Loyal Customers
Service vs Price: Who Wins?
Where should a business strategy focus to win clients? Does better service outweigh a higher price? Or are most buying decisions ultimately a battle between pricing options? Most business owners and leaders have wondered this at some point or another; often after having lost a deal to a cheaper competitor. Slashing prices seems like such…
Read MoreStop Selling
That is: if you want to grow your business. People who work with me regularly are familiar with my approach to sales, which is to refocus it on “buying”. A commercial transaction requires actions performed by another person. That is the key to a new sale: it is actually the other person performing the act…
Read MoreMake It Easy To Buy From You
You’ve been reading this blog for a while, and have by now determined your market position and messaging. People know who you are, and they know both what you do and what’s in it for them. Now what? Do these people know what to do next? Do they know how to hire you? If you…
Read MoreQuality – What’s In A Word
You see it all the time: a website, a brochure, a speaker, promising that their company’s number one mission is to provide “Quality” of product or service. And I have to ask: what is the alternative? If the best you can promise is quality, you have not given enough thought to what makes you good…
Read MoreWhy You Should Welcome Competition
There really is space in the market for more than one of you. Focus on your differences, not your similarities, and learn to carve out your niche areas. More importantly: don’t focus on your competition when considering how to innovate and develop. We’ve mentioned this before, but Stephen Fry really says it best: What is…
Read MoreHow do you differentiate yourself from your peers?
A fairly common question. And an important one. I answered this on an online forum recently, and it is worth sharing those thoughts here. As with much of what I say: start by being deliberate about who you are, what you do, and how you do it. The Answer Start by asking yourself: What do…
Read MoreThe System is the Solution
Another view on last week’s message: that good process is what makes your business unique and successful. You may have heard this expression before, it was the old AT&T business slogan: The System is the Solution Once again: the words used, matter. The solution is the product Regular readers of this blog will have heard…
Read MoreBusiness Orchestration
If you haven’t orchestrated it, you don’t own it. As written in The E-Myth, by Michael E. Gerber. I read this book at the perfect time, when I was struggling to express the importance of systems in my business. As I rolled out a new right way/wrong way to operate, this line helped me explain…
Read MoreBe The Best Option
People have options in life. Whenever you buy a product or service, you choose what to buy, based on the issue you want resolved. Your clients are the same, they have choices. You may know that you are the best and obvious choice for them, but here’s the problem: all of your competitors know that…
Read MoreDon’t Be Perfect: Be Valuable
Analysis Paralysis is a real and insidious. The problem grows because we tend to speak in terms of necessity: I need more information; I need more preparation; it has to be perfect. My suggestion to you today is that you focus not on being perfect, but rather on being valuable. What is Perfect? That is…
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