Author Archive
How are you doing on price?
Posted by: | CommentsI first published this discussion six months ao. Since then, I have had more and more discussions with my clients about their pricing strategies and being squeezed in this market.
In a lean economy, many sales and business development people feel obligated to discount their prices; at least, the discussion of price and where it fits in the sales strategy becomes more important than ever.
Many of my customers struggle with the issues of pricing to be competitive and also maintaining a viable profit margin.
So I’ve spent some time exploring best practices and considering what we should recommend in this market.
I’ll say at the outset that The Whale Hunters way is never to discount a price. If we believe our price is fair, and if we have a market for products and services at our prices, then discounting will only take us into a downward spiral. If a customer wants a service, and the service is more than the customer is willing to pay, we are often willing to renegotiate the scope of work, but not the price of our work.
If this is an issue you’d really like to study, I have three resources to recommend:
First, check out Dan Sullivan’s program for entrepreneurs–The Strategic Coach Inc. at www.strategiccoach.com. Dan’s built a highly profitable and durable business teaching entrepreneurs how to get the greatest value for their services and products.
For professional service firms, try How to Maximize Professional Service Fees by Alan Weiss. This little book offers 57 ways to manage your fee structure to your advantage. I’ll repeat just three of his nuggets, incorporated into the chapter “Value Must Be Based Upon Worth”:
- Value is in the eyes of the client
- Fees should be based upon fulfilling value, not performing tasks.
- Time unit billing will always be less than your true value.
A more comprehensive discussion of pricing models is available in Pricing With Confidence by Reed Holden and Mike Burton. These authors offer ten rules for pricing, the most important of which is Rule #10 — Price With Confidence.
So if the economy has got you worried about the need to cut prices in order to get business, it’s time to arm yourself with some very good advice and reconsider the cost-cutting strategy.
Join The Whale Hunters group on LinkedIn for more discussions about how to be successful selling to big companies in a tough market.
Ten Tips to Earn Stimulus Money Contracts
Posted by: | CommentsFederal dollars from the stimulus package are slowly making their way to state and local governments, which will award contracts for all kinds of goods and services with this money.
Money that was formerly spent in the for-profit sector is now being spent by government entities. If your business is not prepared to tap into this fertile source of contracts, it is time to pay attention. Of course you need to start by educating yourself on the stimulus package and the types of things that are being funded and will be funded.
But beyond that, I offer you ten tips to access stimulus-funded contracts: Read More→
Five Sure-Fire Ways to Irritate Your Prospects
Posted by: | CommentsI am a hot weather person—can’t tolerate cold, or even chilly, and love hot whether it’s dry or steamy. Yet every summer, when the outdoor temperature finally gets comfortable for me, I have to deal with the battle of the air conditioners.
Yesterday I walked to lunch in gorgeous weather for mid-summer—82 degrees, slight breeze—from my perspective it was perfect. The doorman greeted me, held the door wide open, and said, “Come in, out of the heat!” He was only being polite, making small talk, but it occurred to me that he had no idea whatsoever that I would not feel about the weather exactly as he did. To me, it was not hot. It was just right.
That is often true when we communicate with our prospective customers. We have a mindset that we know what they need or want, and sometimes we neglect to test our assumptions or, simply, to ask.
Here are some lessons from the restaurant scenario that are applicable to our relationships with our customers—the assumptions that make for bad business:
- Assume they know what I am looking for. I walk into a restaurant whose management assumes I want to be chilly. So instead of settling comfortably, I am already disappointed. They also assume that I have come in for food, and they don’t understand that if I feel cold it will be hard to enjoy that food.
- Make it clear that they are being inconvenienced. If I ask for the thermostat to be raised, someone will argue with me: “Actually, it’s 72 in here.” I am therefore supposed to be comfortable. With a deep sigh: “I’ll see if we can turn down that overhead fan.” Sigh.
- Take no steps to learn. If they happen to have a customer satisfaction survey, temperature of the room is never an option. No one is thinking about how my experience could be improved. They’re only thinking that I am a problem.
- Assume that I am the only one dissatisfied. Odds are good that for every patron who complains, several will just eat in silence and fail to return.
- Don’t solve the real problem. Given that their patrons have a wide range of preferences regarding temperature, perhaps there could be different temperatures in different rooms. Or the restaurant could offer shawls to chilly guests, just as airlines used to offer blankets (but no longer do). Or consider how to separate temperature from air blowers. Just a thought.
These five principles drawn from my personal experience are useful illustrations of how easy it is to be indifferent to our customers’ preferences. You have your own set of experiences as well. What if we draw on our experiences as customers and apply them to the ways that we interact with our customers? I think it will lead to more powerful customer relationship plans and policies.
What experience have you had that taught you a lesson about customer service? We’d love to have you post a comment below.
Visit Barbara Weaver Smith online at blog.thewhalehunters.com or follow me on Twitter twitter.com/whalehunters.
Two items in the news really grabbed me this week. I blogged about them at my home blog, but today I want to talk about how they are related.
First, I received an invitation from Forbes magazine to join a new site called Forbes Woman. I was angry and insulted when I visited the site because I thought it was not about primarily about women in their roles is business people. Rather it featured a lot of trite headlines about fashion and beauty and depression and the wives (who are not business women) of recently discredited men. Read More→
About Competition and Sales
Posted by: | CommentsOn June 4th, I hosted the Whale Hunting Women Summit in Indianapolis, Indiana. The event provided inspiration, motivation, and direction for the more than 165 women who attended.
As part of my own presentation to the audience, I talked about what I see as the movement from a culture of competition (a 20th century idea) to a culture of collaboration (a 21st century idea.) I have written extensively about this concept, as I believe it is critical to understanding how the new global economy works and, especially, how it tends to favor women’s traditional ways of working and leading.
The argument goes like this: the 20th century U.S. economy was dominated by a “military-industrial complex”, focused on a military model of strategy in which there is a winner and a loser, and favored an aggressive model of leadership. By contrast, the 21st century economy is dominated by consumer power, fueled by international connectivity, and favors a collaborative model of leadership. And by the way women tend to be very good at leadership in that model.
But . . . some very competitive women are in the audience and on the podium. After me! Former Indy Car racer Lyn St. James. And Head Coach of the WNBA Indiana Fever Lin Dunn. And they say—Barbara, you are wrong about competition. We want to win! Competition is what we are all about!
So, I have been missing something. Re-thinking my advice and my position. And I understand, of course women are competitive. Of course we want to win at whatever game we’ve chosen to play. What is my real point then? Two things: One, don’t compete against your own team. Two, collaborate to create a competitive market.
Here’s what it comes down to. In a sporting league, there is a tremendous amount of collaboration among potential competitors. The owners (of the teams, the sponsorships, or events) collaborate on game rules, governance principles, media rights, financial models, recruitment, expansion, schedules, play-offs, benefits, bonuses, etc. etc. Before there can even be a competition, essential collaboration creates the level playing field.
In other words, the so-called adversaries must collaborate with one another at very high levels in order to create the environment in which they can compete. And that’s what I’m talking about in my case for collaboration vs. competition. As business women, we should focus on the league, the playing field, the environment in which our companies live and work. We should focus on the collaborative energies and opportunities to create the best of all possible worldwide “leagues” of business. Within those leagues we can and should be competitive. But first, we have to collaborate.
4 More Great Women Bloggers
Posted by: | CommentsI’m completing my Virtual Blog Tour (organized by Nikki Leigh) on June 30th. The tour is promoting my newest book Whale Hunting Women, and I have been hosted by more than 25 bloggers, podcasters, radio interviewers and book reviewers.
I have met extraordinary women and men on this tour, all of whom have been gracious and generous in sharing their forums with me. This week I wanted to introduce four more of the women bloggers that I’ve met along the way. Read More→
