The application of modern Health and Safety legislation has elevated the assessment of risk in our thinking, and some of the most over-zealous examples make the headlines and get into the folklore. But, as the professionals in that sphere will tell you, the goal is to be 'safe enough' which is not always the same as 'safe as possible'.
The truth is we cannot, and we should never try to make our lives risk free. This would stifle all progress. Darwin's theories say that the most adaptable are the fittest to survive new circumstances. The most highly adapted may well have bred out some of that adaptability; restricted their gene pool if you will.
Risks should be weighed against each other, not reduced to zero or judged on 'acceptability'. We happily drive faster family cars today than we did in the 1950s because we've developed better brakes!
“We drive faster cars today than in the 1950s because we've
developed better brakes!”
In business, profit comes from taking risks! Eliminating risk in business would have the same progress-limiting effect as in the plant and animal kingdoms. Risk avoidance is the antithesis of successful business.
All purchase involves risk, and services are intrinsically riskier than products, but the upside of this is that customers show greater loyalty to service providers as the risk of change is so great.
You need to analyse the risks your customers perceive when deciding to make a purchase, and mitigate them as appropriate. Most professional service firms do an inadequate job in this area.
If you agree with these thoughts and would like to find out more about structuring your business in a better way, selling properly, how to make sales without selling and get paid what you're worth,, visit www.sws3.co.uk to download 30 more free practical ideas you can implement straight away in your business.
Service providers who charge for their time or their materials, or whose prices are influenced by their competitors can find out how to get paid what they're really worth at www.sws3.co.uk
Forget selling. Concentrate on helping customers to buy!
Easy to say, but how easy is it to do? Well, there are certainly many examples in the world of retail. Do staff in a sweet shop have to try to sell sweets or are they just order-takers? And what about a supermarket? Here the effort is first of all in getting people into the store, then once they are there presenting them with appealing and compelling propositions. Not forgetting of course, working hard to make their whole shopping experience pleasurable by adding superb customer service.
What then are the equivalents in a business to business, service scenario? Getting people into the store would be replaced by lead generation and appointment making for new customers, and by keeping in touch with existing ones. It is in the equivalent 'appealing and compelling' where steps can be taken to get the customers asking to buy, and 'appealing and compelling' generally comes down to enabling the customer to derive the value they seek.
“Appealing and compelling generally comes down to enabling the
customer to derive the value they seek”
But your price will affect 'appealing and compelling' too. A price which offers customers a huge return on investment when compared to their perceived value will be hard to resist. If a customer shows signs of buying on price alone, removing value allows consideration of a lower price, a much better strategy than just unilaterally lowering the price.
Another issue that can be dealt with by adopting a strategy that encourages customers to ask to buy is payment collection. You can effectively remove payment resistance by agreeing prices and payment terms before work ever starts, and then make paying as easy as possible!
If you agree with these thoughts and would like to find out more about structuring your business in a better way, selling properly, how to make sales without selling and get paid what you're worth,, visit www.sws3.co.uk to download 30 more free practical ideas you can implement straight away in your business.
Service providers who charge for their time or their materials, or whose prices are influenced by their competitors can find out how to get paid what they're really worth at www.sws3.co.uk
You need to focus on the total customer experience, and a large part of this involves meeting and sometimes exceeding customer expectations.
To check if customer expectations are being met, one great strategy is to become a 'mystery shopper' and discover what your organisation looks like when seen from the outside. If you can't do this, the next best thing is to regularly ask your customers about their expectations.
If you find their expectations are too high, find ways to lower them or you'll need to walk away. If you don't satisfy the customer's expectations, you'll fail to deliver value. If you can lower their expectations whilst still addressing their key issues, it's easier to exceed them.
“Your competitor is anyone who raises the customer's expectations”
Please realise, expectations are dynamic - Keep asking yourself, "What are we getting paid for? What is the customer trying to get done?" And check this with customers too, of course.
Your competitor is anyone who raises the customer's expectations, and you'll need to react when this happens. Be creative and innovative - You are free to borrow ideas from outside your own 'industry'. For example, freight companies first introduced bar-code tracking, but this then set a standard that the airlines were keen to follow for passenger baggage. The early adopters used it as a differentiator, already knowing its appeal.
If you agree with these thoughts and would like to find out more about structuring your business in a better way, selling properly, how to make sales without selling and get paid what you're worth,, visit www.sws3.co.uk to download 30 more free practical ideas you can implement straight away in your business.
Service providers who charge for their time or their materials, or whose prices are influenced by their competitors can find out how to get paid what they're really worth at www.sws3.co.uk
When I look at the promotional efforts of various businesses, I largely see that they are trying to differentiate themselves from their competitors in order to give customers a good reason for choosing to do business with them rather than an alternative supplier.
Obviously there are some that don't, such as the bland "Please like my Facebook page," but thankfully these are in the minority.
However, they don't all make a great job of differentiating themselves! Some will talk a load of bull and some will provide facts about themselves which are not immediately appealing. But one of the biggest failures I come across is using as supposed differentiators, things that your customers actually expected to be able to take for granted!
“Customers take it for granted that their problems will be solved.
Solving problems is neither a strong benefit nor a differentiator.”
My simple test for this sort of thing is to ask yourself, how many of my competitors would promote the fact that they do the opposite? Thus 'top-class service' and 'high quality' are not differentiators because no-one will be competing on second-class or poor service, or on low quality! Your customers expect to be able to take top-class service and high quality for granted.
Customers also take it for granted that their problems will be solved - Just think of visiting a doctor or dentist. Solving problems is neither a strong benefit nor a differentiator. You need to spend some time articulating what it is about you and your business that customers value highly, and that really does set you apart.
If you agree with these thoughts and would like to find out more about structuring your business in a better way, selling properly, how to make sales without selling and get paid what you're worth,, visit www.sws3.co.uk to download 30 more free practical ideas you can implement straight away in your business.
Service providers who charge for their time or their materials, or whose prices are influenced by their competitors can find out how to get paid what they're really worth at www.sws3.co.uk
Charging different prices for different value is not only highly sensible, it's a highly effective way of increasing profits.
But because value cannot be defined absolutely with surgical precision, different customers with a similar perceived value of what you are offering will have different degrees of price sensitivity. In other words, just like value, an 'acceptable' price cannot be precisely defined either. Your various customers will have a 'price band' in mind and if your price falls anywhere within this band, they will be able to agree to purchase, all other things being satisfactory.
“Just like value, an 'acceptable' price cannot be precisely
defined either”
This band in its turn is not fixed and inflexible either, but will be determined in large part by their current perception of value. A price not outrageously beyond the band may enable the customer to re-evaluate your proposition, but of course a price significantly below it can have the same impetus, causing the customer to wonder if they have over estimated the value.
If you are serving a market where people spend someone else's money on themselves, recognise their minimal incentive to economise and seize the opportunity to charge higher prices.
When you tailor your various value propositions to different customer groups, you are in a position to reserve capacity for your best customers. Your goal must be to maximise your profits, not necessarily to fill your capacity.
If you agree with these thoughts and would like to find out more about structuring your business in a better way, selling properly, how to make sales without selling and get paid what you're worth,, visit www.sws3.co.uk to download 30 more free practical ideas you can implement straight away in your business.
Service providers who charge for their time or their materials, or whose prices are influenced by their competitors can find out how to get paid what they're really worth at www.sws3.co.uk
"We sell time" is not just bad pricing strategy; it's a flawed business model. If it was true, you'd be paid for just turning up. What you sell is the value of the results of the effort you put in during that time, and this value won't have any general, 'one size fits all' mathematical equation relationship to time, let alone be in direct proportion to it.
A business exists to make profit for its customers, to create results and value outside of itself. The concept of 'profit centre' is flawed, as admitted by the man who coined the term, the late Peter Drucker.
Despite having other faults, even Adam Smith recognised that both purchaser and seller need to gain - to make a profit - from a transaction.
“The only purpose of a business is to create a customer”
In consequence, the default purpose of Marketing is not to increase revenue - It is to increase profits!
Peter Drucker went on to draw this to its logical conclusion when he said, "The only purpose of a business is to create a customer. A business has only two functions - Marketing and innovation. All else is cost."
The simplest way for your Marketing function to increase profit is to concentrate on customers who will derive greater value from their purchases and who are therefore more willing and more able to pay more. Utilising the innovative juices of the entire organisation to create and deliver more appealing products, services, payment plans and the rest for this section of your market is an excellent use of your resources. The way I have often put it to my clients is, "Look for bigger problems."
If you agree with these thoughts and would like to find out more about structuring your business in a better way, selling properly, how to make sales without selling and get paid what you're worth,, visit www.sws3.co.uk to download 30 more free practical ideas you can implement straight away in your business.
Service providers who charge for their time or their materials, or whose prices are influenced by their competitors can find out how to get paid what they're really worth at www.sws3.co.uk
If you work on the basis of Revenue = People x Efficiency x Hourly Rate x Hours then you have only two ways to drive profit :- More people or more hours.
Most services firms choose to make their people work more hours! The thought being that they can't afford more people until they have more revenue and profits.
Just look again at the inescapable logic of this. If your services firm charges by the hour, the incentive will be to get current staff working more hours! Paid overtime will reduce profit margins, and in any case your staff will only be willing to do so much. Unpaid overtime is not an infinite resource either and again there will be a limit to people's willingness to do it.
“Adding capacity after revenue is generated is not repeated in other
industries outside services”
Presuming you already have good people and are managing them well, is it going to be possible to significantly improve efficiency without paying them more? And if you increase your hourly rate to your customers, won't your staff expect to get a share of the extra profit they are helping to create?
This process of adding capacity after revenue is generated is not repeated in other industries outside services. Manufacturing companies, for example, start by investing in machinery in order to make things, in order to make revenue - Not the other way about.
If you agree with these thoughts and would like to find out more about structuring your business in a better way, selling properly, how to make sales without selling and get paid what you're worth,, visit www.sws3.co.uk to download 30 more free practical ideas you can implement straight away in your business.
Service providers who charge for their time or their materials, or whose prices are influenced by their competitors can find out how to get paid what they're really worth at www.sws3.co.uk
