Can’t / Won’t
When you’re thinking of how to stand out from your competition and gain a better position of advantage, you can use this simple tool: can’t / won’t. And that’s about your competition. What are things that you’d be really good to do and they could not? What are things that you’d be really good to do and they will not do? The reasons behind why they can’t/won’t are within a wide range. The kicker here is, the more it would disturb how they do business is the thing that will give you this…
Would you like fries with it?
Doing what your customers say they need you to do without a proper diagnosis from your side is asking that question. It’s leaning into taking orders and leave all the responsibility (and risk) on them. So when things go south “they got what they asked for”. And to get those things done (what they say they need), you’ll compete with LLMs and AI, amongst other who “do” the same. Start with a diagnosis. That’s one of the first indicators you’re the expert.
Yield and Concede
A school of thought on sales has this principle: “For you to win in a negotiation, you need to be ready to yield and concede”. Bullshit. You don’t. You can always walk away. The only thing customers have: money. The thing that only you and your business have: your expertise. Money is fungible / exchangeable. Your expertise and what you bring to the table, isn’t.
Don’t speak
“Don’t speak, I know just what you’re sayin’So please stop explainin'”Don’t Speak – No Doubt When you’re in a sales conversation, stop talking. Start listening. Probe with questions. It’s not about your reasons. About your product. About you. It’s about vetting if there’s a fit (a set of, actually) between your prospect and your business. If you can help them. And if they want the kind of help you give. More explaining won’t do it. More listening will.
The representation of your promise
Price. It represents your promise. When your price is higher, it’s implicit that your delivery will be higher. If it’s low, that the other is better at something —but not knowing necessarily where. If your price is low and your promise is THE ultimate, your customer bears the question: “Is there a catch?” “Is this a scam?” Our brains go into Error 406 (Not Acceptable). And we either discard it by default, or we consider it as the riskier option. And when big bucks are at stake, they won’t go…
Which one is better?
A bunch of responses about yesterday’s message —where offer A is priced at 3,3X and offer B is priced at 0,9X— said that A was better than B. For a few reasons… (and all of these assumptions are with the only context of price.) Offer A… Would help for longer Would be custom. Is premium Feels premium Has more bells and whistles Has better performance Gives more guarantees Is more reliable Has a clear position in the market Is not desperate for a sale Has to be the expert Has more…
Angst
In German, that’s the translation for Fear. Fear of sharing… … your secret sauce. The way you do things. The way you can lead the sale. The way you lead your engagements. The way you’re different. The things you know. All of them in fear of your competition figuring out “what you do and what you know” and doing it to take you out of the market. That’s just too egotistic. While they care, they don’t really care about you. You sharing all of your knowledge is an advantage for you because it…
The (high) price problem
Often times, you can think that because people are not buying at the volumes you expect it’s because of your high price. Logic would say that if you lower your prices, that would increase the sales. I mean, a school of Economics backs this up (price-sensitivity / price elasticity). But it might just be something else. 1. We’re humans. So logic is not our forte. (: 2. It might have with who you want your customers to be. And that Price Problem, might just be a Decision Problem. On not making…
Not all of your clients
Not all of them will follow your advice. And that’s ok. It’s their prerogative. And as such, it’s not your responsibility either. You can only help the ones who let you help. And to find these ones, you need qualifying. Choose wisely.
Keeping things safe
Nobody move. Things are just working. Play it safe. While keeping it safe might feel right the way to go, it is also a call to deflect from innovating and taking new risks. On how things that worked for a (long) time are still delivering some results… but not taking head on what could be next. Falling into best practices, rather than practicing. And getting too comfortable with how you’re running things —that will terrify you to risk any of it. Here’s the thing Better to get disruption from…
