Being open and honest.
While underpromising and overdelivering might seem like a good tactic to delight your customers because you want to have some buffer, don’t. There’s another way. You can be open and honest —that’s the core of business, right? Being honest with your customers— and say you don’t know exactly how long or how much exactly it’ll take. That you’ll put in some buffer, just in case. Sure, you can give an estimate of the time, or even a timeline. Just please don’t lie. Friend-of-the-list Jonathan…
A spark
Today, it’s Rick Rubin who leaves the daily: “The amount of time or effort put into a work doesn’t matter.Sometimes the most meaningful projects spark suddenly and completely quickly.” I couldn’t put it better. 🙂 You can check his instegram post here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CyJCJKArIW-/
Looking under the hood
Under promising, over delivering, over servicing are not really the problems. They’re symptoms. And they have a few drivers: Cost-based PriceAt the center of the decision-making. Will the price be attractive enough to justify what I offer? FearAt the core of making the offering. Will it be good enough so my proposal doesn’t get rejected (or worse: ghosted)? WorthAt the core of linking the offering to you. Is it a reflection of my worth? Self-worthAt the center of your offering building. If…
Selling a personal brand
You can’t have a personal brand. A brand is an asset —a quantifiable one for a business. With that, you can value it and sell it for whatever you want. A brand can change hands and —at least for a moment— keep that same value. As well as it could go up (a VC-funded startup grows its value, as Figma) or absolutely way down (x/twitter). If you were to have a personal brand (aka “become” a brand), you’d turn into an asset. An asset, as a resource or capital… is a thing. If you were to sell…
Behind the math
If you see a bit further than underpromising, overdelivering, overservicing, you’ll find that most of it is linked with one question: “Will they accept my proposal?” When people don’t understand what they’re getting, the only thing they’ll get back to (and do understand) is price. So your default to answer this questions revolves around, yup: price. In this context, it’s (hopefully) a set price (and not an estimate/rate) and about how (if) delight could happen —only after the acceptance of…
The math in overservicing
Today, it’s about how overservicing can also hurt you. In Paul’s head, overservicing will delight his customer, Marie. It’ll get Marie to always work with him. Unfortunately, what’s actually happening is that Paul’s training Marie to expect way more than what they pay for —at Paul’s own expense. → The promise Paul makes: X → But Paul also works extra on things that are nice-to-haves to Marie, or are out of scope —without previously thinking and/or budgeting for them.The promise to Marie: XThe…
What’s the need?
If a personal brand is just the reputation you have —what they say about you when you’re not in the room… what’s the need for it not to call it reputation?
Building trust
You don’t need a personal brand to build trust. A “personal brand” won’t make your prices more attractive. That would be like needing to have and project an image to make people believe you just because of the visuals. Having your prospects and clients trust you with their businesses What is trust? As friend of the list and fellow daily emailer Andrew Skotzko from Product Leadership Daily says: “Trust is choosing to risk making something you value vulnerable to another person’s actions.” Do…
Value, then Price
If you know what your customer values —what’s REALLY important for them, you have a head start. A head start to put a price that is less that what they gain —so it’s a no-brainer. A head-start to focus on what they really want —so it’s a no-brainer. A head start to ditch whatever would be a nice-to-have and look for the big wins —so it’s a no-brainer. A head start to seeing what to say No to way ahead on the road —so it’s a no-brainer. A head start to shift the conversation from hours, time,…
Costs, then Price
A couple of replies to yesterday email focused on 2 things re: pricing. Decision-making and Costs. Decision-making Long time reader and AI specialist Genevieve Hayes pointed out (shared with permission): “All these pricing formulae are just examples of decision rules. And as we’ve discussed on many occasions, they are there to guide you, not to be blindly followed.”. She’s absolutely right. The thing is though, that almost everything taught is taken from the view that costs determine price….
