“Never confuse volume with value.”

– Andrew James

I had a mind blowing mini-mastermind strategy session with Spencer Shaw (creator of Paid in 14 Days) yesterday.

As we were scheming up new marketing tactics and ideas, Spencer started to talk to me about some of his coaching students, and marketers in general, and a big problem or trap we all fall into.

“They want to give away SOOOOOOO much stuff, and they don’t realize that what they are giving away could be their first product and they could be making money by now.”

I saw this mistake in myself and see it in others all the time.

The fatal flaw has everything to do with misunderstanding this law of value.  What it creates in marketing, is that portion of the list, the traffic, the members, the viewers… the audience that would have taken action but because a disconnect you created in the process, they do not.

This is how I pin point the necessary points of focus to improve advertising campaigns.  We look at key words, search volume, and the metrics all along the way in the process, and see where things drop off.  It’s a disconnect.

If we want to build a bigger business, a better process, and make more money making more of our prospects, customers, clients, and partners more happy, we must do our very best to create smooth processes with as few disconnects as possible and then they will feel like they have received value.  Then reciprocity can work, then the free thing you are giving away to get people in the door, is worth it.

The Law Of Value

So, “Andrew’s Law Of Value” says that:

amount of value = desire X speed to satisfy it

Let me use some book smarts to start. Here’s the “official definitions.”

Origin:
1275–1325;  ME < OF, n. use of fem. ptp. ( cf. valuta) of valoir  < L valēre  to be worth

Synonyms
Utility. Value, worth  imply intrinsic excellence or desirability. Value  is that quality of anything which renders it desirable or useful: the value of sunlight or good books.

So what is value really?  Value is anything people desire and are willing to trade for.  Value is anything people are willing to take action to get, or to keep… i.e. prevent losing.  In other words, value is a kind of currency a way of measuring our exchanges between one another.  The key word in the whole definition, I think, is desire.

There are really 2 basic principles to understanding this law:

1- The more someone wants or needs a certain thing, the more value they assign to it.

(This can be and usually is dictated by, how much a person has to gain as a result of receiving the desired  thing, or how much they have to lose by not getting it… That’s why people will pay so much for how to make money stuff, because of the potential gains)

2- The speed at which you can deliver that outcome, not the volume of information about that outcome determine the value.

It’s more about speed of delivery of the outcome than it is about the amount of help and stuff about the outcome.  How much would you pay me to tell you the 3 letters of a ticker symbol of a stock that will go up 100 points tomorrow? It’s not about the volume.

The one time volume = value…

Is when value is already present.  We see this a lot with re-launches.  “So and so is giving away his entire $2000 course that was only originally released to 4 people…” (kidding)

Why is that valuable?  Because currency was already assigned.

How “Free” Should Actually Be Used

The idea of a lost leader is actually a very simple one.  It’s something that you don’t make money or profit on, but it’s worth it because it is perceived as extremely valuable.  What you buy with free is drop dead simple.  The only thing FREE can really buy, is attention.  And that must always be remembered.

So, when you give away “FREE” make sure it is something that has incredibly high perceived value, and gives you the ability to get attention.  If not, you may be wasting your time, your ad dollars, and worse the time and attention of your prospects, clients, and customers.

Speed of delivery…

Yeah, I realize this post got a little long, and so I’m going to consider the value in it, transferred. You’re welcome, I’m sure you’d do the same for me