Things you can’t own
Somebody else’s perspective. A position in somebody else’s mind. A category. Stop trying to influence. Serve.
What gets measured
… gets managed”. A quote wrongly attributed to Peter Drucker (he never said it). Nonetheless, you’ve surely heard it. But the thing is that a measure only tells you nothing. It’s a point in space. It doesn’t have context. It’s a data point. Measurement: the reading of something. You can’t manage a measurement. What you can do, though, is apply judgement to it, so that you can inform a decision. The (risky) thing is:1. Getting the wrong things as metrics2. Using these metrics as measuring3….
A small tip to standing out
Reality is —and this work in your favor— that the bar is SO low. Most of the businesses in your industry and in your market claim they have great service, “experience” (wtf is it anyways?), solutions. Yet when things go South, they do a little bit less of the bare minimum. You doing a little bit over, makes you stand out. Know why? Because clients don’t care about the bare minimum. They care that they’re taken care of. That they’re understood. And there’s action behind the words. When you do…
Your boundaries
The first interactions with your clients are the ones that last. I mean, real interactions. After the honeymoon phase. The behaviors that you tolerate are the ones that get reinforced (aka building a culture). If they get always discounts, they assume discounting is the culture. If they get abusive, they assume they can go on with abuse. The good thing is that boundaries (setting them, and respect them) are on you. Keeping your boundaries doesn’t need the other person for anything to do. It’s…
What’s your runway?
Runway: estimated time you could run your business in the scenario where you would have no income / revenue. Whatever runway you might have right now is fine. When you have this, it’s a good time to raise your prices radically. Ditch the 1%, 5%, 10%, 15% raises. Double your prices. Now, it’s not only about doubling the prices for the sake of it; but to think of what could you do for these new prices. And most importantly, how would these new prices better help your customers? The best time to…
Build it right and they’ll come
Pre-S: Funny thing, friend of the list Genevieve Hayes, just sent an email with an approach to the same subject. Go check it out here. “Build it right and they’ll come” takes a few assumptions in mind: That you’re building FOR SURE the right thing. That your customers will automatically know you built it and will give you their money. That there’s certainty about your offering (aka no risk, since they will come). There’s one more to add: lack of focus. When building your offering, you might…
Politics don’t belong to…
Sure, sure. “Politics don’t belong to business”. You’ve heard it all. Here’s the BUT: Every business is an activist. Either progressive, neutral or regressive. Choosing not to choose is a choice.
Working and Running
Which one are you doing in your day to day? Working your business? Or running your business? Seems like a nuance, yet it goes deeper. One is focused on tasks and getting to the next day, to the next goal. The other is focused on transforming the business and getting to the next stage. Often times, you get sucked into only working your business, into the day to day, leaving out of focus that you also need to run your business. They’re both important, and are intertwined. Give them the right…
Incidentals
WARNING. This is a price-rant. Hotels and hospitality… it’s going ridiculous. Don’t you hate when you’re expecting to pay something… and out of nowhere there (somehow) comes extra costs that you were never aware of? Not even in the small print. Checking into a hotel (in Boston for the week, so if you’re around and fancy a meet up, coffee is on me 😁), rooms paid and they come with – “Will you also like to add incidentals to your card?” – What do you mean “incidentals”? – Oh yeah. Per…
Are you able to ask the hard question?
When selling to another business, both parties tend to see the sale from a cost perspective. However, that’s not important. You can change the way this works and how they see things. In a b2b setting, you need to involve the ones who are making the decision (for this you can deff check The Challenger Sale, The Jolt Effect and Sales Pitch). If you get to talk to Procurement/Purchasing at the very end of the process, you’re out of the game. They have all the power to negotiate (and they’re…
