I was talking to a broker the other day about pre-taxingbenefits in a small business and he said, “It isn't 1998 anymore.Pre-tax isn't a big deal these days.” It sounds weird to say aloud,but I think he's right. If you have less than 50 employees (and 96percent of businesses in the U.S. do), you're more concerned withbenefits paperwork and administration than tax savings.

He got me thinking: Was pre-tax ever as big a deal to employersand employees as it was to us?

Last month, I lamented that too many in our business have falleninto the order taker trap. An employeesays, “I like that accident plan,” and we write them up withoutexploring other options that may better meet their needs. I call itOrder Taker Syndrome (OTS).

Putting such an emphasis on pre-taxing voluntary benefits is sellingon cost versus worth, and it goes hand in hand with OTS. I thinktoo many of us in the voluntary world got lazy, and who wouldn't?You sit down with an employer and show them how they're going tosave all those taxes on benefits and they pay nothing more—freemoney, right? Then to the employees, “It's like you're getting thecoverage for free!” (If you say it that way, you're getting sued,but you know what I mean.)

In both cases, we diminished the value of our products andservices. We sold on cost instead of worth because we “created”money through tax savings. We basically sold our products andservices on the premise that “You won't pay for this crap on itsmerits, so I'm going to give you some money that you can use to payfor it.” Who positions things in such a negative way? We did.

We linked our value to Uncle freakin' Sam. Politicians don'teven do that. When you link your value to something you don'tcontrol, you're asking for trouble.

Which brings me to my point. If it's true that pre-tax doesn'thave the same value to employers and employees as it once did, andwe're linked to that lack of value… well, I hear the state ishiring.

But consider what happens when you start offering solutionsbased on the value you bring to them. That's something you control.When something has value, people gladly pay for it. You don't haveto use gimmicks to get and keep theirbusiness.

A long time ago, I learned the difference between asking, “Howmuch does it cost?” and “How much is it worth?” Your clients areasking the same questions of your products and services. Are yougiving them so much value they're comfortable with your prices?