The Power of Perceived Value
Winning communication is predicated on positive perception.
Regardless of the topic, metrics, or skills of one person delivering their story to another, perceived value is more important than argued value.
The psychology is simple: When a listener perceives value in a speaker, and perceives meaningful value for themselves in what that speaker offers, they pay more attention to everything that speaker says. But when a listener questions the value of the speaker, or can't easily recognize the value that speaker represents, the barriers go up and the impact of the message is lost.
Creating perceived value in a personal or professional engagement requires leading with human connection instead of with typical corporate content. Until an audience trusts and respects the messenger, they keep that messenger and their content at a distance. Put another way, until an audience knows why they should care, they won't.
This is precisely why #CorporateStorytelling is so vital to successful interactions. Starting with story establishes personal parallels and levels the playing field, putting the communicator and viewer on equal footing and mutual alignment. Once the audience perceives deep value and confidence that the person speaking to them has their best interests at heart, the core message content has a fighting chance to break through and achieve its intent.
Nielsen Norman Group defines perceived value as "the subjective worth attributed to a product or service in relation to a goal." For example, when engaging with a website, the perceived value of that site is measured by the benefit a visitor expects to derive from using it. High expectations make users more likely to engage with the site, low expectations barely get a cursory glance.
Same with a point of sale. If a solution is immediately accessible, attractive, and connective, perceived value goes up, regardless of the price. But even if that solution is technically more worthy, proven, and affordable, perceived value goes down if it fails to connect with the buyer.
Consider growing existential discussions around artificial intelligence. MDPI correctly argues that those who leverage AI daily versus those who fear or discount AI are demonstrating the powers of perceived value each time they embrace or eschew the technology. The difference between "I get it" and "I don't get it" comes down to storytelling.
One of my favorite perceived value studies was called Significant Objects. In 2009, authors Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn looked at the effect of narrative on any given object’s subjective value and found that value could, in fact, be measured objectively. They bought about 150 worthless, unrelated, often broken, damaged, or incomplete items at a garage sale for an average price of $1.25 each. They then recruited more than 100 skilled writers to add well-crafted stories around each item and listed them on eBay. Walker and Glen sold $128.74 worth of junk for $3,612.51, proving that what people actually buy is the story or perceived value.
Your audience cares more about you and your position than they do about your numbers, facts, or KPIs. If you believe you have to leave story out in order to cram more metrics in, you’re killing your own perceived value. Michelle Miller, head of content strategy at Magento Commerce, speaks on The Art of Effective Storytelling. She says that humans aren't hardwired to understand logic and remember facts for long, but we always understand and remember stories.
Bottom Line
If you want to stand out from the noise and increase your perceived value in today's saturated, you won’t do it by dumping data on your audience. Or with cold, confusing industry jargon. And you can’t just explain something when you could share a story demonstrating that thing with passion and purpose.
Turn your lecture into a conversation and your topic into a meaningful, connective, recognizable story. Your audience will perceive your story to be more valuable, then pay more for that story than for any product you're truying to sell.
