What do you publish?
Today’s daily gets to ask what’s that you write/publish on? You’re different from your competitors. What makes you different? Do your customers and your prospects know what makes YOU different?
When you need rest…
PSA. When you (and your body) need to rest, do so. This is me, today, doing exactly that.
A few ways of not asking for what’s their budget, and still talk money.
Deliberately not asking for what is the budget doesn’t mean you don’t talk money. There are other ways to ask what your customer consider their budget. Before any of that, though, you need to think of it as a financial fit. There needs to be a business case for you to move on. And business involves money. 🙂 Here are a few ways of talking about money: We’ll find if there’s a financial fit. Do you have allocated funds for this project? What were you thinking of investing in this? What did you…
On not asking for the budget
Not asking for what the budget is doesn’t mean you don’t talk money. It starts with Stopping assuming things. Asking with curiosity (to really understand). Evaluating if what they say they want is actually that.
Stop asking for the budget
Please stop asking what’s the budget It assumes they’ll buy from you. It assumes you’ll accommodate YOUR offer to THEIR arbitrary budget. It assumes they know what they want and need at a deep level. It assumes they’re the expert. It assumes they lead the engagement. And when you assume, you stop asking.
Who are you talking to?
Something that happens quite often when selling: you’re talking to one of the right people. You might be talking with some of the people that are in the process. You might be talking (and they might love you) to one of them: technical, manager, procurement, economic buyer. While doing it, others are left. And they become your blind spot. Involve everyone who is part of the decision in your process. That’ll give you better chances at moving forward, or stopping the process when things don’t…
Price is advantage
Somewhere, I read that price (or even pricing) is strategy. It’s not. It CAN give you a better position or approach in a strategy, yet it’s A factor for strategy (in your business). Price is advantage. It’s what makes your public claim of expertise make sense —or not. It’s what makes your promise give a sense of your deliverability. It’s what makes your offering be good, good enough or too good to be true. It’s what can be your advantage.
Strategic partners
You’ve seen this everywhere. Every vendor is a (or wants to, or feels like) a strategic partner to their customers. Allow me to push back a bit on it. If that’s so, what’s the shared risk between them and their customers? To be a partner means that you also have skin in the game. Is a vendor really a partner?
Are you listening?
When you’re in a conversation (with stakes for your business), are you listening, or are you waiting to respond? In one you try to understand what the other party means. In the other, it’s about what you’ll say. Which one do you want to feel when you’re the one talking?
Alignment
Here’s a quick exercise you can use to put in the open if your customers are aligned —or if you run a team, if you and your team are aligned. Write every response in 1 minute each. On one post it each. All of the ones who are there at the same time. Each one grabs 3 post-it’s Post-it 1. What’s the vision of the business? Post-it 2. What’s the direction being taken? Post-it 3. What does this look like in reality? If you have a quite similar response, it’s a great sign. If there are different…
