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…
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…
Don’t speak
“Don’t speak, I know just what you’re sayin’So please stop explainin'”Don’t Speak – No Doubt When you’re in a sales conversation, stop talking. Start listening. Probe with questions. It’s not about your reasons. About your product. About you. It’s about vetting if there’s a fit (a set of, actually) between your prospect and your business. If you can help them. And if they want the kind of help you give. More explaining won’t do it. More listening will.
Yield and Concede
A school of thought on sales has this principle: “For you to win in a negotiation, you need to be ready to yield and concede”. Bullshit. You don’t. You can always walk away. The only thing customers have: money. The thing that only you and your business have: your expertise. Money is fungible / exchangeable. Your expertise and what you bring to the table, isn’t.
Would you like fries with it?
Doing what your customers say they need you to do without a proper diagnosis from your side is asking that question. It’s leaning into taking orders and leave all the responsibility (and risk) on them. So when things go south “they got what they asked for”. And to get those things done (what they say they need), you’ll compete with LLMs and AI, amongst other who “do” the same. Start with a diagnosis. That’s one of the first indicators you’re the expert.
Just a fling
“It’s just a fling” A fling is something sporadic, occasional and with no prospect of something in the future. A fling, though, wouldn’t be called a transaction. Just a thing of the moment. Easily exchanged. Easily forgettable. Your business? Is it a fling for your customers? Or are they actually invested in making it a thing? Because depending on what it is that they see, you could start talking on loyalty.
Keeping things safe
Nobody move. Things are just working. Play it safe. While keeping it safe might feel right the way to go, it is also a call to deflect from innovating and taking new risks. On how things that worked for a (long) time are still delivering some results… but not taking head on what could be next. Falling into best practices, rather than practicing. And getting too comfortable with how you’re running things —that will terrify you to risk any of it. Here’s the thing Better to get disruption from…
Not all of your clients
Not all of them will follow your advice. And that’s ok. It’s their prerogative. And as such, it’s not your responsibility either. You can only help the ones who let you help. And to find these ones, you need qualifying. Choose wisely.