"Lead with VALUE!!!!"

→ If I had a dollar for every time I've heard this bad advice, I could retire 😊

First of all...

↳ What is "value?" 🤔

Ask ten marketers this question and you'll get ten answers.

And I'll take the 11th stab...

In the Fletch PMM framework, we distinguish between...

🟧 Capabilities — what you do with a product

🟩 Features — the part of the product that makes the capability possible

🟦 Benefits — the outcome of using the capability

These are all things you can pretty much guarantee.

If you're 1Password, you can say:

🟧 Store all your passwords in one place (capability)

🟩 Using our encrypted online vault (feature)

🟦 So you can reduce the risk of being hacked (benefit)

But what about the VALUE?

The simplest way to put it:

🟪 Value = personalized benefits

How important is not getting hacked?

❌ If you're my grandma and you hardly use the internet, it's probably not that valuable.

👍🏻 If you're a parent, it might be slightly more valuable to you.

✅ If you're the Director of IT at a Fortune 500 company...

it's EXTREMELY valuable.

Value differs depending on the PERSON.

For example...

↳ Imagine you have three Directors of IT in a room.

1️⃣ One of them is very forward-thinking and is trying to modernize their organization.

2️⃣ One of them is more old school and works in a legacy industry.

3️⃣ One of them recently had all their passwords stolen in the recent LastPass hack.

Even within the same ROLE... the value can look completely different.

So when you try to follow the marketing advice

(i.e. "LEAD WITH VALUE!!!!!")

You can actually end up IMPOSING false beliefs on your customers.

"Become the hero of your organization!" 🥴

"Sleep better at night!" 🤢

"Finally get that big promotion!" 🤮

Stuff like this ^ assumes a ton about the person you're selling to 😬

So it's better to share the 🟦 BENEFIT rather than the 🟪 VALUE.

Does value messaging go away? 🤔

↳ Absolutely not!

That's what your SALES TEAM shares on the fourth call in a long sales cycle once the champion has shared that internal information:

"I really need to get this deal over the hump — I have a big promotion coming up and if we get 1Password, I think my boss will promote me."

THEN you can talk "value" — because they shared it with you!