(One of) The big lie. A function of your costs.
Setting up your price as a function of your costs is one of the big lies we’ve been taught into. From hospitality…Calculate labour (staff) + supplies and then add what “the best practice” on profit margin in the industry is. Now you have your price. To B2B…Calculate what it costs you, add a margin and you’re good to go. You have a price. To consulting…Estimate how much you’d like to make in a year based on your costs, divide it by 2000 hours (aprox what you work in a year) and you have…
Maybe your pricing IS the problem
If you think of it as a response to the market. If you build it up as your costs + profits. If it’s set up being compared to the competitors. If it’s taken as what big cos do. If you want to build it from low entry points to then raise it. If you’ll raise it little by little. If you believe hours define it. If you believe effort defines it. If you believe it’s “what’s you’re worth”. If Rate is confused with Price. If you ask the question “what would you pay” instead of “would you pay ___”. If…
Maybe your pricing is not the problem
Maybe —if you’re not offering the same thing anyone else could do— your pricing is not the problem Your prospecting is. It’s either too broad. Too general. Or misplaced. More doesn’t mean better. Maybe this helps. Fill in the blanks: I help [THIS SPECIFIC GROUP OF PEOPLE] who [ARE FACING THIS SPECIFIC CHALLENGE/PROBLEM] get [THIS KIND OF RESULTS/IMPROVEMENTS] so that they can [GET THIS SPECIFIC KIND OF OUTCOME]. Would love to know what you do. 🙂
That dark place of doubting yourself
Writing a proposal and sending it with 3 options. Commenting on it with friends and getting back “But this is not how things usually work here. You need to give a (daily/hourly) rate.” It makes you think if you approached it right. If the price was too high. If you need to show more value. If you need to prove it. if you need to keep giving freebies (and free advice). If the prospect will walk away because you’re too expensive. If —maybe— you thought too high of yourself and shot too high….
Your price is not the problem
A common thread that comes when talking on pricing ANY offering comes as: “I believe my prices are too high. I think i’ll lower them.” When digging for the reasons, one recurrent is: “My potential clients have told me so.” If that’s the gist of the problem you’re facing, here’s a question for you: If you cut your prices to 50%, would it automatically double your clients, customers, guests? Would you have people lining up because you’ll be over capacitiy? Just think of that. 🙂
Another day in paradise
3 chords. No effort. Just a warm up. A world, epic riff that makes it stand out and recognizable all over the world (and time). That’s how this song was made. However, Dominic Miller’s first intention was to make it about the song and himself until he heard: – “That’s the riff!” – “Wait. Hang on a minute, mate. I’m gonna do something really epic that’s gonna show not only great your song is, but how great i am” (I’m just warming up!) When he understood it was not about him or about how epic…
You don’t fire prospects.
Going along with your power of choice can help you be at your best with the people you like and care for. However, when talking with prospects, you don’t fire them. You can’t. What you can do is telling them no, which is withholding your expertise, advice or offering (your greatest power). You can’t fire them, because you never received payment from them. They’re not clients. You can’t fire them, because there’s nothing real at stake. They don’t have skin in the game —nor do you. Filtering…
It’s some kind of emo thing
That was Chad Smith, drummer of Red Hot Chili Peppers, after hearing (and playing) “The Kill” by 30 Seconds To Mars in one take —listening to it for the very first time. If you like music, you might enjoy this vid (if you haven’t already seen it bc it’s gone crazy viral). [My recommendation: If you’ve never heard the song before, check it out here.(3:51) Short version of the jam (3:46) here Long version (8:45) here ] Chad’s level of expertise is such that he goes into an unknown situation and…
Should you?
Should you get mad or upset when you get a new unsubscribe? Should you take it personal when you get a hard no on a sale? Should you get offended when receiving an argument against your argument? Truth is, I don’t know if you “should”. What I do know though, is that a… New unsub means they’re not quite your fit. Either not finding what you have, of value; not in the right time to keep reading you; or who knows. It’s not like you insulted them and called them names, right? No is the second…
Prep the room
So, you’ve got a gig, quickly got to see the patterns that are holding your clients back and you are ready to move on. You make things happen. You know what to change, how to pivot the approach, how to implement actions, put a plan in motion and so on. You make shit happen. And you hit resistance. Intellectually, your client is following your arguments and understands them. In principle, it’s only logical to implement your advice IF they want to get to the results they want. But they don’t…
