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Rod Aparicio

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Going deep on discounts

If you're going to discount, here's a more detailed view of yesterday's rules: Specific.Needs to explain WHY they're getting the discount. In exchange for something in return.Needs to say what's being given in return for the discount. Explicit.Needs to be stated in the proposal what, how and why the discount is there. Time-bounded. It has to be in a defined timeframe.Needs to be a take it now, or leave it. Written at the end of the quote/proposal for what it is "Discounted price".Price →...

Giving discounts: taking a price off of something —or adding something up to your offering. But... what's the reason (or reasons) to give a discount? Is it to give it when they ask for it? Is it to close the deal? Is it because you have no power in the negotiation? Is it because they have all the power in the negotiation? Is it because you can't say No? Is it because they don't have money? There can be a million reasons (or even more). And that's fine. One thing you can ALWAYS say, and need...

Do you give discounts? If so, how does that go?

There are 2 types of people in each customer (or prospect) that you reach: Budget keepers. Value keepers. You wanna talk to the value keepers. They're the ones who see the future and are comfortable with uncertainty. They're the ones who can fight for a high return in value.

It's not about what YOU think/see/feel is simple. It's about what your customers think/see/feel is simple for them (or not). They don't know the ins and outs. They don't know better. They do know better, though, their day-to-day. They're experts at that. A "simple" system for them might not be something that's simple for you. Take "my old tax booking system is simple"... until they know how simple other things can be. Because simplicity —or complexity— has not everything to do with the use,...

Do you have them all with all the details? Or do you have them as one single-price? Whatever form you do, what's the thing you notice when negotiating/talking to your customers re: your pricing? Do you have any push back to justify anything —if at all? Hit reply and lemme know. :)

Charging "competitive" prices. Approaching the segment you serve with "what the market (competitors) charge" gets you to be compared EXACTLY on what they do. And my guess is you deff have something different. A common (mis)belief is that once you get customers, you'll "flood the market", and from there raise your prices. Sure, you could do that. And raise little by little... 5%... 10%... 12%... In every raise, you'll have to justify yourself on why you're raising them: "Conditions have...

That's the usual approach price-driven prospects (especially purchasing, procurement —or the accountant) will take on you to lower your price. And it's fine. It's their job to do that. And they're trained to do so. Now, whatever they say is not mandatory for you. You can always say "Thanks for this. This doesn't feel like a good fit. So I'll pass." "Out of curiosity... where's this number coming from?" "We could explore something like this. I'm curious, though... what is it that made you talk...

When developing and designing your offerings (offering/product ladders, too), take your pricing in orders of magnitude, related to the value. If you have something for 100, how would this turn into 1000 for your customer? If you have something for 50K, how would this turn into half a mill for your customer? This will push you to think in terms of your customer, and not in terms of you. When you crack that code, it becomes simple. You stop going from "How can I squeeze the most of what I got...

If you want to be more accommodating to your customers budgets, you can do so. In a profitable way. You can build offering ladders (a game-changing concept shared by Jonathan Stark) An offering ladder (aka product ladder) is a mix of offerings (products, services) that is progressive both in impact for your customer, as in price. They go from low risk, low trust, low friction to high trust, high impact. The goal of it is to reduce the friction with your prospects, so that it can build trust...