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…
You need to be at least 10% cheaper than your competition
That’s the usual approach price-driven prospects (especially purchasing, procurement —or the accountant) will take on you to lower your price. And it’s fine. It’s their job to do that. And they’re trained to do so. Now, whatever they say is not mandatory for you. You can always say “Thanks for this. This doesn’t feel like a good fit. So I’ll pass.” “Out of curiosity… where’s this number coming from?” “We could explore something like this. I’m curious, though… what is it that made you talk…
Slippery slope
Charging “competitive” prices. Approaching the segment you serve with “what the market (competitors) charge” gets you to be compared EXACTLY on what they do. And my guess is you deff have something different. A common (mis)belief is that once you get customers, you’ll “flood the market”, and from there raise your prices. Sure, you could do that. And raise little by little… 5%… 10%… 12%… In every raise, you’ll have to justify yourself on why you’re raising them: “Conditions have…
Adding to the noise
When you’re going into the market and set yourself with what the market pays/charges/”accept”, you’re only adding to the noise. It gives your prospect one more option to choose from. This overwhelms them. Without noticing, they go into the paradox of choice: the more choices you can choose from, the more anxiety and harder it is to choose one option. So, unless your price stands out from the crowd, you won’t differentiate yourself. You’ll get compared on merely numbers. And you do NOT want…
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]…
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. 🙂
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…
I’ll bankrupt your business
Dumb strategy Problem creation Fake Inauthentic Waste money Have you seen businesses claiming any of these? If not, then what’s the reason to say the opposite? If you’re in business, your customers will expect (as the bare minimum) for you to… bring a smart strategy come with problem solving / solutions be the real/authentic you create value (and return money) If your messaging is about what everybody else claims, what would make you different? What is that thing that makes you stand out?…
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…
All price being equal
All prices being equal, why would they choose YOU? If everything is average, you offer something average, for the average price… it should do the work, right? Unless… Your customers care for something out of average. You do something out of average If that’s the thing, pricing according to the market makes no sense.