The breakdown
“Can you show us a breakdown of how the time will be used and how much will each item be?” Client / Prospect ———— “Re: breakdown. I don’t do a breakdown of items. It would mean you’d be working on an estimate —and we all know estimates are always underestimated. I’d rather give you a full, fixed price, so that you can make an informed financial decision at no risk of spending anything extra if the estimate is that: an estimate.” You’re not obliged to breakdown anything at all. Not…
On positioning
Positioning is not business strategy. It’s a part of, but it’s not THE strategy. Positioning is a reflection of your business strategy (your business approach). Your position(ing) can shift in time to be better aligned to your approach in business. The simplest way to start with it is: WHAT YOU DO + FOR WHOM. It’s a good way to start.
Are your competitors lying?
If you see that in your market, what do you do? Here’s an episode of April Dunford’s podcast about that, and a few smart ways to call them out (with class). 🙂 Give it a go, it’s 24 mins. 🙂 And, please, in case you’re tempted to stretch reality… just don’t. 🙂
You got approval and now… Procurement
You got through the hard part of the sale, you got the approval and now comes Procurement saying: “We’re about to place the order. Do we get a discount?” There are 3 possible ways you could go on it. Say no and call it out. “We got approval and agreement for the price. I’m curious, what’s the reason for this to happen?” “Sure. I could do a 1-figure discount for early-payment, etc.” “No can do for this one. However, with the following projects we could take this into consideration.” It’s…
Too good to be true?
If your prospects think that what you offer is too good to be true in comparison the competition, raise your price 3X…. or 5X. Only then they will seriously consider buying from you. Too good to be true: too risky (there’s a catch). Too good to be true + high price: makes sense, it’s a lower risk. Same offering, different contexts.
Simple ways to kill a business —and a fix.
Those are actually the little things that go unnoticed —until they don’t. Not taking responsibility for what’s going on. Misleading with promises that will not happen. Over promising. Under promising and over delivering. Ghosting your clients. Ignoring them when they know you’re there. Working (constantly) for free. Focusing on revenue and sales. Inaction. The list can go on and on and on. You get the gist of it. The fix? Caring for your customers.
When you’re asked about rates…
When you’re asked about rates and that with that (and your rates “being competitive”) you’ll move to the top of the line when procuring your expertise, you can reply something like this: “Thanks for asking about rates. We don’t work with predefined rate cards, as all you could get is an estimate based on assumed calculations of the rate, times X, Y, or Z. And you know estimates are just that, they could go up or down (they almost always go up). We do work, however, with fixed prices, as our…
Rates vs prices (a dissection)
That’s one of the things that state you care about your customer, because price is all about them (and their certainty). The difference between a rate and a price. Rate: a variable that needs to be calculated with other(s) to have a final figure. Price: a variable that is final. Dissecting yesterday’s reply. “We don’t work with predefined rate cards, as all you could get is an estimate based on assumed calculations of the rate, times X, Y, or Z. And you know estimates are just that, they…
Wordplay on prices and rates
Friend-of-the-list Brandon Hughes started an interesting discussion on price and rates, and how that shows your expertise. Excerpts of our convo (w/permission to share). If I have rates, I’m not an expert or I’m leaving money on the table. If I find the price, I could probably do the job in my sleep, giving the customer extra value. —Desmond If you have rates, you could very well be an expert. Yet, you would project less confidence in your work, as the customer is the one who bears all risk….
You’ve been taught pricing… backwards
Friend-of-the-list Brandon Hughes started an interesting discussion on price and rates. “If you find the price, you would give the extra value.” This makes sense on the way we’ve been taught about pricing and prices. We need to find the right price. But there’s no right or wrong price. Just a price. We’ve been taught that first you find how much it costs you, then you find the right price, and then you see the value that can be added to your customer. That’s backwards. You don’t find the…
