It’s about the future.
Strategy is about the future. Uncertain, risky, unknown. And at the same time, to bring you to an advantage. Strategy is an idea and approach to a goal, that leads to, with the most impactful effort, a position of advantage. While data can help you frame it, it can’t be what drives it. It’s about what could be. It’s about what could the future hold for your customers.
Past and… future?
Decision-making advice for business tends to be “your strategy needs to be driven by data”. But data is built in the past. It’s certain. It’s factual. Forecasts, trends, models. They all take data and build a projection into the future with a certain sense of reliability, confidence, or pure imagination. They’re informed by, but not driven by data. Based in the past. Strategy, it’s about the future. Uncertain. Non-factual.
Creating a future
Friend-of-the-list, fellow emailer and data scientist Genevieve Hayes came back to “Past and… future?” with this response (and she knows a thing or two about data-driven things) —shared with permission, bold mine: “Data-driven approaches are like your dive computer. They’re very good at determining the optimal course of action assuming everything continues the way it has in the past. However, they can’t cope with unfamiliar situations. You need humans for that.Or to put it another way: a…
Reaching the 10% of the market
Look, you don’t need to “reach the 10% of the market/segment”. We can all play the numbers game. Basic math ain’t that hard. To get to that “10%” is not rocket science. You know what’s hard? Taking a stand for something and sticking to it. Knowing that —sometimes— this “something” is not the way to go, let go and take a new approach (and a new something). Finding the ones who actually care about that something. And forget about your solutions —and your brand. If you can help them get what…
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…
How much does it cost?
A cost is not a price. Talking about price makes you think in different terms. When you see “Cost”, it usually makes you consider something a bit more, like if it’s more painful. On what you’re giving away. When you see “Price”, the focus shifts onto what’s the thing on the other side of this pain. It helps your customers see the potential. To assess the value of what they consider worth it. It changes the dynamics in a sales conversation and negotiations. It clears the air.
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? 🙂
Discounts are bad for your customers.
The constant ones. Discounting. It trains them that only price (without context) is the decisive factor. Makes you think of how little you could go for and still make a profit (if any). Risks them to shit customer service. Since your margins are low, going the extra mile —or even care for after sales— for what they need as an extra will only seem like a high expense on your side. It makes you go for more effort (to get more sales), with the same result. Turns into a vicious loop of trying to…
[Last Chance] Don’t miss out
Don’t you HATE this kind of emails and messages trying to push you into a buying decision? Even worse —when it keeps repeating over and over? I know i do. Pushing for this fear of missing out (FOMO) and to get them to take action based on an impulse is a common (mal)practice. Why? Because this push is artificial and external —and an overkill. A better approach to help your customers buy is to dig up that urgency they actually feel and direct them to make the decision a no-brainer. You don’t…
Thought leadership
So, you’re a thought-leader. Says who? You’re a trusted advisor. Says who? If it’s not your customers who say that, there’s a gap to fill. Leadership and trust don’t come from within, they come from the outside. If they’re not the ones saying it, you need more work to do. 🙂