A cult
—ural shift. Moving from an input-based price setting into a different model (outputs/outcomes) is a cultural shift. Even if you’re solo. It demands you to think, see and act in different ways. And you will return to your default at times. It’s a lot of effort and being aware of what’s happening at all times. If you’ve been pricing on the low end and are always trying to see how to make it profitable (and squeeze the most out of anything and anywhere), it’s quite likely you’ll default to it…
Stop caring
Stop caring too much for closing the deal. When you approach your customers to try to close them, you get overinvested. You feel you have more at stake. The fear of missing out on this opportunity kicks in. While, yes, they’re qualifying you, you’re also qualifying them. The more you care, the less power in the negotiation you have. Approach it and stop your convince-mode. Go, evaluate if it makes sense for both of you to work together, qualify. If it works out, great. If it doesn’t, great,…
Magic
Delighting your customers. Making the sale for what’s worth to your customers (aka. with the right pricing) is no magic. It will feel like magic to them. All it takes is taking them at the center of what you do. And that will look like magic to your competitors, too. Magic is the feeling of surprise and delight. Aim to that.
What makes you the winner?
You can’t win in business. It’s a common thing to hear “you have to win (in) business.” For you to win, others have to lose. And vice versa. If they win, YOU lose. That’s not reality. Ponder this: if you’re to “win” in business, what makes you the winner? Revenue? Profit? Innovation? Efficiencies accomplished? Efficacy? Better cost structures? More units sold? Less returns? More “brand awareness”? More customers served? And is it one of these (and more) factors? Or all of them at the same…
How low can you go?
That’s what your customers think when you either price your offerings low, give discounts right away, promise over servicing, etc. What are you currently doing to avoid having this thoughts in the mind of your customers? (You can’t control their thoughts, but what you can do is control the context for them to think or not to think of this)
Best branding (and business) advice
It comes from Geraldine Carter, coach to accountants so that they can leave the nonsense of hustle. Read it . 👇 What are YOU worth? “But aren’t I supposed to charge what I’m worth?” Nope. You can decide what you’re worth, but the marketplace is going to decide what it’s going to pay. … You are you. Your business is your business. When your name is on the door of your business, it can be hard to separate the two. … Your business sells product offerings. You are not your business. You are…
Say what you think
Whenever you’re in a (sales) conversation and there’s something you find not making sense, or doubtful, seems to you like a red flag, or your gut tells you “hold on, check that”, you need to say what you think. Frame. Make the question. And embrace silence. … This will give you a chance to check your gut feeling, probe your counterparty, and see how far or close you are on your reading of the context. This will give you an advantage: to make a more conscious decision to move forward, or to…
Revenue is not your friend
Or “sales”, if you’d like to put it that way. Not even cashflow is your friend. You can have millions in revenue. Millions in cashflow. And still on the verge of killing the business. You need to focus on your profit and your margins. And this comes from the value you help create to your customers. Because those (profit + margins) are the ones that make your business sustainable. They are the things that fund your mission. Without that fund, you’ll run dry or burn out. It’s that time when you…
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…
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…
