Angst
In German, that’s the translation for Fear. Fear of sharing… … your secret sauce. The way you do things. The way you can lead the sale. The way you lead your engagements. The way you’re different. The things you know. All of them in fear of your competition figuring out “what you do and what you know” and doing it to take you out of the market. That’s just too egotistic. While they care, they don’t really care about you. You sharing all of your knowledge is an advantage for you because it…
The (high) price problem
Often times, you can think that because people are not buying at the volumes you expect it’s because of your high price. Logic would say that if you lower your prices, that would increase the sales. I mean, a school of Economics backs this up (price-sensitivity / price elasticity). But it might just be something else. 1. We’re humans. So logic is not our forte. (: 2. It might have with who you want your customers to be. And that Price Problem, might just be a Decision Problem. On not making…
Not all of your clients
Not all of them will follow your advice. And that’s ok. It’s their prerogative. And as such, it’s not your responsibility either. You can only help the ones who let you help. And to find these ones, you need qualifying. Choose wisely.
Keeping things safe
Nobody move. Things are just working. Play it safe. While keeping it safe might feel right the way to go, it is also a call to deflect from innovating and taking new risks. On how things that worked for a (long) time are still delivering some results… but not taking head on what could be next. Falling into best practices, rather than practicing. And getting too comfortable with how you’re running things —that will terrify you to risk any of it. Here’s the thing Better to get disruption from…
Just a fling
“It’s just a fling” A fling is something sporadic, occasional and with no prospect of something in the future. A fling, though, wouldn’t be called a transaction. Just a thing of the moment. Easily exchanged. Easily forgettable. Your business? Is it a fling for your customers? Or are they actually invested in making it a thing? Because depending on what it is that they see, you could start talking on loyalty.
You can’t decide for your customer
“[You] have been taught that somehow the value of what you produce has to do with the time it took you to do something –it never has, and it never will.” Time’s Up | Paul Dunn & Ron Baker. The time, or the effort, or your costs. They are not why your customers should (and would) pay for what you offer. It’s about what they get. And what they get, at the end of it all, is the perception of what they get. You can’t decide for them what’s valuable. You can’t “educate” them on what’s valuable….
“The price is too high”
Because most times “Money is not a problem” gets ignored. A client’s sales team got told by their customer that money is not a problem, and that the solution required can be whatever it needs to be (aka no budget constraints). The reply? “You’ll have this, and this, and this. But I think the price is too high… here’s a 25% discount.” My eyes couldn’t believe what they were hearing (yup, even my brain made short circuit 🙃). There was this disconnect between a blank cheque for their…
What would you say to this?
“Money is not a problem.” What would your reaction be and what would you for your customer? How would you structure your work to be? What would your work represent? What would it focus on?
Whose advice to follow when pricing?
Your cost specialist can’t do your pricing. They’re focused on costs. Price is focused on value (on how to capture the most of it). Costs look into the business. Pricing looks into the customer. Into what’s important and acceptable for them. From their perspective, with their money, with their needs. Not with what you think it’d be “fair” to you. Which focus are you taking? 🙂
Customer is king
If customer is king, you can’t say no. Your head will roll. If customer is king, you can’t contradict them —even when their ideas are BAD. If customer is king, you’re not allowed to walk away until dismissed. If customer is king, you do what you’re told. If customer is king, you’re not at their level. If customer is king, they’re the prize to be won. If … And that’s not reality. There are no kings.
