The priest started his sermon with,

 

“God doesn’t love me because I’m valuable…

I’m valuable because God loves me.”

 

I apologize. I know that I was supposed to be paying attention to the rest of his sermon, but his opening started me thinking about its application in the sales world, especially in the sales world of professional service providers and I stayed distracted.

 

I am a professional service provider, so I’m gonna use me as an example, but if you want full value from this post, substitute the words, “professional service provider”, or “you”, the reader, every time you see me use a first person pronoun.

 

Here’s how it got twisted in my head. Pretend that my customer(s) is god (little g). Pretend that I am me. Before my customer agrees to do business with me, I may have little or no value to them. Once they agree to buy, I have value. Once I deliver, my value to them grows again (I hope.). Interestingly, my value to myself does not change during the process. Actually, I should have written “should not change during the process”. It might if I have a high need for approval as described in  Dave Kurlan’s Blog.

 

OK, so back to it. Value is a cumulative thing. It’s also different things to different people. I’m of infinite value to my mother, so let’s take her out of the equation. I have a value to each prospect, each customer, each center of influence, each friend. I have no value to people that don’t know me and as we observed earlier, my value to myself won’t be affected by the cumulative total of my value to others.

 

We could talk about who’s got the greater cumulative value and start making an MVP list for the whole world, but I’d rather concentrate on becoming more valuable.

 

If I have a prospect agree to do business with me, my value to them (and cumulatively to the world) has increased.

 

If I satisfy a customer, my value to them (and cumulatively to the world) has increased.

 

If I get a prospect or a customer to refer me (say that I have value), my value to my new prospect (and cumulatively to the world) has increased.

 

But none of these events changes my value to myself, only to the world.

 

You might have to read this again and when you do, remember, that this isn’t about me and my God, it’s about you and your prospects and customers. Also, I haven’t talked about how to grow value. I suggest that you go here or read this or email me.