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.
Raising prices
“Do it little by little. Incrementally. Otherwise they’ll run for the hills.” That’s great advice on pricing. NOT. Doing this actually brings you to have slow, incremental increases. It’ll make it easy for your customers to push back for a discount (which will get you closer to the original low price). And it’s all still focused around you. And customers care for themselves. So, shift the focus on to them. Find out what they want, and how you can help them. And price accordingly to what they…
What remains unsaid
What you don’t say with your words, but tolerate or reinforce, is culture. What remains unsaid is equally or more important than what you actually say. To yourself, your team, or your customers. What kind of culture you wanna shape?
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,…
Revenue is not your friend
Or “sales”, if you’d like to put it that way. Not even cashflow is your friend. You can have millions in revenue. Millions in cashflow. And still on the verge of killing the business. You need to focus on your profit and your margins. And this comes from the value you help create to your customers. Because those (profit + margins) are the ones that make your business sustainable. They are the things that fund your mission. Without that fund, you’ll run dry or burn out. It’s that time when you…