“I’ll pay you a premium if you can save me money!”

That’s the new value proposition for today, and you’ll do well to think about the phrase as you look to grow or maintain your top line.

The number one concern for many organizations today (beyond mere survival for some) is cost reduction.

If you can give them the chance to do this quickly, they’ll be willing to pay you a premium to do so.

This line of thinking came to line when I spent time two weeks ago in Silicon Vally. I was there to speak to a group of CIO’s from throughout the hi-tech industry.

I met a client from a few years back in the hotel lobby while checking in. He’s now involved in a different IT venture. While catching up on things, I realized that this was the exact value proposition that his new organization was selling.

They’ve got a solution that, when implemented, can help organizations save quite a bit of money on their overall technology spending. Given the scope of the potential savings, and the fact that this company has maintained growth despite economic turmoil, they’ve got a key innovation strategy nailed.

You can learn from this line of thinking. The key things to think about:

• how can you partner up with your customers to help them achieve cost savings with what they do?
• how can you help them quickly achieve those cost savings : faster, say, than in the alternate economy of a few months past? Remember, faster is better.
• are there changes that you might make to your product/service line that can help to accelerate cost savings?
• can you innovate like mad — thinking about what you do and how you do it — to generate cost savings for those who rely upon you?
  you do it — to generate cost savings for those who rely upon you?

Think about it in the context of any industry. If you are in travel/hospitality, and you offer cost savings with what you are selling, you’ve got a leg up on the competition. If you are selling a service, get the potential cost savings that the service provides out front, and clearly defined — highlight them. If you are selling an industry solution, re-examine the cost savings that your solution provides — and see what you can do to make them bigger.

Think about the phrase, and look for opportunity in it.