Which piece of the pie are you?

Your client’s desire to buy from you hopefully knows no bounds.  But the thing that does have limits is budget.  Your clients can make more money, or move money around, but there is only a finite and specific amount of it available at any one time.  It is a set pie.  Which piece of that…

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How will your clients replace you?

Not all competitors are direct competitors. You are not only competing against people whose business cards have the same words as yours does. Your clients could also find a whole new option or direction that eliminates their need to hire you at all.  Understand how you can be replaced.  Replacement competition There are various ways…

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Competitive Advantage: Know Thyself

This saying from ancient Greek, “know thyself”, is often used as a warning against boastfulness. That’s good advice when it comes to describing your competitive advantage.  You don’t want a value proposition that merely says you are better than the competition. Indeed, you don’t want a value proposition that talks about your competition at all. …

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Five Sales Truths To Have Loyal Clients

We are all sales people.  Not according to our job titles or our job descriptions. But the reality is: we all have to be finding and bringing new clients to our businesses.  Whether you are the business owner or sales person specifically, if you play any role in developing new business, these five truths apply…

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Selling Peace of Mind

A comment I have heard in at least four different conversations over the past couple of months: “I sell peace of mind”.  The four people who said this were: an attorney, a beauty salon owner, an auto mechanic, and a doggy day care owner.  But they all sell the same thing… or do they?  What…

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Be The Best Option – A Case Study

People have options. The content in this blog is about finding ways to always be the best option.  To be the best option, you must be targeting the right clients and then solving their particular problems.  I saw this happen recently with a CPA firm.  The problem They were serving anyone.  Everybody needs to file…

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Value: It’s Not About You

value proposition

Last week we looked at how price and service are intrinsically linked, because service determines value and price is the manifestation of value. Value is a key area where my business mantra applies: It’s not me, it’s you.  There are two key things to know about Value: It is subjective It is what clients buy,…

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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…

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Time To Dismantle Your Business

This has come up before on this blog: if you can cannibalize your business, you should. This is part of the promise of excellence that you make to your clients. To always be excellent, you must always be improving. Running a business tends to leave little time for strategic thinking. One key goal of this…

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Quality – 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…

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