No marketing needed
An actual conversation: – When your product is so good, you don’t need marketing. – Ok. And what is marketing? – Well… social media, ads, PR… – Sure that’s A PART OF marketing. What about product development, innovation, pricing, distribution? – Ah, no. [product dev] That’s for product. [innovation] For R&D. [pricing] For Finance (or Sales). [distribution] For Sales. As if your business works in siloes (it doesn’t). Quoting Peter Drucker, “[…] the business enterprise has two — and only…
Stop caring
Stop caring too much for closing the deal. When you approach your customers to try to close them, you get overinvested. You feel you have more at stake. The fear of missing out on this opportunity kicks in. While, yes, they’re qualifying you, you’re also qualifying them. The more you care, the less power in the negotiation you have. Approach it and stop your convince-mode. Go, evaluate if it makes sense for both of you to work together, qualify. If it works out, great. If it doesn’t, great,…
Best branding (and business) advice
It comes from Geraldine Carter, coach to accountants so that they can leave the nonsense of hustle. Read it . 👇 What are YOU worth? “But aren’t I supposed to charge what I’m worth?” Nope. You can decide what you’re worth, but the marketplace is going to decide what it’s going to pay. … You are you. Your business is your business. When your name is on the door of your business, it can be hard to separate the two. … Your business sells product offerings. You are not your business. You are…
How low can you go?
That’s what your customers think when you either price your offerings low, give discounts right away, promise over servicing, etc. What are you currently doing to avoid having this thoughts in the mind of your customers? (You can’t control their thoughts, but what you can do is control the context for them to think or not to think of this)
What makes you the winner?
You can’t win in business. It’s a common thing to hear “you have to win (in) business.” For you to win, others have to lose. And vice versa. If they win, YOU lose. That’s not reality. Ponder this: if you’re to “win” in business, what makes you the winner? Revenue? Profit? Innovation? Efficiencies accomplished? Efficacy? Better cost structures? More units sold? Less returns? More “brand awareness”? More customers served? And is it one of these (and more) factors? Or all of them at the same…
Magic
Delighting your customers. Making the sale for what’s worth to your customers (aka. with the right pricing) is no magic. It will feel like magic to them. All it takes is taking them at the center of what you do. And that will look like magic to your competitors, too. Magic is the feeling of surprise and delight. Aim to that.
A cult
—ural shift. Moving from an input-based price setting into a different model (outputs/outcomes) is a cultural shift. Even if you’re solo. It demands you to think, see and act in different ways. And you will return to your default at times. It’s a lot of effort and being aware of what’s happening at all times. If you’ve been pricing on the low end and are always trying to see how to make it profitable (and squeeze the most out of anything and anywhere), it’s quite likely you’ll default to it…
Help me out?
Your input in this is going to be quite interesting and helpful. All you need is to have an open mind and let go of certainty. You have 2 offerings in a market: A and B. They’re quite similar. The price for A is 3,3 X The price for B is 0,9 X Without context, and just taking the price as the only factor to consider… What are your assumptions on A and/or B? What do you believe A (or B) represents? What would you say makes one have this gap in the price?
Maybe I’m wrong
Maybe you’re wrong. And we got all this mixed up. The prices in the market are not as high as you think —or as I think. Maybe you’re product/service/offering is not THE best in the market —and that’s ok. And even with all of that, if you focus on how your customer can best be helped, you’ll be steps ahead. And you’ll come up with something uncommon. To get uncommon prices. And your customers and you will both be happy.
Market prices are important
They can give you a context. That’s all. To be the same as them. To go lower than them. Or break the rules and rise above them. And it’s got nothing to do with your product/service; but about your offering. It’s about your customer’s desired next phase.