Providing Value to Receive Value

Most people know instinctively that one of the best ways to receive value is to provide value first.  Not a new thought (see "better to give than to receive").  Some businesses offer a service and hope to get paid for it, but others either give some value away or price in a way that seems like free value.  I'm not thinking of WalMart - I'm thinking about Apple.  No one ever accused Apple of selling cheap, but they sell a lot, partially because the features and the "coolness" of their products seem like a gotta-have to many.

So how toes a realtor or a builder (or a photographer) give away value without going out of business?  Realtors often do it in service.  Builders can create something using creativity, quality workmanship and location that approach the Apple gotta-have mentality.  What's a poor photographer to do?  Sitting by the phone waiting for a call doesn't work very well - where's the free value in that?

So, I've been reading marketing books and doing some thinking.  One suggestion to builders I've heard is to offer a free print of a large (24x30, for example) print of their own family, completely free, for them to hang in a model home.  Family portraits in empty homes are supposed to help, "they say."  A small note next to the print would allow visitors to know the photographer, and the builder might provide visitor emails to the photographer for follow up.  This seems to have the advantage of providing something free that helps the builder, while staying in position to follow up wherever  possible.

An idea I've come across for realtors is to give them pre-printed coupons for portrait work that they could hand out to likely (whatever that means) prospects for buying a home.  It probably would be well over 50% off, plus a free 8x10, for example.  People shopping for homes don't have family portraits at the top of their mind.  BUT, they are shopping for a home and many do have a family.  Giving the realtor a nice-quality handout for them to use (as a small reward for buying, for example) seems like free value, while staying in position.

I do know that the flow goes like this:  Information leads to Perceived Value which leads to Business.  We all have to be good marketers so that our real value can become perceived.  That's what separates the successes from the bankruptcies.