GRAND RAPIDS – Being merely competitive doesn?t win the race. Grow your business with a compelling customer-focused value proposition! What is your technology worth? Being merely competitive doesn?t cut it. You need a compelling value proposition!

A recent technology column listed several new consumer electronics devices coming to market. I?m a gear-guy and a sucker for these lists. Plus it?s fun to see what cool new thing will burst on the scene next.

But as cool as new technology is, most people can?t afford all of it. And it got me thinking? What does this stuff really cost? I mean the real ? net ? cost.

Does your value proposition show just purchase cost or net cost? That is, your cost less any real or indirect savings your customers will realize in concert with your offering.

Some call this total life cycle cost. Or total cost of ownership. Let?s just call it Real Cost.

Tabulating the purchase cost of a given technology is easy. But this is often only part of the story. It?s a good start. But we also have to ask, ?What offsets are also present??

Flashback

Once a as common as coffee pots, ?fax? machines were essential office technology. Remember those? (For anyone under 30, it was like email but with real paper and terrible resolution) These things flooded the landscape, appearing in every office and retail store in the U.S. in the 1980?s.

What did they cost? The Real Cost?

The machine itself was $500 in 1990. Add paper, ink/toner and maybe an additional phone line. So in the first year maybe $750 total. Simple, right?

But what if there was more to it?

What a fax machine really does is reduce the number of express letters. Easily saving $10-$15 each time. So let?s assume each fax machine conservatively eliminated one express letter per day (your mileage may vary).

This translates into savings of $2,000 or more each year in courier costs alone ($10 saved on one less express package per working day). We could add reduced fuel use by the delivery service and time savings to the list as well.

This tech device saved $1,250 in the first year alone ($2,000 express delivery savings ? $750 fax machine cost). Now we?re talking some real value! Spend a little, save a lot.

Although this is an historical example, you can apply the same theory today.

Are you in medical devices or hospital equipment? This industry has a voracious appetite for solutions that reduce costs, while maintaining quality outcomes. If you can demonstrate 20% or better savings you have an audience eager to hear about it.

Name another industry that isn?t looking for value! This is obvious, of course.

You may have to dig a little to find meaningful offsets. But start digging. Watch closely how your customers use your solution. What are they doing differently? What are they not doing?

The savings you uncover may not be unique to you. But if you?re the only one talking about them it becomes your value proposition.

Don Beery is the founder of the Blendon Group, a technology, growth and business consulting group.