Most distributors would love to be paid for the value-add that they offer, yet many struggle with making that a reality. To be successful in that, you have to understand how your services create economic value for your customers, according to Francois Delvaux and Dan McLaughlin in Get Paid for the Value You Add.

Download a Free Chapter: The Little Black Book of Strategic Planning for Distributors Submit your email address below to receive a chapter of Brent Grover’s new book. When you submit your email you will be signed up to receive weekly distribution news updates.

In other words, which specific elements of your value-added services drive a customer's business toward higher revenue and profit? The answer will vary based on which market segment that customer operates in. A good place to gain comprehensive knowledge of your value across customer segments is by reviewing your customers' historical usage of those services (i.e. how often did they use a particular service during a set time frame?)

Often, the most important and differentiated value elements are embedded in the services that distributors provide – and those services are often given away for free. If you can clearly identify how that service creates that economic value for the customer, you'll have a better basis for getting them to agree to paying for it going forward.