Avy Punwasee, Partner at Revenue Management Labs, was recently featured in Forbes where he highlights five practical ways organizations can add value to their product offerings.
Read the article below and see other featured article written by Avy.
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Today’s customers are not buying features or functionality. They are buying impact. In both business-to-business and business-to-consumer settings, people expect products to solve problems, simplify their lives or move their business forward. Delivering that kind of value requires more than just building a better product. It requires clarity, focus and a willingness to rethink how value is created and delivered.
Over the past 20 years, I have advised organizations across industries, from specialized manufacturing to pet medication to accounting services. I’ve found that, too often, companies confuse value with volume. They add features, stack options or chase trends, hoping something will resonate. In doing so, they miss the deeper opportunity to build offerings that align with what customers care about most. Increasingly, I’m also seeing companies layering AI into their offerings. While they may be experts in their technical field, many assume they already know what customers want.
By following a few structured guidelines, companies can move closer to customer needs and ensure pricing and positioning reflect true value. Here are five strategic ways to add meaningful value to your product.
Treat onboarding like a product feature.
Customer success starts from day one. A product that looks great in a demo but is difficult to implement quickly loses its shine. The onboarding experience is not just a service function; it is part of the product itself.
Strong onboarding should deliver early wins through guided walkthroughs, contextual help and clear milestones that build confidence. Companies that do this well could see higher adoption, faster time to value and stronger retention.
So why don’t more companies invest here? Too often, onboarding is treated as a cost rather than a growth driver. It gets owned by support teams rather than product leadership. Yet how customers feel in the first 30 days often shapes how long they stay.
Bundle based on customer problems, not internal goals.
Bundling is often used to increase average deal size, but that approach puts internal revenue targets ahead of customer relevance. Bundles are frequently built around what the company wants to sell rather than what the customer needs, leading to confusion and frustration.
When bundles are designed around real problems, they simplify choices and create more complete solutions. Effective bundling starts with mapping the customer journey. What related needs can you address? What add-ons genuinely improve outcomes? The right bundle should streamline decisions and enhance perceived value. For instance, a software company might offer a basic version of its product for small businesses, an upgraded version for larger companies that need more advanced features and so on. Each step should build logically, simplify decisions and clarify the value of moving up.
Make education a core part of the experience.
Products only create value if customers know how to use them well. Education gives customers the tools to succeed. Whether through onboarding content, training modules, certification programs or ongoing resources, education drives adoption and builds loyalty. This is especially critical in B2B, where users often need to champion your product internally. Equipping them with the knowledge to explain and justify its value makes your offering stickier and less likely to be replaced.
Unfortunately, education is often siloed or underfunded. It may sit in a help center that few people visit or get buried in emails. Companies that stand out embed learning into the product experience and deliver it at the right time in the right format.
I have seen this firsthand with an HR software provider. As part of implementation, the company trained its customers’ departments on how to use the software, certified all employees and required re-certification every three years. Customers who completed the training were retained three times longer than those who did not.
Elevate support from a cost center to a differentiator.
Customer support is more than problem-solving. It is an opportunity to reinforce your brand promise and demonstrate your commitment to customer success. Good support is fast, knowledgeable and personal. It makes customers feel like they matter.
The challenge is that many companies view support only through the lens of cost. They underinvest or lean too heavily on automation, removing the human touch that builds trust. In crowded markets, responsive and empathetic support can be a true differentiator.
Support teams should be trained, empowered and connected to customer feedback. When treated as a core part of the customer experience, not just an afterthought, support strengthens retention and growth.
Use pricing to reflect the value you deliver.
Pricing is one of the clearest signals of how you view your customer relationship. Yet, too many companies rely on legacy models like cost-plus pricing or competitor matching, which ignore what customers are actually willing to pay for.
Value-based pricing starts by understanding the outcomes your product delivers. When pricing aligns with results, it builds trust and positions you as a partner in your customer’s success. This could include usage-based pricing, tiered offers or performance-linked models that reflect the impact you create.
I’ve found many organizations avoid this approach because it requires effort: research, segmentation and cross-team alignment. But those that embrace it can uncover new growth opportunities and build more resilient revenue models. For example, we worked with a manufacturer of industrial paint markers. It had historically been priced based on cost, but by shifting to value-based pricing, the company uncovered key drivers such as color variety, washability and durability. This informed both pricing and marketing, highlighting benefits in a way that made its structure intuitive to customers.
The Bottom Line
Adding value is not about doing more. It is about doing what matters most to the customer. That means rethinking the entire experience, from onboarding to support, not just the feature set.
Companies that treat onboarding as a product, design bundles around customer problems, embed education, elevate support and adopt value-based pricing are better positioned to deliver impact. They can not only create stronger customer relationships but also build more sustainable growth.
