In Part 1 (“what do I sell?”), we looked at what most service businesses sell, and why selling hours can be a bad idea. In Part 2 (“what do customers buy?”) we looked at why customers buy outcomes, not hours. In Part 3 (“what should I sell?”), we looked at why you should sell outcomes. Now, in [...]
In Part 1, we looked at what most service businesses sell, and why selling hours can be a bad idea. In Part 2 we looked at why customers buy outcomes, not hours. Outcome-based Selling If the customer is willing to pay $100,000 for a certain outcome or deliverable, you can then decide if you can or [...]
In Part 1, we looked at what most service businesses sell, and why selling hours can be a bad idea. Now let’s look at the whole situation from the customer’s perspective. The Customer’s Perspective The interesting question in sales (and in pricing), is not “what am I selling?” It’s “what are you buying?” As the [...]
What do service businesses sell? If you looked at invoices from consultants, lawyers, gardeners, and others, you would assume these businesses sell hours. And maybe they do. But is that what customers buy? I get this question a lot, both from consulting clients who want to figure out how to optimize their pricing, and from [...]
A lot of people have asked if there are public proposal templates to help them get started with Mimiran. Until now, the answer was unfortunately, “no.” Today, I’m happy to say the answer is “yes.” There’s currently exactly one template (see below), but more will be coming soon. When you create a new proposal, you [...]
I don’t know you. How can I know you’re pricing all wrong? Obviously, I don’t, and there’s a chance you’re actually doing it right, but experience with hundreds of business owners lets me play the odds. So in this post, we’ll look at the most common ways small business owners hold back their own businesses [...]
You walk into the doctor’s office with a cut on your hand. You think you need some stitches and perhaps some antibiotics, but you’re not sure. The doctor says, “great to see you. Looks like you could use a heart transplant.” You’re puzzled. “But, doc, I just have a cut on my hand. I think [...]
“Can you send me a proposal?”, is one of the best questions you can get in sales. But it also leads to a lot of stress. Small business owners who moonlight as the “VP of Sales”, and even seasoned sales reps lose sales and profit by committing these 6 unforced errors. 1. Making It All [...]
I’ve worked with a lot of small businesses (and plenty of large ones, too) to improve their pricing. This creates fundamental changes in the business model that greatly improves profitability. Yet once that’s done, what the sales team needs, whether a multinational group with regional sales managers or the “team” is the owner of the [...]
A lot of small business owners are much better at “doing what they do” than selling. I’ll count myself among them. But all is not lost. For many of us in the business-to-business world, the better you get at selling, the less it feels like selling, and the more it feels like collaborative problem solving. [...]
