The Sense of Value
Developing the sense of value is a two way street. One is your sense of what value is. The next is whether this value is being created for you, or are you creating value for others.
Do you have a sense of value? What is the sense of value? We all have it, but in different degrees. The sense of value includes the feel and intuition and insight of value. We tend to learn what value is (we are taught or told what it is and how to react to it, and this is value-in expertise). We also build a value by feeling. This all happens as we develop our intuition of value. Intuitions depend on expertise, experience and knowledge. Insights help us develop new thinking.
Gut feel is more like intuition.
We also have an instinct of value. This is ingrained in us from our childhood and depends on our expectations and beliefs (should we be prompt, should we keep our promises). Thus, some of us might want an expensive watch, whereas others are happy with a cheap watch. Some prefer a basic car, and others prefer a better car. This instinct of value changes over time, but the basic instinct of what value is remains.
Instinct is different from intuition. Leaders often use intuition to make decisions. We also use intuition to decide what is value. Part of this comes from data, our feel and our focus.
The way we deliver value is often through people. We train our frontline people, hopefully to deliver value. Often, we put in thoughts like customers like all customers are not honest.
This thought then impacts the intuitive thinking. We want the intuitive thinking to be positive,
Are we willing to put more emphasis on the intuitive thinking than on the generic rules we set up to handle customers? The customer should do this and follow this path to deal with us is one type of thinking.
Let’s examine two types of salesmen selling a B2C item in a shop/store, and a customer walks in
| Kind of Value | Salesman 1 | Salesman 2 |
| Instinctive | Hunt/attack | Hold back/relaxed |
| Intuitive | Customer will buy
Serve fast |
Customer will buy/ let him browse, be available for questions |
| Insight | How to Convert from a walk in to a buyer | |
So how do we correct this and build the right intuition and curb instincts. How do we develop insights?
- Build self-esteem, awareness, anticipation, ability, agility, attitude and ambidextrousness of the front line people.
- Form Customer Centric Circles and use self-development and self-directed learning for the customer, thereby exchanging knowledge and building intuition and insight.
These people will have a sense and a feel for what customers want and value.
Gautam Mahajan,
President, Customer Value Foundation and Inter-Link India
Founder editor, Journal of Creating Value jcv.sagepub.com
K-185 Sarai Jullena, New Delhi 110025
+91 98100 60368, 011-26831226
mahajan@customervaluefoundation.com
www.customervaluefoundation.com
www.interlinkindia.net
Twitter @ValueCreationJ
Customer Value Foundation (CVF) helps companies to Create Value and profit by Creating Value for the Customers, employee and for each person working with the companies.
Total Customer Value Management (Total CVM) transforms the entire company to focus on Creating Value for the Customer by aligning each person’s role in Creating Customer Value and getting shareholder wealth and Value.
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