Today, we will be more specific than that.

Adding value is based on the understanding that when I buy from you, I’m not buying your product or service, I am buying a better life for myself, or a better version of myself. It’s actually not about you at all, and entirely about me.

So in order to add value, you need to give me more for the same price or improve our existing agreement. That’s what it really means. 

Let’s take a real-world example of adding value:

Airbnb wanted an easier way for users to post listings and potential users to find them, so they added tremendous value by integrating with Craigslist, growth hacking their business at the same time by leveraging a useful existing audience platform.

A good example of adding value for the modern business is through listening rather than talking.

Conversely, you need to understand that it is likely most brands are actually detracting value from you via an insidious technique known as value engineering. What this really means, is lowering the interest rate of your current account, making your chocolate bar smaller, or putting less alcohol in your beer.

That’s why adding value can be so powerful, when and only when it is done correctly.