Diving principles
You can see business as diving. Here are the principles: Have fun. Never hold your breath. Equalize early and often. Always make a safety stop. Never dive alone. Inspect and maintain your equipment. Be buoyant at the surface, neutral underwater. Have fun. They have more to do with business than what you’d see on the surface.
AI will replace you
“AI will replace you.Well, I’d love to see AI wrestle into a wetsuit, smash out 3 deep dives, blow a perfect bubble ring at the safety stop & still make it to happy hour.” Reel IG: @mantadivegilit Could you have an AI (or a robot) to do all of those things efficiently? (except the HH, maybe?) Sure. Would that be fun for you? Not quite sure. It’s the same with your business. AI won’t replace you because it won’t do what you do for the fun of it. At the end, if you’re not having fun, you can…
On the house
You’re stuck with something in your business. You know it. It takes lots of energy from you and don’t really know how to overcome it. Tell me. Whatever it is —pricing, marketing, strategy, branding, segmentation, distribution… business. I’ll point you in the right direction this week. All these years working with and advising small businesses on how to grow have come with tons of resources —books, articles, videos, podcasts, tools— that are better when shared. I’ll direct you on what you…
Discount: An intuitive way of anchoring
In many industries, the way to go is: I show them a “high” price (that I know will never go for), and as soon as they read the proposal, I’m giving them 30% off. It’s a no-brainer! This way, they’ll go to their boss and say “Boss, I got us a GOOD deal”. You want them to say that. [And they still won’t buy (but this one is for another email).] What was described here is an intuitive way of anchoring. To make the offer higher, and with the discount (by default), the “deal” will appear nicer for…
You anchor or you’re anchored
In any negotiation, somebody is anchoring (and at least trying to anchor), whether as a buyer or as a seller. Consciously or unconsciously. Anchoring.- The cognitive bias where you stick to the first piece of information received. Said piece of info will serve as an “anchor” to the next one. Money talking, how you get a “better” or “worse” deal. As a buyer, you’re (usually) trying to go on the most economically efficient way. You want to get a better deal and spend the most reasonable to what…
Dis-positioned
Dis-positioned. The lost battle driven by price. It’s an interesting thing that keeps showing up in many shapes, shades and forms: how businesses lose themselves into the weeds, and go into the gentle battle for control already losing. They show up as order-takers. They show up saying “Yes” to every request. They show up in fear (of losing the sale). They show up giving all the power (and price decisions) to the customer. They show up angry (that they’re taken advantage of). There’s a bright…
No marketing needed
An actual conversation: – When your product is so good, you don’t need marketing. – Ok. And what is marketing? – Well… social media, ads, PR… – Sure that’s A PART OF marketing. What about product development, innovation, pricing, distribution? – Ah, no. [product dev] That’s for product. [innovation] For R&D. [pricing] For Finance (or Sales). [distribution] For Sales. As if your business works in siloes (it doesn’t). Quoting Peter Drucker, “[…] the business enterprise has two — and only…
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…