In his verse on “Love All,” JAY-Z reaches back more than a century and pulls up an old line from Oscar Wilde: ‘nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.’ Wilde gave it to Lord Henry in The Picture of Dorian Gray.

I’ve been guilty of this as a consumer and as a business owner—focusing too heavily on the price I wanted to land at and not focusing enough on the value that I wanted to give or receive.

I’ve been around long enough to know sometimes chasing the number makes you miss the point. Because price and value are not the same thing. They’re not even cousins, well…maybe distant cousins.

Price is quantified. Value is qualified.

Price is what’s on the tag. Value is everything that happens after you pay it: how long it lasts, how it makes you feel, what it saves you, and what it makes possible. Warren Buffett put it about as plainly as anyone ever has: “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”

In marketing, we don’t have the luxury of mixing those two up. Our whole job is to make the value so clear that the price makes sense. When marketing doesn’t do that job, everything gets boiled down to price, and the only lever left to pull is a discount.

As consumers, we shop for price and complain about value.

Be so super fr. Most of us start with the filter set to “Price: Low to High.” We find the cheapest flight then we act surprised when they charge for our carry-on. We buy the cheapest top, then complain when it doesn’t survive the second wash. We go with the cheapest quote and get upset when the contractor left out half of what we actually needed.

The cheapest option isn’t always the deal it looks like. Sometimes it’s just the first bill.

The Government figured this out a long time ago.

If you’ve ever been anywhere near a public contract, you’ve heard the phrase “lowest bid, best value.” It doesn’t mean the most expensive bid wins, and it doesn’t mean the cheapest one automatically does either. It means the lowest price that still accounts for every relevant factor: experience, quality, timeline, risk, and how complete the solution really is. The government asks, “What’s the most complete, comprehensive solution at the best price?”

That’s a pretty good standard for our households and our businesses, too.

Business owners: if you want to charge more, give more.

A lot of small business owners want to raise their prices, and many of them should. But a higher price has to come with higher value, and your customer has to be able to see it.

Take a blowout. If you want to charge more than the shop down the street, don’t just change the number on the menu and hope nobody notices. Build the value into the service. Start with a wash and a deep condition. Add a quick scalp treatment. Send her home with the exact steps to make it last until her next appointment. Now you’re not the more expensive blowout, you’re the better one.

The same goes for every industry: contractors, caterers, consultants, churches planning a fundraiser, cities rolling out a new program. Price is the conversation people start with but value is the conversation you have to win.

Start with the value.

So this week, whether you’re buying or selling, flip the order:
As a consumer, before you ask “How much?”, ask “What am I actually getting, and what will going cheaper cost me later?”

As a business owner, before you touch your prices, list everything your customer gets. If the list is thin, fix the list first. Then adjust the price accordingly.

When you do raise your price, say out loud what’s new. Value nobody can see doesn’t count.

That’s this week’s hook: Lead with the value.

-TenFold Jess

Not sure how to show the value in what you sell? That’s exactly what we do. Send TenFold a message and let’s talk.