Are You A Cost Or A Benefit?

Corporate Branding, Bland To Brand, Corporate PositioningClients see you in one of two ways, either as a COST or as a BENEFIT.

Examples of companies that are perceived as a ‘cost’

  • Lawyers
  • Dentists
  • Plumbers
  • Gym
  • Search consultants/headhunters

Examples of companies that are perceived as a ‘benefit’

  • Restaurants that you want to eat at (non fast food)
  • Jeweller
  • Concerts and events
  • Zoo and other attractions
  • Pubs, bars and other entertainment

Here’s the thing – UNLESS you transform yourself from a cost to a benefit, you’ll remain stuck in the vortex of price matching and discounting – BECAUSE the prospects SEE you as a cost and not as a benefit.

I know you think you offer a benefit… think again.

  • A Lawyer will settle your lawsuit, but at a substantial emotional and financial cost.
  • Dentists will fix your teeth, repair a cavity, but again it’s expensive, sometimes leaving a bad taste in your mouth .
  • Plumbers will fix your clogged drain, but it ain’t gonna be cheap and chances are they will still be a mess leftover when they leave.

You get the point.

What I teach my clients in my business coaching and mentoring programs is how to

  • Transform an intangible benefit to something the prospect can grasp, understand and fully value.
  • Shift the focus away from the cost or price to something specific that is tied to their Unique Selling Proposition.
  • Systematically engage in Killer Konversations™ that emboldens their value in their suspects and prospects’ eyes – with integrity and legitimacy.

If you’d like to get over the primary objections that are preventing people from buying from you, contact us. We’ve transformed companies in hundreds of industries with remarkable results, but don’t take our word for it – listen to or watch what our clients have to say.

Just for the record, I used this particular strategy to sell CAD/CAM systems, printing services and sophisticated IT systems. It’s not a template, but a philosophy and approach, that once adopted, will completely transform how people see your role in their lives and/or businesses. Simply stated, they will, if deployed effectively never consider an alternative to what you have to offer.

How valuable would that be? Hmmm…. Now I have you thinking!

1 Response to “Are You A Cost Or A Benefit?”


  • This is so true. As Engineers who design new Electronics Products for Australian Electronics Manufacturers, we see the benefit side of it, but I can also see that many of our customers are primarily looking at cost.

    The benefit is simple, yet it isn’t. If the business plan is solid and the market really is there, and they sell it effectively; then for every $ a client spends on R&D they wuill make back at least $10 in profit on the back end.

    But there are a few caveats in there because we can’t guarantee that they do at their end.

    What we do at our end is recognised with 3 national awards over the past 2 years as being as good as it gets in Australia as far as providing both best in class Electronics Design and best in class Embedded Software development.

    Ray Keefe
    Successful Endeavours Pty Ltd
    Casey Business of the Year 2010
    Industrial Electronics Future Award Winner 2011
    Award Winning Electronics Design and Embedded Software Development

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