Wherever we are (business or employment market), how much people are willing to pay for what we have to offer will be determined by 3 factors:

1. The need for what we do
2. How good we are at doing it
3. The difficulty to replace us.

These are true for both professional & personal lives.

1. The need for what we do

How many people need the products or services that we offer? The higher the number of people who need what we have to offer, the higher they will be willing to pay for it. How to be sure we offer what people need?

Any products or services offered should serve as a solution to solve people’s problems. Look around & see what problems people face. Create something that will solve that problem. People always need the solution to their problems.

Basically, people’s needs are; Physical needs (convenience, time (speed), money, material matters), emotional needs (feel good, special, sence of significance, sense of security, excitement) Mental Needs (challenge, sense of growth, mental stimulant) and Spiritual Needs (sense of security, acceptance, calmness, sense of contribution).

People’s needs are also seasonal. Be alert of what is going on around us and keep on asking the question, what are their problems & how can we solve their problems?

Marketing is about studying these needs and strategizing how to reach and communicate what you can offer to meet those needs.

2. How good are we at doing it

Unless we are offering something that is exclusive and can be offered by us and us only, we will have competition. How much people will be willing to pay will depend on the quality of your product & services. How good are we in delivering our goods? Is it as good as or better than others? The higher our quality comparing to others’, the higher is our worth in customer’s eyes. Rule of thumb is, the more competitors we have the better we have to be. Don’t just do it, do it better than others.

3. The difficulty to replace us

If whatever we offer can be replaced by anybody; nobody will be willing to pay high price for it. Here are some tips on how to make our products and services not easily replaceable:

• Solutions to physical needs are easily replaceable. So differentiate our selves by providing solution to emotional needs.
• Good close personal relationship most often satisfies the needs for connection, sense of significance, trust, even the feel good factor, which is not easily replaceable.
• Work on constantly improving the quality of our products and services. Keep on providing top quality to be the chosen one, but most of all, keep on building close personal relationship to appeal to emotional needs (the intangible needs, the X factor) to make ourselves irreplaceable. Keep on looking for that opportunity to make our every encounter with our clients (internal and external) as personal as possible.
• Look for secondary needs that can be met to give us that competitive edge. Look at how restaurants add value by offering home delivery, faster service and even premium items on the side. What can we do / offer to provide that value added proposition to our primary product and / or services?

Puan Jay
August 2010