A service business?
Some argue that you’re in the service business. And that might be right. It makes sense. But I’d go a bit further. Quoting Ron Baker, “you’re in the transformation business”. You help your customers transform by servicing them (diff from serving them). 🙂 The approach you’ll take on decisions, advice, and goals reflects that.
Are you prepped to be wrong?
Here’s an excerpt of Sir Ken Robinson’s TED Talk on creativity The main point on it is about being prepared to get things wrong. Yet, something that keeps coming back to mind is how you can approach things in your business. It can go from trying to avoid mistakes and playing it safe —or be prepared to get it wrong, so you can have a go at new approaches you come up with. On which side of the spectrum would you rather be? You can see the full presentation here.
Saying it out loud
Your price. At it’s top. No discounts. No words after it. Have you tried doing that? Being in a sales conversation, get to the price part and just say it —as natural as saying “It rains outside”. Silence. And a smile. Or do you jump to fill it in, justify why it’s like this and what it involves? (Been there, done that.) A question for you: What’s the thing that you do (your most expensive one) and how much is it? I’m curious to know. 🙂
Price fear
Working on proposals, quotations and offers gets into some sort of comfort zone. A zone where you don’t need to push for hearing a No, or where even ghosting is preferable to being rejected. Or trying to avoid saying a high price, so that you don’t miss the opportunity. Or flinching at the very last minute —and lowball the offer. Or decide to start with a low price, because that way you can “upsell the next time”. Behind all that, there’s fear. And fear is a natural, instinctive survival…
Stop selling
Stop pitching and trying to convince people. Show up with your prospects to see if there’s a fit, with your willingness to help them see something they don’t see yet. To be there for them and show them the way —with you, or with someone else who fits better. Ask questions and push. Help them see you’re on the same side, not against them. Say what you think. Don’t hold back, but no need to be an ass either. Be kind, but straightforward. Choose your words. You’re not there to sell. You’re there…
Sense of urgency
In hospitality (and business) people talk of having a “sense of urgency” to do things at the right time, in the right way, and always taking care of details. But in reality it’s not urgency, it’s efficiency and efficacy, I’d say. The thing here is that they get to confuse this sense of urgency with busy-ness. To be always doing something. Doing nothing is not possible, because that means wasted time —or just laziness. So you have everyone jumping from one thing to the other, keeping busy……
Getting Paid for Years
Internet connection problems. So here’s a great article by Tim Williams on the same subject of expertise. 🙂 Getting Paid for Years – Ignition Group.
If I do a job in 30 minutes…
“If I do a job in 30 minutes it’s because I spent 10 years learning how to do that in 30 minutes. You owe me for the years, not the minutes.” Nonsense. This whole argument assumes that to know something, it’s about the effort you put on. About the time you “spent” in learning the thing. How much it meant, in terms of effort, for you to do something. It takes that if something feels as simple as breathing to you, but not for others, it shouldn’t be valuable. Or that for it to be valuable, you…
Sampling
In music, sampling is the act of taking one bit of a song/audio media and putting it to a different use from its first intended context. It can go from different songs, like… Fatboy Slim’s Praise you. Grabbing tracks from different, already known songs. To Nirvana’s Smells like teen spirit. Grabbing drum beats from disco’s Gap Band. To Billie Eilish’s Australian crosswalk signal in Bad Guy All of them are original in their very own ways It’s more than just a copy. Even doing a cover, it’s…
Be original. (maybe)
What makes you stand out. Sure. Saying you have to be “original”, “authentic”, “focus on the experience” will do the job… of saying nothing, or put you in a place of analysis paralysis not knowing how to move forward and take action. Originality is an spectrum. If you’re thinking “But I got nothing new to say” or “It’s been already said before”, aka “It will (and by default, I) won’t be original”, you might be right. And to be original you don’t need to say something that is *always* new to…
