The 2 Types of Value - Or, Why We Struggle to Explain Ourselves to Others

Imagine three different timelines where you introduce yourself to the very same prospect for the first time, three separate times:

In timeline 1, they first learn about you with a quick visit to your website. (Also in that timeline, can I be taller? Like 6-foot-2? Thanks. I needed that.)
In timeline 2, your prospect meets you for the first time in the hallway of an event, and you have a quick chat. (In this timeline, I just gave the keynote that morning, and also I don't know what back pain feels like.)
In timeline 3, your prospect has agreed to a meeting, and you decide to get coffee for an hour. (I'm actually the owner of the coffee shop in this timeline. You see, I won the lottery and used the proceeds to open the Creative Cafe. And cure a bunch of diseases or start a foundation or whatever.)

A seven-second scan of your site.

A three-minute hallway chat.

A 60-minute coffee meeting.

Quick: in which timeline does the prospect walk away feeling most confident they should hire you?

Precisely.

Also, I have a non-fat half-caff dirty chai latte with your name on it.

Every time we communicate with others is a chance to convey our value to them, but way too often, it's only when we have a lot of time with someone that they really "get it." We fail to realize there are two types of value that we offer others, and as experts, we only think about the type that takes the longest to explain:

Discovered value is a deeper kind of value which requires others to experience it with time spent. It’s what you know they need, but they may not realize it yet.
Apparent value is readily (wait for it) apparent. It's the value others can immediately understand is on-offer, likely because you tie it to things they already know they want. You can communicate it in short-order and the prospect or audience does not need to invest much time or energy to “get it.” Maybe that means some website copy or maybe a quick hallway chat, but immediately, you recognize, "Ah ha! I want that.”

When you're an expert in Your Thing, bring passion to your work, and/or tend to have lots of ideas or years of experience, it can often feel exceedingly difficult to explain your apparent value, because every fiber of your being is shouting at you, "But, but, but ... it's so much MORE than that!" Like a psychology PhD who reads a popular article on anxiety and rolls their eyes, you've got the burden of knowledge and a deep desire to serve others—and you want to set the record straight with the full depth of your expertise.

This is a big problem, because others aren’t ready to hear all that just yet. The goal is to start a relationship with a prospect or successfully pitch gatekeepers who lead communities of your ideal buyers. They need to hear something readily apparent. They need the first things first, not All The Things. They also won't invest much time learning about you to "get it." They need to get it (or more accurately, get part of it—and a really important part) quickly. Then maybe they’ll agree to more time with you.

The trick to remaining a substantive expert who also explains their value succinctly is to recognize the two types of value and keep them separate.

They’re different but of course related. The worst thing to do is try and summarize your entire worth in a single line (impossible) or use clickbaity language (devalues you among the best clients).

Articulating Apparent Value

The key to effectively articulating your apparent value is to align with what others already understand and want. The mistake experts make is communicating like a wall of smarts. This confuses, overwhelms, and frustrates others.

For example, some of the apparent value I personally offer my clients as a consultant sound like things you're already wandering the earth thinking about: better differentiation, more clarity, stronger storytelling and speeches. These things inform my initial messaging and the first moments I communicate with others in-person.

I help experts become stronger public voices so they have an easier time winning more and better clients.

My discovered value would then follow from what's readily apparent. It may not be things you've considered yet but logically will conclude you need once you spend at least a little time with me. Given the above description, I can start to explain more about premise development and turning your thinking into IP. That's slightly more "discovered” and further into the future of our relationship. That’s when you'll learn just how transformational these things are to everything you do, not just your next speech or next public-facing project. But that requires more time to discover. It behooves me to get you leaning in first, not by overpromising, but by delivering succinctly a form of value you see as readily apparent and immediately desirable.

Now, the mistake I see from experts and entrepreneurs is daydreaming about that one single line of copy they can write or speak to perfectly summarize 100% of their value quickly. Again, that’s a dream. It's not real. It's fiction. The sooner we come off our strange obsession with saying One Thing that says All Things, the sooner we can busy ourselves with the real work of crafting our premise and our message to convey genuine value.

When people fail to recognize the fiction and continue to seek one perfect line, the result is a lot hackish messaging, overpromising results, and/or using lazy proxies for our worth, instead of describing our actual value.

Hackish messaging sounds like "accounting software that doesn't suck!" or "your one-stop-shop for all your marketing needs." You say something which says nothing, or you will say anything if others look your way.
Overpromising is arguably the most familiar approach. Overpromising sounds like (gestures to LinkedIn). But no, sadly, they can not 10x your business in 10 days, nor 10 weeks, nor even 10 months.
Proxies for value are like when someone’s profile photo shows them next to GaryVee, or they proudly associate with brands and awards which, let's face it, devalued themselves years ago, so they’re doing the same now. (e.g. TEDx speaker; Forbes 30 Under 30). These are stand-ins for your value. Proxies. Poor ones.

Instead, I coach people through three distinct phases of clarifying their value to others. This arms them with the language they need and which they can customize to all interactions and touchpoints.

First, we develop your premise. Here's more on doing so. Your premise is the core idea informing the rest. If you plan to become a leading voice in your space, the premise must do what leaders do: move people away from what’s broken and towards something better. It sounds like a “stop/start” or “not this but that” statement.
Next, we flesh out the premise into a core narrative argument. This is the argument you're making to the world both overtly and implicitly in everything you do, everywhere you show up. It also sounds like the structure of a great speech, because great speeches are really great arguments. The full argument written out is one way you can articulate your discovered value. Try the dialogue outline as a useful tool for doing this.
Finally, we make things shorter, because it's always harder to shorten things early in the process, so we benefit from the practice and the process of developing initial language in steps 1 and 2. To make things shorter (that is, make your value more readily apparent), we don't look for one single line or phrase. We look for THREE. We find three phrases which are shared in the right sequence such that others come running your way. This is a technique I call "laddering down" your message.

From messy honesty with yourself to a distinct premise. From a short premise to the longer-form explanation of value which others discover. And from a longer-form explanation to a tightly articulated series of phrases you can repeat everywhere to immediately turn on lightbulbs and spark conversation. This is a repeatable process you can use to solve a foundational problem facing all experts, entrepreneurs, and service providers.

Whether you're speaking to a potential client or pitching a gatekeeper to get into densities of your ideal audience, the reality is the same:

You know a lot, but you can't say it all at once.

You deeply care, but you have to show others why they would.

You bring differentiated value to others.

But can you make that clear?

For more techniques for doing this and to see examples in-action, please join me for a my next free virtual talk.

I'm partnering with the wonderful and wise business strategist and business model designer Michelle Warner for a special live masterclass on this very subject. (FYI, the registration is on her website, not mine.)

Join us on Tuesday, September 16 at 2pm ET/11am PT for my session, Premise Development: How to Turn Your Expertise into Stronger IP to Productively Haunt Your Market
"Productively haunting" is a classic Michelle-ism which I've grown to love. It's what happens when you're not in the room but they keep thinking about you and referring you to others.

Learn more and register for free.

(Yes, it will be recorded and shared.)

In this session, I'll be speaking about: