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.
Getting new business isn’t “Wins”
Why not Wins? Because it’s pointless. Even if you keep track of them all, of all of your “wins”, it won’t serve you more than as just an ego exercise. Or to build confidence, if you want. Nothing else. The more you score, the better the win is. Right? Then, what if you have 1M in rev? And 999999 in costs… What if you have 10M in profit? And bad sleep bc of the stress. It’s not like sports (or a war), where you win by defeating the other(s) —and by scoring the most. Keep track, yes. Keep…
Your job
“Don’t pitch your value in the sale. That’s marketing’s job. Your job is to uncover the value the client is seeking. Arm yourself with questions, not claims.” Blair Enns That’s it for today. Make questions. The right ones. 🙂
Being challenged
Challenging your customers’ belief system… that’s a hard pill to swallow. If customer is king, why would you challenge them, right? Well, what if you challenge them to think different? To think big. To see things from an outside perspective. Because then, maybe they’ll start seeing what new opportunities they could take. What new ways they could better serve their market. What things could be done different in their market. And you know what else? The bar is SO low, that doing that minimum…
Double Thank You
That’s when your client gives you their money and say “Thank you. The work we’ve done together has really moved the needle.” And that’s when you say “Thank you. For letting me guide and lead to make this change.” It’s double because both gained something. And it’s about what’s important for them (aka the value). Jonathan Stark has his own take on this, and Blair Enns, too here. What was the last double thank you you can recall? 🙂
Stop with Why.
Don’t ask why. Don’t ask the reasoning behind. Don’t ask to justify. You won’t get a real answer. All you’ll get is a personal defense of a position, with a heavy load of feelings. It’ll feel like an attack to the other one. Even when you have the best intentions. Start with “What” or “How” “What made you get to this decision / process / move…” “How did you come up to…” These 2 words take off the load of judgement over the question, and detach the person from the behavior. And with that,…
Sometimes it’s just that simple…
When things go wrong, it has (usually) nothing to do with trust. It has nothing to do with a conscious sabotage. Sometimes, it’s just happened. With time, you’ll get to see things that go South very quickly and when you notice, it’s already done. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Or in Robert Hanlon’s words… “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.” Maybe it’s that stupid simple. 🤷
Just like sex.
I mean, there’s no competition for who makes it faster, right? Which brings the question: What if slow is better? What if don’t need to improve the efficiency BUT the efficacy? What if it’s not about how fast / efficient / productive you get to a result, but about what kind of result you’re looking for? As Rory Sutherland in this video says: “What if it’s not about the speed of the commute, but about the commute itself?” What if we’re making the wrong questions? And it’s not about speed (or…
