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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.
What do you see yourself still talking and interested in in 10 years from now? How many of the current things you do/research/write/publish/work on are in that spectrum? Think it'd be worth going on one of them deep enough to experiment and build new offerings/products/services? That's a quick way to see if what you're working on is aligned with what you see in a (not-so-distant?) future. 10 years can pass quickly. And 10 years can also be long enough to figure out if what you're currently...
Next time you're on a sales conversation with a prospect, ask them this: "It's a year from now. We're having coffee together and you're happy. What has happened in your business in that year for you to be happy?" [Now you don't say a word. Embrace silence. Bite your tongue if you need to. :)] This question will push them to think. And you need to give them space to do that. If you talk, you take it away from them. When they talk, they'll give you A TON of valuable information to start seeing...
It's a year from now. We're having coffee together and you're happy. What has happened in your business in that year for you to be happy? I'd love to know. :)
That's the tricky question that pushes you to start thinking on how you'll convince them. What can you say that will make them want you SO BAD, that it's only logical to go with it? Well, it's definitely not logic. And has to do the opposite to convincing. What if you stop from going full-speed? Breath. Stop. Think on their words. Why We Hire Why? It actually has nothing to do with you. It's about them talking to you. If they're in that conversation, it's them who saw something to talk with...
Today's daily is this one by Blair Enns: Ideological Resonance. TL;DR: it's about your perspective and how your insights make you stand out from your competitors. That's originality, authenticity, and finding your tribe. What's your view of the world, how you do what you do and approach your market to serve?
Digging deeper into more sources and resources of that McKinsey study re: how your best chances at improving your profit rest more on changing how you price than looking for higher volumes or cost efficiency, I ran into this graph presented (and visiting a more updated version of that report in 2016) by Tim Williams, pricing specialist. You can check out his full presentation (40 min —you'll find this explanation within the first minute) on this here. The trend to see. On the first study...
The one thing that can drive a higher impact in your business is your price. From all things, increasing your price (and charging differently) can improve the way your business does. There's this McKinsey study from 20 years ago —yeah, that far back— where they show that a 1% increase in the price, would generate 8% increase in operating profits. Way larger of an increase if you'd get to improve your costs in the same 1%. Yet, the question remains in: what are you doing to price different —if...
Have you ever done work for free? If so, how did it go for you? Did you get what you were excpecting at the beginning of the engagement? Quite curious on that one. :)
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.