Are You Underselling Yourself?
In the age of cheap
goods and services, some people may be reluctant to charge a premium price for
their product. Is this a good idea?
I had a client who wanted to take over the business of a
good quality buyer from one of his competitors.
He researched the buyer’s needs and put together a strong argument for
them to change over to his business.
One of the points which we discussed was pricing,
specifically, how he had worked out the fee schedule for the service, based on
his costs of doing business and the additional investment that would be
required, along with the fact that this particular buyer was very demanding and
that therefore the management team were likely to spend additional time on dealing
with them.
The answer was that he had to give them pricing that would tempt
them. Trouble was, it was 50% lower than
what they’d been paying. Of course, they
took it, but then things unravelled as the expected business volumes didn’t
materialise and my client found that he was barely breaking even on the
business.
What went wrong? A
number of things combined to cause the situation:
- Not examining the costs of delivering the service.
- Pricing: did he need to give a 50% cut?
- Little sensitivity analysis - what if anticipated business
volumes didn't materialise?
Had he spent more time on costing and focusing on his
bargaining position, would the buyer have accepted a higher price?
The thing was, this client provided a top quality service at
reasonable prices. He had (in my view)
the right to charge a premium price
for this reason. By charging the low
price that he did, he left himself:
- No room for bargaining;
- No “cushion” in case business levels dropped;
- No room for offering discounts or reductions later as a sign
of “goodwill”.
In other words, he focused too much on securing the
business, without considering what it could cost him.
Ask yourself:
- “What is my product/service worth?”
- “What makes me different
to the competition?”
- “Would this justify a higher price?”
- “If not, what would?”
Remember, the only person you're underselling in the end is
yourself. The key is knowing why you’re different and then making sure that
buyers appreciate that.
I have spent more than half my life
delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to
“emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial
services around the world running different
operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to offer
solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses,
charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An
international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of
services. For strategic questions that
you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.Labels: Customer Care, Financial, Selling, Strategy
Are Your Staff Subordinates or Collaborators?
I’m always interested
to see and read about experiences of workplaces. You can tell a lot about a business or
organisation by the way that the owners treat their staff.
The traditional attitude has been “Me boss, you worker. Me say, you do.”
Or similar.
In the days when education standards and aspirations were
lower, this may have worked. In cases
where workers carry out repetitive tasks involving little or no thought, it may
still work. However, if an organisation
relies on “knowledge workers” (and more do), then treating them as numbers is
the best way of ensuring that they’ll be looking for the next escape route that
presents itself.
When people don't feel respected or valued, they will move
and certainly won't be as motivated or productive as they could be. You still need a “chain of command” - but how
the “command” side works is different.
This means that people feel free to question things, to
disagree, to propose their own solutions or to run with things with little
supervision (on the understanding that they have to meet certain standards
within a set deadline). The people at
the top can’t expect to be experts on everything and need to understand that
they have to rely on and trust the knowledge and judgement of others who are
closer to the process or product. From
personal experience, this doesn’t come easily (after all, no one can do it
better than I can, can they?)
In the end, a business exists to make money. How it does that
is up to the business, but if the chances of making money (or more money) are increased by adopting a
different approach to leadership and management, isn’t it worth it?
Collaboration, not subordination, is the new winning play. Leaders are not so much “bosses” as
facilitators. The most important
question that a leader can ask is, “What can I do to help?” Those who think that they must be seen to be
in command to be respected do not understand what modern leadership is really
about (and sadly, there are many of this type still around).
The Toyota company practices this art in a special way they
call Kaizen.
The “command and control” style works in a crisis when
decisions have to be made, tasks allocated and things done fast. In such circumstances, the difference between
delay and action may be the continuity of the business itself. This is where a good team and leader come
into their own. The trust that has been
built up will show in the way they communicate, allocate, delegate and
instigate.
I have spent more than half my life
delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to
“emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial
services around the world running
different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to
offer solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk
management. I work with individuals,
small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across
the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be
contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be
asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.Labels: Leadership, Strategy, Teamwork
You’re Only As Good As Your Last Transaction
In a world of readily
available social media, feedback is instantaneous, global and potentially
lethal to a business’ prospects. One dissatisfied customer can reach millions
and cause irreparable damage to a business’ reputation. How do you manage this?
A business is only as good as its last transaction. This needs to be constantly remembered and
reinforced. We can no longer rely on
someone forgetting an unpleasant experience five minutes later - social media
has seen to that. However, any of us in
the customer service industry know first-hand how difficult it is to please
everyone all of the time. Statistically
speaking, there will be bad days,
however hard you try and you will
experience awkward customers.
The same applies from the customer side: they will experience moments where the staff
member serving them “doesn’t get it” or who is having a bad day, or can’t
explain clearly why something can’t
be done the way the customer wants.
There are several parts to the solution to this never-ending
issue:
- Training
- The ability to think around a problem and explain it (not just saying, “It’s
policy.”)
In terms of training, the more one can provide in terms of
standard answers and processes, the better.
The other part of the solution is instilling the empathy and ability to see from the
other person’s perspective. That takes a
little longer and comes with experience.
Here’s a real-life example from
the newsletter of Michael Heppell - a Customer Service expert. He was facilitating a “Service Inspiration
Day” for a client and asked the delegates to go out onto the high street and
ask various stores questions to which the answer was really obvious. The idea was to see how staff in different
stores reacted. Here’s his story about what
happened with one team…
One team arrived at
the Apple Store in (location deleted) and asked the totally obvious question,
‘Excuse me, do you sell iPhones’? The response?
A dismissive, “Yeah,
‘course we do.”
It would have been so
easy to say the equally obvious, “Thank you for asking and yes we do. Let me
show you the whole range, they’re over here.”
Here’s why our
clients were so upset.
It was Apple! Net promoter
scores in the high 60s. Legendary
customer service?
And this was the
worst bit. One by one other delegates gave their examples of where Apple had
recently failed to live up to expectations.
It all came out - a business, which you would expect
to be at the top of the charts for service, had clearly let down a number of
people and scored… zero.
And it came out in public (at least in a workshop). Michael, however, broadcast it on his
newsletter - so it’s now “out there”.
Is this what you want happening with your business? It’s easy to make sure that it doesn’t!
I have spent more than half my life
delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to
“emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial
services around the world running
different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to
offer solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses,
charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An
international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of
services. For strategic questions that
you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.Labels: Customer Care, Selling, Strategy
Are You "Busy" Or Productive?
Every day at work, we
see people rushing about with pre-occupied looks on their faces, or working
furiously at their desk. Sometimes we
may even be told that they can’t speak to us because they’re “too busy”.
I used to have a colleague who made a practice of walking
very quickly with a sheaf of papers and a pre-occupied look on their face. To others in the office, this was a busy
person with important matters on their mind.
I wondered how much of it was an act designed to impress. The person concerned didn't have much of a
reputation for getting business done, so I leave it to you to guess…
Another director in the same department sent out an email
stating that a good relationship manager generates more emails than they
receive - what kind of guidance is that?
People will simply find any excuse to send an email.
There’s a difference between being “busy” and being
“productive”. Being busy means finding
stuff to fill the time between when you arrive at the office and when you
leave. Being productive means moving the
business forward towards its stated objectives.
“Busy stuff” can include sending emails, making calls, attending
lots of meetings, over-focus on administration or paperwork and the “details”. Typically, bureaucrats are busy as this is
what they live for - making sure all the “i”s are dotted and the “t”s crossed. I’m not saying that a degree of bureaucracy
isn't necessary (after all, someone has to please the tax man and the regulators),
but these are not moneymaking activities.
They are, in fact, money
consumers.
Productive people always have the time to do things because they focus on what's important. I know CEOs running large organisations who have the time to respond personally (not through their PA) and promptly to emails. They understand that this will generate
opportunities, income or goodwill - all of which are important to growing businesses.
Ants are busy, business people should be productive. There’s a natural tendency to want to look
busy in the office, but make sure that you're focusing on the right thing. Filling in forms is great (and, at times, a
necessary part of life), but it shouldn't consume too much time. If it does, there’s something wrong. Equally, all those meetings may not actually
be necessary (the minutes may suffice), you may not need to attend so
frequently, or you may need to attend only for the time it takes to say your
piece and answer questions. One former
UK bank’s name was humorously re-invented to suggest that, whilst they held
numerous meetings, not much was accomplished…
Are you “busy” or “productive”?
I have spent more than half my life
delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to
“emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial
services around the world running
different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to
offer solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk
management. I work with individuals,
small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across
the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be
contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of
services. For strategic questions that
you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.Labels: Career, Leadership, Productivity, Teamwork
