It’s a sign
Your price is the representation of your brand. One of the touchpoints your business has that is the simpler to understand is price. If you can’t articulate what’s the relationship between your price and the value your customers seek, that’s a sign. A sign for you to work on making that relationship a no-brainer in terms of understanding. If you can’t command an uncommon price, you have a me-too (common) offering.
The importance of your insight
When you have prospects trying to figure out whether or not buying from you, the main thing that will make you stand out is how you see your market. Here’s a simple way to start. The rest of players see [the category] this way: your view of what goes on with the others. I (or we, if it’s REALLY more than you) see it like this: how you do —not how you’d want it to be in a future, but how you do things NOW. Putting this in the simplest terms you can, will give you a strength on how you say it,…
A language you don’t need.
Even when you’re highly specialized in what you do, the way you do it, and in the people you serve (your market), you don’t need to talk highly technically most of the times. Because, at the end of it all, your customers are not looking for what solution will be specifically implemented —they’re not the experts after all. What they’re looking for is how you can help them, as in what’s in it for them. Help them get a clear big picture of what they’re really wanting. Help them gain altitude….
Bratwurst
Bratwurst. (noun) .— a type of German sausage made from pork or, less commonly, beef or veal. The name is derived from the Old High German Brätwurst, from brät-, finely chopped meat, and Wurst, sausage, although in modern German it is often associated with the verb braten, to pan fry or roast. You’re selling the sausage. Better yet, your customers are trying to buy the sausage. They’re hungry. They have a craving. Help them fix that, so that they’re satisfied and happy. When they’re looking…
Your price is arbitrary
Price, at the end of it all, is related to what the customer gets in return. It’s the acceptable amount of money they decide to pay in exchange for something. If you, as a customer, decide that this thing is important to you, and that the monetary value of it is X, you’ll be happy to pay anything less than X. “This seems like an arbitrary number.” And it is. Like anything else you’ll find in the world. It’s an arbitrary (made up) number, that comes from the mind of your customer.
Sausage and THE sausage
If you’re selling sausage, you need more than just saying that. If you’re selling THE sausage, all that pre-work has been done. Here’s the thing: Yesterday’s message was about how to make things simple for your customer when you’re in your conversations. Giving them more information might turn out being more confusing than what they actually need. And THE sausage is a metaphor for what they want. Not an actual sausage. 🙂
The problem with sustainability
Sustainability, ESG, climate change, circular economies… they all have a problem: they’re jargon. They go full-on academic, or fuzzy, or whatever, actually. It goes around in very small, strict pods that make them feel like a bubble. They go hard on technicality, definitions (I mean, do you even get what “taxonomy” is? I don’t), specifications, and so on. It makes them unreachable. Impossible to explain. And when you can’t clearly explain that thing you do, people won’t care. And worse:…
Types of sausage
The sausage is a metaphor for what your customers want: the outcome, the transformation. Here are a few types of sausage: Increasing revenue Decreasing delays Improving message clarity Enabling their sales to better fits Streamlining their ops Accessing new markets Expanding the brand presence Being the top-of-mind choice in new business Take a bigger share of the market Keeping better track of their processes Improving their new product launches Increased revenues or profitability Faster…
Solution-mode Off
When you approach your sales conversations without trying to find a solution in the very moment, you find yourself listening to understand. To understand HOW you could help your prospect get what they want. And to KNOW what they REALLY want, you need to listen. And deactivate your solution mode. It requires you to not be the expert (in an expertise-based business, right? 🤯). It requires you to lead the conversation to help your client (and yourself) gain clarity. Blair Enns calls it the…
It’s not about growth
Pricing is not about growth. It’s about profit. About getting the maximal monetary amount your customer is WILLING to pay. BUT, also, it’s about profit AFTER bringing your customer to a better place. If you don’t get this one principle clear, any pricing you’ll try won’t last.
