A rate is not a price
A rate is not a price —even when it kinda feels like it. For it to be payable, you need to multiply it by another variable. Might be hours, minutes, quantity, level of effort, impressions… When you charge based on a rate, it’s based on inputs. And you usually have these (with some sort of precision) at the end of the project. If you want to give it ahead, you need to know exactly what the other variables are. Basing what you charge on your inputs takes into the mix ONLY your side, not your…
On revenue and your business.
Yesterday’s message was about revenue will kill your business. That is, if you’re only looking for it as the metric to follow (revenue = vanity metric). Here’s the thing Revenue alone doesn’t dictate or even diagnose if a business is doing good or bad. Profit, on the other side, does. While having multiple revenue streams is a great thing to have, if you don’t keep those on check, all your efforts will make little difference. It’ll be ultimately a race to zero. And the worst is that you can…
Ed Sheeran Live: a scam
If you hear you can see Ed Sheeran playing live, next to you, and all you have to do is pay $2. What’s the first thing that comes to your mind? What if next to it, you can get a ticket to Ed Sheeran’s concert that’s 300+ euros, and sell it to you for 200? (Just to humor me, if you don’t like him, pretend you do for this one time 😁) Which one would you choose? That’s what happens to your customers when you go on the lowest possible price to “win” deals. Here’s proof: [Youtube vid 5:55 mins]…
Using the same tools as your competition
That doesn’t define that you’re supposed to charge as them. The thing that makes it different is not the tools used, but how you use them, and the perspective you take. Using the same tools can lead you to outstanding, different results than the others (after all, we all have a brain, and how we use it is what makes a difference), results others could not achieve. Remember, it’s not about WHAT you use X, or HOW you use X. It’s about how YOU help THEM get what they want. It’s always been about…
Promises, promises.
“Price is the representation of your promise.”Ron Baker Just that. What does your price convey to your market?
Double your price
“When something is not selling, double the price.”Rory Sutherland Having an offer “too good to be true” gets your prospects to be afraid of what you’re offering. There’s gotta be a catch. Lower prices won’t make it more attractive. In fact, they’ll deter your market. Think of it this way: We’ve been trained all of our lives to associate higher value with higher price. To appreciate more the things that cost us more, over the cheaper ones. Give it a try Choose one of your offerings and double…
Not giving your price
Common (and sort of intuitively ) advice: “Go, talk to your prospect/customer, talk shop, ask and discuss their budget. But don’t give them a price. That should only be shown in your proposal.” Take the other road: talk price. Early. Why? Because a price has very little to do with their budget. A budget is a prevision of what (god knows where/how) they “should” have for X thing. It might be that the client means well, but without the right expertise, it’s a self-diagnose with high odds of…
Look for someone
If you’re not having the best time with how your business is doing, look for help. Look for someone who, as painful it is for them, will tell you the things straight up. Someone who’ll call out the bullshit —and call you out to hear what you won’t necessarily like. Yet, something that will be in your best interest. Here’s how you’ll know: they’ll call it out not to sell you anything, but to get your shit together. And it’s painful. I mean, it’s your business. Your own baby. In the long run…
Decisions
Taking more time to think over things and THEN make a decision is just stalling. Sometimes you have all the facts right on your face —yet you close your eyes and want to believe they’re not there. So you stall. Your friendly reminder that “No decision is a decision”. It might be painful. But it’s simple. 🙂
Revenue will *kill* your business
Wait, WHAT?! In the long term, revenue can (and will) kill your business. And this is not about the lack of revenue, but of your revenue stream. When left unchecked, you’ll get played by how much money you can be making. However, how much money goes into your business means nothing when your margins are thin. And here’s where pricing comes into play. Pricing is not about growth —or even revenue. It’s about how to maximize the margins to keep the business at its best. This is why pricing…