What your customers are paying for
They’re not paying for your costs (they actually don’t care if you’re profitable or not). They’re not paying for your time. They’re not paying for your effort. They’re not even paying for what you (might) already know. What they’re paying for… is for how they go from state A to state B. Actually, for them getting to state B. They pay for the help received. And you charge for the help you give. How involved you, your brand, or your staff, get into that process is what will help you determine…
A different view of the future
If strategy is about the future, and uncertainty and zero-warranties… why would anyone want to try something new and for the first time? … or wouldn’t they? Going to “guaranteed results/strategies/approaches” will get you to use what has been already there (at most), with a context that doesn’t apply to you, your customers or your business. (That’s why the bro-marketing-get-rich-quick-schemes don’t work). Think of past-driven vs future-driven this way: If you benchmark with what’s already…
Costs don’t matter
Yeah, they do matter, but not necessarily when pricing. If they did (costs), the price of any SaaS would need to be near to zero, since the cost is marginal because it’s scaled up. If they did, the price for a flight ticket would need to be lower the fuller the plane is. Flights get all of their costs covered at a certain quantity of tickets sold (and that’s less than 30% of the seats). Hotel rooms would have to be almost given for free the closer to the end of hotel-day or when they’re…
Bad food
Bad Food – Anthony Bourdain Switch food with product, marketing, business, brand… What kind of food do you wanna make? PS- inspired by Dave Trott’s post.
Jumping through hoops
Why not just put your prices down from the start? If your customers are price-sensitive, always haggling, always shopping and driven by the lowest price, showing up with THE lowest price would make them buy directly from you, right? Or is it more like even then, they would ask for more hoops to jump through? What’s your experience? 🙂
The fear of saying No
“If the prospect is not a fit, you just say No.” His face changed. I could see the fear into saying No to a prospect. It was like reading his mind: Him – “Saying No? I’ll be losing business! I can’t say No.” Me – “If you try to get them to yes, to buy from you —even when they can’t afford you— you’ll put energy, resources, effort and hopes into a lost cause. Wouldn’t it be more efficient to focus on the ones who can afford you?” And then it hit him. Hard. The fear was gone (at least for now)…
Is it that simple?
Is saying the opposite that simple? As Germans like to say: “Jein” (yes and no). Finding what everybody else is saying and see the trend is simple, but it takes research (time, effort, criteria, pattern-matching…). Saying the opposite to what everybody else is saying is in a certain way “contrarian”, yet the key is not to be “contrarian” for the sake of it. Saying the opposite is finding what’s your perspective. To make a comparison (sorry, “category creation”) in the category, so that you…
You’re only a leader when you have followers
Some say “The only thing that makes a leader is when they have followers.” Bullshit. Leading and leadership is not (about) having followers. It’s opening the way ahead so that others can lead in their own ways. Leadership is about taking the unopen paths when you’re ahead of others, to risk things so that others can move forward. If you lead the way, others will see and take courage on taking the lead. And that’s the game-changer.
Generosity: a mistake often done
Being generous doesn’t mean doing things for free, but with intent. That’s one thing many, MANY people get mixed up. “If i’m to be generous, i need to do things for free” In business it gets disguised as overservicing, overdelivering, overserving, or underpricing. In the long run it makes your margins to go thinner, and your business not sustainable. If you want to be generous, see and act to what’s in your customers’ best interest. Do it with intent. And do it from the heart. You can be…
If you want followers…
… you’re looking at it wrong. Because you’ll treat them as followers. And when they get to be treated like followers, they’ll act like followers. What if you treat them like leaders and help them get there? It’ll change the whole way of seeing each other. They’ll question and be critic. If you want followers… just buy yourself a bot farm. 🙂 If you want to lead, help others lead.