What the Value-Pricers Get Wrong

And 5 ways to fix it.

By Frank Stitely

Beeeeeep.  Briiinnnnggg.  Boooooop.  You reach over to turn off the alarm.

But it’s not your alarm, and it’s not 6 a.m. yet.  It’s the coffee maker.  Or is it the dishwasher?  Or the washing machine?  It turns out to be a text message.  You glance down at your smartphone, and you see 14 app notifications, 27 e-mails, and three texts.  Your smartwatch yells at you for not meeting your “fitness” goal yesterday.

By 6 a.m., half of humanity competes for your attention.  Every computer programmer on the planet believes his notifications rock your world.  When everything beeps, do any of the beeps really matter?  The rock group, Chicago, wrote, “Does anybody really know what time it is?”  Yes, it’s time for another notification.

We don’t suffer alone.  Our clients share our pain.

The value pricing people tell us that we aren’t selling time.  But we are.  We aren’t selling our time.  We are selling our clients’ time – back to them.  21st-century clients want perfect compliance, fast service, and a competitive price – as a start.  Most importantly, they want us to save them time.