The wrong incentives
Charging by the hour creates the wrong incentives. Focusing solely on revenue creates the wrong incentives. Applying discounts without a clear criteria and policy creates the wrong incentives. Serving everyone creates the wrong incentives. Leaving things to wait so that you don’t face the hard decisions now creates the wrong incentives. Trying to make compromises with 2 opposite approaches creates the wrong incentives. Overlooking bad behaviors creates the wrong incentives. And when your…
Thought leadershit
Where do YOUR thoughts LEAD?
Survival mode on
How to make your business survive: discounts. A culture of discount hits your business deeply. It puts you (and your team, if you have one) at disadvantage when going to the market. It becomes a clutch. And as such, it’s impossible to run freely, and fast, with them. It takes off your power in negotiating for deals. It makes you cut prices off, without any specific pattern. It cuts your margins thin[ner]. It gets you to be overworked —and on the way to burn out. It makes you take ANY kind of…
A quick reminder
You as the seller have the total freedom to put any price you want. Your customers have the total freedom to choose whether or not to pay that price to work with you. A way to make it a no-brainer for them to pay is by making that price at least 1/10 of what they gain. Of their outcome.
Power disparity
Leads the dynamics in the relationship. If you’re a partner of your clients, then the power weights are roughly equal. You have things at risk when they don’t work. But if you don’t, that’s not a partnership. And that’s ok. Power also means you can say no, walk away, or withhold from engaging in the deal.
Price difference
“Knowing how much your competition charges will let you know where you can set your prices. So that you don’t charge too little, or charge too much.” Sure. This makes sense when you want to be a me-too player. To be easily exchangeable. Undifferentiated. Expendable. But if you have something truly special? Should you charge the same as everyone else? Here’s a rule of thumb: Make your price AT LEAST 60% higher than your competition. 20, 30 or 40% is too similar. 50 would be fine… but since…
An oldie but goldie
A brand is the gut feeling a person has about an organization, product or service. [video] Not about a person. Here’s why Because from a functional perspective, an organization, product or service adapts to the market, even when that means they need to change the core of themselves.A rebrand. The way they adapt is by either adding, changing or eliminating features and characteristics. It can make them take radical pivots to their core, even to change or disappear completely while keeping its…
Bringing solutions
It’s funny. Every time I see a business saying they “bring solutions” I smile. Ponder this question: If you bring solutions… does it mean your competitors (in their marketing and communications) say they “bring problems”? Here’s the thing Bringing solutions is not the thing that makes you different. It’s something else. Usually, it’s the way you get to the transformation. What’s your way?
Fixed prices
They fail. It’s hard to get it right. The scope can always change and it’s a minus-business. That’s right. The way those fixed prices for projects fail is because they were built had most the only way we are taught to create prices: you create a scope, add some time/resources and a buffer, and is all focused on how much effort/work/time/resources it might take. If you miscalculate, you take the big hit. And that’s backwards. It doesn’t take into account how much money it will mean to the…
Personal brands
Inexistent. Personal brands —or you being a brand— is not real. First, because you’re a person. Not a thing. Second, because brand is a perception. There are as many brands to a product/service/organization as touchpoints. Third, because it’s artificial. It’s a construct to give consistency to the market. Fourth, because a brand can be rebranded. Changing at times EVERYTHING about it. You’re a person.
