Infinite and finite value

A discount is finite value. It moves money from your margin to the customer’s, creates nothing, and sits at the very bottom of the curve as a zero-sum move that any competitor can match by lunchtime. Everything above it creates value that was not there before. Saving the customer money. Making the customer money. Protecting the customer’s business. Helping the customer run stronger. At the top of the curve the pie itself is bigger, and the question of how to split it is a good problem.

The catch, which the book states plainly, is that the higher the value, the harder it is to describe, to quantify, and to deliver. Finite value is easy to sell because it is easy to see. Infinite value needs a proposition, evidence and a plan, which is why it belongs to key account management and not to the price list.