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…
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…
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? 🙂
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.
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…
(One of) The big lie. A function of your costs.
Setting up your price as a function of your costs is one of the big lies we’ve been taught into. From hospitality…Calculate labour (staff) + supplies and then add what “the best practice” on profit margin in the industry is. Now you have your price. To B2B…Calculate what it costs you, add a margin and you’re good to go. You have a price. To consulting…Estimate how much you’d like to make in a year based on your costs, divide it by 2000 hours (aprox what you work in a year) and you have…
Costs, then Price
A couple of replies to yesterday email focused on 2 things re: pricing. Decision-making and Costs. Decision-making Long time reader and AI specialist Genevieve Hayes pointed out (shared with permission): “All these pricing formulae are just examples of decision rules. And as we’ve discussed on many occasions, they are there to guide you, not to be blindly followed.”. She’s absolutely right. The thing is though, that almost everything taught is taken from the view that costs determine price….
Value, then Price
If you know what your customer values —what’s REALLY important for them, you have a head start. A head start to put a price that is less that what they gain —so it’s a no-brainer. A head-start to focus on what they really want —so it’s a no-brainer. A head start to ditch whatever would be a nice-to-have and look for the big wins —so it’s a no-brainer. A head start to seeing what to say No to way ahead on the road —so it’s a no-brainer. A head start to shift the conversation from hours, time,…
What’s the need?
If a personal brand is just the reputation you have —what they say about you when you’re not in the room… what’s the need for it not to call it reputation?
Making the time
“How do you make time to write daily?” The same way you make time to do whatever you do daily: you don’t. This has been a question from a few friends of the list. And the answer is simple: I cheat. I don’t really “make time”. Here’s the hack: I write all day long. Meaning, whatever ideas come to mind, i write them down —however they come. The rule is: don’t edit, don’t look for fancy words —or even for the right words. It’s just a set of ideas. Often times without making any sense. And that’s…