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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Why 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…

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How do you differentiate yourself from your peers?

Unique Value Proposition

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…

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Be 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…

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The Number One Rule of Product Descriptions

The first thing we know about our business is what we sell. As we develop our strategic plans, we also define the problem that we solve. Once we go to market, we are tasked with describing this in a way to attract the right attention, and in only a few sentences. Follow this rule to…

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