Why Members Don’t See Value

Members don’t pay for services or products. They pay for value.

Communication involves two parties, the speaker and the listener.

If you can’t communicate the value then no value exists.

Let’s start with value…

Problems with most value propositions:

• Propositions posted to a website infer the member ought to know them and memorize them.
• They are competitive in nature to others and have little differentiation in the marketplace.
• The members have limited opportunities to offer feedback in a controlled environment.
• Unclear objectives and modus operandi confuse customer and media to make incorrect assumptions about value proposition.
• Most propositions are about deliverables, what people receive as a product, and rarely mention results derived.

Look at your website right now and find the value propositions (if you can). Examples can include what do you want others to do next, what are you offering as products or services, or how can consumers get involved?

People might know what you do but not know why you do it.

Why is more important that what or how.

Why is what inspires people to take action.

Start with why and others will have a much clearer understanding of what you actually do and give reason to support your cause.

Is information of value?

No! No! No! Information by itself has little value.  That’s why you have Google to search for what you need.

In my opinion is it the application of the information that has value. In other words if you are driving membership by constantly posting links of other resources and not interpreting what they mean then not only does the message gets labeled as noise but all future correspondence gets put in the SPAM folder, unliked, and unfollowed.

Think of the value propositions you have and explain “what’s in it for the member?” as a qualitative or quantifiable result.

Let’s use Education as an example value proposition.

Quantitative results

• Return on investment by generating referrals from new contacts.
• Cost reduction by minimizing legal costs from compliance.
• Retention of employees saves money and time finding new recruits.
• Increase in sales by applying new online marketing tactics.

Qualitative results

• Increased safety in potentially dangerous situations.
• Reliable communications that communicate our value.
• Faster collaboration by working in teams.
• Greater job satisfaction.
• Increase in productivity in working with mobile devices.

Spend some time reviewing every media channel and ask yourself if you are communicating the value proposition as result the member will achieve and you will find more will take action on what you are currently providing.

Make your list of value propositions and assign these three values to each one:

1. Wholesale value  = fixed, variable and other costs association of acquiring
2. Retail value = actual or realized value from receiving each one.
3. Member savings = how much money the member saved by subtracting retail value minus wholesale value.

And now value’s evil twin… communication.

Communication involves two parties, the speaker and the listener.

How much time do spend on activities vs. results of your communication? Or in other words, do people receive what you have to share and take action or is the activity of creating the communication piece satisfied when it goes live online or to the printer. Read this post on how to improve your results in communication.

If I were to walk outside my house and scream at the top of my lungs everyone needs to recycle then I imagine only a few people will hear me and no one will know why.

If you want a harsh reality behind the work you are doing check out the YouTube insights (analytics) and discover how long others are watching the videos you spend hours and hundreds/thousands to create. In most cases people watch for 1-5 seconds and are gone.

This an example of an organization being a passive contributor vs an active collaborator.

The active collaborator is one that creates the message behind what the members want rather than assume, has the members create the content on behalf of the organization, or the content comes from the comments. The challenge behind being an active collaborator that it takes time to listen and create which is a commodity most do not prioritize very well.

More to come on this topic so make sure you subscribe to this blog to get future posts.