The Real Motive: What People Pay Money For

Do what you love. Create products for people, not for money. You will become successful if you are driven by the desire to make the world a better place. There's some truth to this sweet nectar that authors and successful entrepreneurs pour into their readers and listeners. But it’s not that simple. A public figure will never admit that most of their activity is dedicated to making money. It is more beneficial for business to appear as a caring advocate for high morals. And this is called PR. Most aspiring entrepreneurs completely forget about this. Often, inspired and charged by these motivational insights, they forget about the economy and delivering value to the client.

„So, what is value?“ Value is what the client is willing to pay money for. And the client pays money only if you provide some benefit. Besides money, a person values their time, mood, and physical condition. Every time a person is about to pay, they perform a self-diagnosis and decide whether the value they will receive is worth the price. Is it easier to do it themselves? Will it cause them discomfort? Will they injure themselves if they do it on their own? If all arguments weigh in your favor, the client will pay.

Why is it necessary to understand what value is? Because every action, every stage of interaction between the business and the client, every phone call, every design element — everything should carry value for the client. Even now, as words are flowing from my keyboard and I don't want to stop, I understand that time and the moment of inspiration are more important to me, and instead of making lunch for myself, I decide to order food delivery… One moment… Done. Because it’s convenient. It saves time right now when it's so important to me.

The client always has doubts

At every stage of interaction with your business, the client compares their expectations. The client always has doubts. And if at some stage their expectations do not match the value they want to receive, the client will leave. If this happens at the beginning of your communication with them, you won’t get paid. If it happens after they receive your product or service, they won’t return and won’t recommend you to anyone. And this threatens the absence of company growth.

So, the essence of entrepreneurship is profit. The client pays money for value. If your product does not match the value, you won’t get paid. Value must be present at every stage of interaction with your product. A product is a system that sells something: goods or services. A product is a system that delivers value through a product or service.

How to Form Value?

No pain, no gain.

The human brain is designed in such a way that hormones, neurotransmitters, and a cocktail of various molecules govern behavior. We strive to experience less pain and more pleasure. There are, of course, people who enjoy pain. And these are entrepreneurs, not what you were thinking. After all, the correctly identified pain that the client experiences can form the basis of the value that the product will provide.

For example, people experienced severe psychological pain when losing a USB flash drive with important data. Until two MIT students, Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, came up with the idea of storing files in the “cloud.” Of course, USB flash drive owners still lose them, but Dropbox clients simply stopped using them.

How can the value of a product be described? Let’s start with the fact that describing something with words is only necessary when we intend to convey information to another person: an investor, a client in marketing materials, employees to understand the overall goal. For this, a pitch is used. I don’t know how Drew and Arash presented their product, but their pitch could have been short and succinct: “It’s like a USB flash drive, but on the internet.” First, everyone knows how to use flash drives. They know that flash drives are used for transferring and storing files. Second, this implies that access to files is always available where there is the internet.

Your task is to understand the value of your product and put it into words. A pitch is a living tool. It should be constantly revised, changed, and improved. If you can’t describe it in two or three words, write a longer one. The main thing is that you can accurately describe your product in a maximum of 30 seconds. Some readers may have heard of the elevator pitch. If you suddenly find yourself in an elevator with an investor and want to tell them about your product, you will have no more than 20-30 seconds to interest them. In this case, your pitch should be ready to go. You should be ready to present it at any moment and in any inconvenient place. Leave the optimization to your subconscious, and let your conscious mind periodically ask if a solution has been found. You’ll be surprised, but over time you’ll find exactly the pitch that best describes your product.

This applies to applications, services, and products. But what if you’re just a musician, artist, or worker in an assembly line? Why do you need all this? Don’t you want to earn more? Just doing your job, you perform mechanical actions that are not unique unless value is embedded in them. You are easily replaceable. To create value in your activity, it’s not necessary to start a business. It’s enough to understand why you are doing it. If you want to remain an employee, your client is your management. You may be good at generating new ideas or optimizing processes in the company. The main thing is to understand what management is concerned about. How can you find out? Ask!

To sum up

1. Conduct research, ask your client about their pains. Find a unique one.
2. Understand how your product can be valuable.
3. Package your value in a pitch. Keep several explanations of value on hand: quick and detailed.