Selling a personal brand
You can’t have a personal brand. A brand is an asset —a quantifiable one for a business. With that, you can value it and sell it for whatever you want. A brand can change hands and —at least for a moment— keep that same value. As well as it could go up (a VC-funded startup grows its value, as Figma) or absolutely way down (x/twitter). If you were to have a personal brand (aka “become” a brand), you’d turn into an asset. An asset, as a resource or capital… is a thing. If you were to sell…
The math behind overdelivering
Here’s why overdelivering hurts your business. In a math edition. Paul is about to work on a project for Marie. In Paul’s head, underpromising and overdelivering will make a sweet deal in Marie’s eyes to: Close the sale Build a good reputation The opportunity to raise prices next time. [Because great work, right?] It’s the perfect formula… to unprofitability. → The promise in Paul’s head: X BUT → The promise in Paul’s mouth: Y → Paul tells Marie he’ll deliver Y, which is “10” less of what…
The best product wins
You’ve heard this before: if we have a great product, we don’t need marketing. Here’s the thing Product is part of marketing. And marketing is not comms and messaging —or ads.
The math in overservicing
Today, it’s about how overservicing can also hurt you. In Paul’s head, overservicing will delight his customer, Marie. It’ll get Marie to always work with him. Unfortunately, what’s actually happening is that Paul’s training Marie to expect way more than what they pay for —at Paul’s own expense. → The promise Paul makes: X → But Paul also works extra on things that are nice-to-haves to Marie, or are out of scope —without previously thinking and/or budgeting for them.The promise to Marie: XThe…
You truly over-delivered
“After purchasing your product, I can say you truly over-delivered.” Client If you hear “you over-delivered “… You might want to revise your price, your promise or your product. Maybe all of them. Truth is, you might be over servicing. Attending an overserved market. Or underpriced.
Overdelivering 3/3
Makes your price go down —and your work’s value. Doing more of what you promise trains your clients to expect more of what you promise… every time. For. The. Same. Price. And since they’ll know you’ll do more for less, they’ll go for it. You’re giving a hidden discount, even when you don’t want to accept it. In the long term, it makes your work go for a lower price, and when trying to raise prices or go for the actual job, your customers’ expectations will be higher. You not keeping with…
Looking under the hood
Under promising, over delivering, over servicing are not really the problems. They’re symptoms. And they have a few drivers: Cost-based PriceAt the center of the decision-making. Will the price be attractive enough to justify what I offer? FearAt the core of making the offering. Will it be good enough so my proposal doesn’t get rejected (or worse: ghosted)? WorthAt the core of linking the offering to you. Is it a reflection of my worth? Self-worthAt the center of your offering building. If…
Being open and honest.
While underpromising and overdelivering might seem like a good tactic to delight your customers because you want to have some buffer, don’t. There’s another way. You can be open and honest —that’s the core of business, right? Being honest with your customers— and say you don’t know exactly how long or how much exactly it’ll take. That you’ll put in some buffer, just in case. Sure, you can give an estimate of the time, or even a timeline. Just please don’t lie. Friend-of-the-list Jonathan…
Giving your ideas away
What if —instead of overservicing and overdelivering— you’d give your ideas for free? What if you open your methodologies? Your approaches? The way you see a particular problem and how you’d fix it? What would your answer to that be? 🙂
After giving your ideas away —for free.
Pre-S: First off, you’re way ahead. I cherish you for this. 🙂 Replies to yesterday’s email were around “that’s the only way to get ahead”. But that’s not the regular response in several industries. There’s a lot of angst around that very question: What if you give your ideas away? Here’s what might happen. Your clients will know how you do the work. Your clients will see how easy it is for you to solve a specific problem Your competitors will build on your ideas. Your approaches will be…