1. Present your work.
Give a list of all the work you did for the account. Of course this means that you have to keep track of the work you do. Are you keeping track? Now is a good time to start. Here are some ideas of what you can track:
• Time you don’t invoice. This could be planning meetings you hold and don’t charge your customer.
• Deliveries delays avoided or on time deliveries
• Extended performance of your product or service. An example is extended drain intervals of industrial lubricants.
• Results you’ve achieved.
2. Quantify the value of your work.
There are several levels of value. The lowest level is the value of your time. Of course you should consider your time and factor that into the value you deliver. Even better is to calculate the value you’ve delivered because your work helped a customer avoid a cost, reduce a cost or increase revenue. Think about production time value. You’ve probably generated more than your hourly rate if your work allowed increased production.
3. Confirm that your customer agrees that you’ve delivered value.
The value you deliver is relevant only if your customer agrees. Ask your customer if what you’re doing is a benefit to him. If not, stop doing what you’re doing. If your customer agrees you’re delivering value, you should continue to keep track of what you’re doing and continue to deliver it.
4. Learn your customer’s pain points.
Ask your customer about obstacles in doing their job. Ask what would make their job easier. You can learn areas for you to contribute and make an impact on your customer’s business. Those are the tasks you should be doing.
5. Plan the next year’s value target.
One way to secure your business is to continue to deliver value that makes it difficult for a competitor to offer. When you target an amount, you raise the bar for competitors and make it difficult for them to take away your business. You want your competition focusing on someone else’s business, not yours.