the price. That is the principle why sales and occasional discounts in the price function especially well when the sales are increased in a specific moment. The discount leads to make the perceived value to be higher than the new price. Other factors and motivations play a role in sales, however we are not going to explain them as they will divert the discussion. Even though that reducing costs is always an option, there are other alternatives much less expensive, which are much more interesting in the medium and long term. 2. Increasing the value (to the member) while maintaining the price. In other articles of this web we have explained more widely about the following services: a. Education or training. b. News and content. c. The possibility of contacting other associations. d. Costs reduction. e. Use of new technologies. 3. Not changing the real value but developing the perceived value of the benefits that the association provides. We are going to discuss this point better in this article.

The services of our business association

Good leaders must first become good servants Robert Greenleaf As an exercise and as an illustration, we go from an association that has and offers the following services to its members. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. A monthly newsletter with information on the sector. Discounts in services and products. Joining and having access to a directory of members. Being part of an association that disseminates information on the sector. Access to studies on the sector.

Most of the associations communicate the services that they offer to their members with similar words to those expressed in that example. After all, that is what they are really offering to their members, right? Unfortunately, when those services are expressed with such words and not as benefits, or with the value that they are going to provide to their members, they will be ignored, as you are not actually saying anything relevant. You will not be saying to what extent those services will help them to develop their business or simplify their lives.

Understanding the needs of your clients:

To understand the man, you must first walk a mile in his moccasin. North American Indian Proverb If you have ever wondered and tried to properly understand the value that your clients are seeking in your association, you will find out that is very difficult that a client tells you that the reason why they want to join your organization is because: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. They want to receive a newsletter from the association. They want discounts on something. They want to receive a directory. They want to join an association that disseminates information. They want to read some studies on the sector (who does not know what they address).

I do not know if you notice where I am getting. Those statements (services) lack of value, as they do not tell to your potential member how those services will benefit them or the impact that they will have on its business. If you have asked to your members to specifically tell you their perceived value from your association and you have delved beyond the first reply, you would had obtained replies such as: From all the benefits that the association provides, what do you value the most? 1. Knowing the average prices of the raw materials on the sector. 2. Getting discounts in agricultural machinery and energy. 3. Meeting other people and companies on the sector, with whom who you have closed partnerships and shared information of the impactful market. I have also gotten new customers. 4. I have appreciated being informed of the international trends on the sector, which have helped me to get started on the exportation sector. 5. I have appreciated the training on exportation techniques and exportation support that I have received, while attending to fairs abroad which have helped me to make my company grow. 6. I have appreciated the training I have gotten about new technologies which have helped me to promote my products to a wider market. Have you noticed the difference between these statements and the ones expressed on the beginning? If these benefits were the most relevant to your current and future members (you must have asked several of them), how these services should be expressed would be the one with which they could quickly understand the impact these issues have on their companies. Lets take this example: The goal of the association is to help all of our members to increase their sales and reduce their costs. This objective will be achieved by offering our clients many benefits, of which we can highlight: 1. Information about the average prices of raw materials, so that they know whether they are performing a good or bad purchase and the possible room of improvement.

2. Discounts that will vary between 10-25% in different services such as raw materials, machinery and energy. These discounts represent a considerable improvement in the final results of these companies. 3. Expand the network of contacts with other enterprises on the sector. This factor allows our members to close new partnerships and acquire new clients within the association or throughout contacts made through the association. 4. Specific training in aspects directly related to the growing of a company. This training will include: exportation training and support, with specific information of the situation on the international sector. 5. Training on costs reduction and increasing of the sales thanks to the new technologies. Have you noticed the difference between these statements and the first ones? Services are probably the same, however the way they are transmitted make these benefits to be perceived with a real value. Remember that everything has started by analyzing their current perceived value (or what they are looking for) and reflecting services with words that evidence that value. As a person reads each of those benefits, an interior voice will say, it interests me, it interests me, it interests me so that when they finish to listen to all the benefits they will be much more inclined to join your association. But there is an even better formula which will help you to capture it, which is collecting its email address when you have it on the web. We speak about that in this article. Summarizing: In order to provide a real value to your members, there are several things that you must know how to do: 1. Understanding the needs of your current and potential partners and how you can give a real value to them. 2. Incorporate these needs to the mission of the company. 3. When you think about the services you offer to your members, always focus in the perceived value that they will receive through that service and analyze if it is important. If you are not sure, ask them. If you are sure, ask them and let them confirm it to you. Listen to the way they define that value and use it as it is to express the value in your materials. 4. When you communicate these services, do not ever describe the services but communicate the value they generate to the member. If you do so, your member will perfectly understand how this service will impact on them. Put yourself in their shoes and think as they would. It is important that your message gets to the member with words that are understood and they would use to express that value. Thus, the message will go directly to their brain. If there are members that do not renew its subscription and companies in your sector that have not been interested in joining your association, ask yourself if there could be a chance of improvement in the communication of the value that the association provides. If you think there is, rub your hands because if you improve the communication of that value, things can only get better. We get paid for bringing value to the market place Jim Rohn