I would say small companies aren't aware of the value either. If they're small and hiring software development contractors, they probably don't know enough about software development to do the work themselves, which means they have no basis for determining what software is worth. They probably also don't have the skills/metrics in place for determining ROI for individual aspects of their business. They just look at cash flow in and out, and from that standpoint all they see for the contractor is a definite and precise cost with a vague notion of some value.
So you are right, mostly. If you're going to sell yourself on "value" to such a company, you're going to have to spend some time understanding what problem they need to solve, and help them determine what value that provides.
If they can't or won't look past an hourly rate, then you probably don't want to work for them, because their other expectations may be equally as baseless.
