Renaldi Adrian

You may have heard this advice: when selling a product, don’t just sell a commodity—sell the emotion behind it. Personally, the first time I’ve heard about this idea is from Seth Godin’s book This is Marketing:

Most of us do our most important work when we traffic in emotions, not commodities

What closely connects emotions to your product is actually the value of your product. When a user uses your product, are they just getting an item (whether physical or digital), or are they experiencing something meaningful—like happiness or satisfaction?

The challenge with this topic is that if you stop there, your understanding of value becomes prone to bias. There’s no quantifiable method to determine the value behind your product. For example, while you may believe your product brings joy, your users might not feel the same, or they may not experience the level of joy you intend to convey.

I discovered the solution to this problem regarding too much subjectivity in finding value from the book $100M Offers by Alex Hormozi It introduces a formula—a framework—that could help balance the excessive subjectivty with objectivity and quantifiable result:

There are four primary drivers of value. The two on top you’ll want to increase and the two on bottom you’ll want to decrease. Here’s a breakdown on each point:

1. Dream outcome: The vision that the user wants, does your product give them what they want to achieve?
2. Perceived likelihood of achievement: Is the solution that you’re offering to users are realistically achievable?
3. Time delay: How long does it take for the users to achieve their dream outcome?
4. Effort & sacrifice: How much of an effort and cost in time and money is needed for the users to achiever their dream?

For example, a marketing service: you have a product listed on a marketplace, and after paying a fee, you don’t have to wait for days, weeks, or even months to see results. Instead, your sales increase immediately! Customers start purchasing your product right away. Referring back to the value equation, this service effectively eliminates time delay, making it incredibly valuable.

Another tip to find the value that is more likely that it will relate to your users is try to get to the users’ prespective, Dale Carnegie captures this idea perfectly in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People:

The only way on earth to influence other people is to talk about what they want and show them how to get it