If you work in a field where things need to be delivered by date certain, with zero defects, with high consequences if you make a mistake—then you need to charge a premium for exposing yourself to emergencies.
It doesn’t matter what something in a non-emergency situation costs. If someone wants the standard version, let them buy that.
The buyer is offered to pull it off the shelf, see if you like it. If it doesn’t satisfy you, take a different one.
Emergencies (or even the risk of emergencies) cost extra. Yelling at us costs extra. Panic costs extra.
Your entire organization (and your entire day) revolves around preventing the emergency or recovering from it when it occurs.
The reason custom work costs more is no longer a matter of production efficiency. Computers are happy to customize things.
Big companies that serve other big companies spend at least 80% of their overhead on being ready (or dealing with) meetings and emergencies.
The reason to charge more is all about ensurance, insurance and emotional wear and tear.
If that’s the sort of work you want to do, charge appropriately.
August 26, 2018
There’s no such thing as a born salesperson.
What there are… are people with empathy and learned charisma who choose to work hard.
If you show up and show up and show up, and care enough to learn to connect, you will have a skill for life.
In the meantime, consider getting yourself hooked on 30 minutes a day of audio that trains you to sell. It takes a while, but it’s learnable.
Zig Ziglar, Anthony Iannarino, Dan Pink, Brian Tracy, Frank Bettger, Jill Konrath … anyone who will help you learn the long-game, the generous long game.
August 25, 2018
Now and then, someone comes along who surprises the status quo. She didn’t do well on her SATs but ends up writing a brilliant novel. She didn’t go to a famous college but builds a successful enterprise…
The surprising thing isn’t that success is uncorrelated with the filters we’ve set up. The surprising thing is that we think the filters and signals are actually accurately correlated with future success.
They’re not.
August 24, 2018
Sometimes, our work is in opposition. Something is broken, and we need to fix it.
But often, we’re working with something that’s fine. All it needs is our care and effort and it will get even better.
March it down the road. Not because you’re pushing anyone, or because anyone is pushing you.
Simply because it matters.
August 23, 2018
There’s the kind that no one can possibly like. The popups, popunders, high-pressure, track-your-private-data, scammy, spammy, interruptive, overpriced, overhyped, under-designed selfish nonsense that some people engage in.
And then there’s the kind that inspires us, delights us and brings us something we truly want.
We call them both marketing, but they couldn’t be more different.
The selfish marketer is marketing at us, trading money for attention to sell average (or below average) products to disinterested people. The excuse is that money needs to be made, or that the boss insists, or that we have no choice…
The successful marketer is marketing with us and for us. And she doesn’t need an excuse.
PS New episode of Akimbo is out today: Shun the non-believers
August 22, 2018
If you want to make the Olympic soccer team, join a symphony orchestra or get into medical school, the path is well lit. It's not easy, but the goals are clear and the boundaries are obvious.
Day by day, achievement by achievement, it's a linear race. You know the rules, you can see the competitive landscape and you can train. It's rare that the rules change along the way.
This is irresistible for some people, and if it ends, or they don't make it, they're often lost in the wilderness.
That's because real life doesn't have clear goals and obvious boundaries.
Real life is not organized around an 800 on the SATs, or a FGA average that's the highest in the league.
Instead, real life has changing rules, hidden rules, rules that aren't fair. Real life often doesn't reveal itself to us all at once, the way the rules of baseball are clearly written down.
And so, the first challenge of real life is: find some goals. And the second: figure out some boundaries.
It doesn't pay to get stressed out that these goals and these boundaries aren't the same as everyone else's. It doesn't pay to mourn the loss of the rigid structures that worked in the world you used to be in.
You're in real life now.
So, find some goals and find some boundaries.
Then you can get back to work.
August 21, 2018
There are two paths, really:
"I will serve just enough to make the maximum profit"
or
"I will profit just enough to provide the maximum service."
August 20, 2018
The difference between an actual discussion (where we seek the right answer) and a political one is simple:
In a political discussion, people don’t care about what’s correct or effective or true. Facts aren’t the point.
The honest answer to, “if it could be demonstrated that there’s a more effective or just solution to this problem, would you change your mind?” is, for a political question, “no.”
It doesn’t matter if we’re talking about the the local water tower, the death penalty, labor unions, euthanasia, fair trade, organic food, the EPA or carbon. In political discussions, we don’t have enrollment in the scientific method. We’re not open to effectiveness or proof. We’re engaged in a tribal conflict.
The problem with the fencing in of one topic after another as political is that it gives us less and less space to learn and grow and understand.
Think tanks in DC call themselves non-partisan. But of course, that’s not true, because they’ve already made up their minds. They’re not thinking at all. Merely arguing.
August 19, 2018
It’s only been 140 years since the price tag first appeared.
Before that, most every transaction was a negotiation. The seller tried to win by charging more, the buyer by paying less.
In many ways, that’s a good thing–treating different people differently, rewarding good customers, adding fluidity to transactions.
But for most buyers, most of the time, the certainty and convenience of transacting without fear, without conflict and without a hassle makes it worth it.
This idea is spreading.
It’s possible to negotiate a substantial contract in a few minutes by email—if both sides care more about forward motion than they care about the last decimal point. Or, to be more honest about it, if they care more about the benefits of the future than they care about the narrative of treating their partner like an opponent.
In an economy based on connection instead of scarcity, the ease of those connections, the reliability built into them, our confidence that the future will match promises made–all of these benefits dwarf the narcissistic narrative of the deal maker who simply seeks to win today, at all costs.
The essential first step is not waiting for ‘the other guy’ to go first. Each of us can go first if we care enough about getting there.
August 18, 2018
Ringing is resonant. A small force causes sympathetic vibrations, and magic happens.
Wringing requires significant effort and can even destroy the object it is applied to.
When you ring a bell for your clients, you’ve delivered with care and empathy.
But when you seek to wring every dollar out of a transaction, you’ve probably engaged for the last time.
August 17, 2018
