Just what is "Value Marketing & Selling"?

"We've spent a lot of money on consultants that have not come close to the value received from your Tufts students working with us this semester!"   

What's above is a direct quote this week from the VP of Marketing of a well-established healthcare analytics company with deeply experienced management and this was his comment to me and his project team upon completing their 13-week semester.  

• Makes me feel great, but I'm merely the professor who provides content and 6 complex projects
• It provides our students with the reality of a reward for their very hard work over 3 months.
• It provides immediate value since management provides 40% of their project grade
• It solidifies a core pillar that we teach of "value marketing", "value selling" and "value pricing"
  
  

All about the value received, not about the product or its price!

In a classroom, deep in the science of marketing and sales, we're able to bring together real-life experts (all of whom are alums from this course) who are hand-on practitioners to both teach and run experiments in six companies per course. Couple that with the fact that we provide a foundational platform for detailed life and business lessons in creating and delivering value propositions, how to deliver value pricing plus a long list of both Inbound and Outbound Marketing tools and tactics, and it's not a surprise that 100% of our students coming out of this course have high-paying and rewarding jobs. 

The picture to the left is the project team from one of the final presentations this week along with the VP of Sales & Marketing for their project company, whose comments in summing up the semester's work were captured in that one value statement that we love to hear:

"you far exceeded our expectations"

Add to that the best example of a net-promoter-score in his request to do a follow-on project for  the upcoming fall semester to take this work to the next level.  

Each semester I take out of the classroom the results of our work, and immediately see their applications in everything I touch in the business world of marketing and sales where value provided counts far more than price and the archaic tactics of having a salesperson "stop by and have coffee".  

• Netflix couldn't figure out their competitive value, and lost 2 million subscribers in Q1
• Ford's 150 Lightning received 200,000 orders since January far outpacing any other truck
• Apple and Google continue to reinvent, exceed expectations and be "best places to work"

It looks like a great weather weekend which will find me deep in my VT woodlot with both my trusty gas-fired Stihl 20" chainsaw, now accompanied by my less expensive, lighter and equally powered battery-powered Ryobi.  The value is not the lesser price since the rechargeable Ryobi batteries, which last for an hour are expensive, and I need three.  The very personal value is that I am tired of continuously damaging my shoulder with the kickback of the starter cord when the Stihl doesn't start.  Compare 5 minutes of trying-to-start time and constant shoulder damage to the push of a button.  That's value marketing, selling and pricing all in one! I could care less about the price.

So, what's the value you're providing to your customers?   

Think about that for 30 minutes this weekend. 

At any time, if you want to kick your answer around with me, just connect for some quick ideas and feedback. There's no cost to a call or two, plus I love listening and talking about the new world of sales and marketing.  Or you can come out and work in the woodlot tomorrow 😁, and we can spend the day talking through a few ideas,

Enjoy the weekend!

www.derbymanagement.com  

Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts.