Be the dumb one
Some say that asking too many questions is either dumb, or makes it feel like an interrogation to your customer. I’d choose the former. 🙂 Think of it this way. You could approach it as if you know nothing of the solution. You stop yourself from solution-mode. And ask to understand what’s the big thing behind what your customer wants —and why they’re talking with you. Play dumb, as in “What if I didn’t know anything? How could I learn more of their challenges, and possibly help them?” That…
Revenue or profit.
Revenue or profit. Which one is the one you’re to aim for? Or better yet, if you need to make 500K in revenue, what would your approach be: Low price, high volume, or High price, low volume Same offering. Same inputs. What do you choose?
The thing AI can’t (and won’t) do
What AI can’t do from an art perspective, by Guillermo del Toro. Value: It’s not about the cost. It’s not about the effort. It’s about the risk. Just check this one out 👇 (less than a minute short)
You’ll be forced
“And remember: if you can’t differentiate yourself from your competitors, you’ll be forced to compete on price.”Jonathan Stark Just that. You can read Jonathan’s full post here.
What barriers are you breaking?
Beethoven. And blues. And gospel. John Batiste here shows you how he breaks musical barriers. How you go from one thing, smoothly, to another that are not related —and make sense of them. This comes from practice, creativity, knowing the medium, and playing —literally, as in “having fun”. To be willing to -experiment- screw it up. What things do you explore for your market and get them to say “That is amazing. 🤯”
Culture
A set of behaviors shared and understood by a group of people. Behaviors that are tolerated or reinforced. Whatever behavior you accept and tolerate (from your own team, customers, suppliers, competitors…) is the one that will define how you act —consciously, or unconsciously. Choose wisely.
The answer is no
If… something takes you a lot of effort, you put a lot of passion into it, takes you more time to deliver, has more costly inputs, you learned it for a long time… That has nothing (or very little) to do with how much you price it for. Put it this other way: If it takes you no effort. You don’t get over-invested into it You can deliver in no time Costs you nothing You learned it in no time Would that be without value? Getting to know how to do something at a level of mastery that creates a…
Basing your price
Food for thought on how pricing could be referred to. Time-based pricing: It’s focused on your time. Not on your customers’. Cost-based pricing: focused on your costs. Not on something for your customers. Value-based pricing: confusing as on what “value” is. Solution-based pricing: focused on the solution you offer (YOUR solution). Biases towards you being the option to choose. Outcome-based pricing: focused on the outcome your customers get. Transformation-based pricing: focused on what’s…
Fishing with a net
That’s a metaphor to extend your reach to find customers. You throw a net to the water, and when pulling you’ll get customers. The thing about fishing with a net, though… it’s not the leanest practice. It grabs whatever is on its way. Fish… sure. Jelly fish. Crabs. Dolphins. Sea turtles. Sharks. Old boots. Plastics. Metal. etc. If it’s heavy enough, it’ll grab the soil (which has other species and food for more fish to be around). It can destroy everything that’s behind of what your main…
Friction
“You need to reduce friction” That can be true and helpful in a context. And wrong on others. On others, you need to produce friction. To create (or encourage) change, you’ll need friction. Without friction your wheels will spin on the same spot, there won’t be movement. And to change things, you need to feel that movement. Does it have to be radical? Not necessarily. Does it have to be soft? Not necessarily. It does have to be at critical points. Friction applied at the wrong spots will also…