"People around here can't afford it"
If you believe "it's a lot of money for that," you will project that to your customers, and guess what - they will think the price is too high. Then you'll either lower your price so you lose, or you won't even try. If YOU don't believe, you can't persuade…
Become a school for your employees
It doesn't matter what college they went to - there is no school that teaches your employees just how to do what you need them to do to get the results with your customers that you intentionally want. To scale your business and keep control of it, you must become…
Say no to good ideas
There are too many good ideas. We have to save our time, energy, and focus for the best most relevant ideas to our main goal or purpose. Saying yes to too many things just because there is SOME value to be had there is not a good idea. Say…
The Sum of Its Parts
If your truck had a problem with the fuel supply, it isn't moving, right? If it had a spark problem, or a piston problem, you're stuck. How about a driveshaft problem, or a flat tire? Can you imagine sitting there stranded on the side of the road, with a $70,000…
Success is a lousy teacher…
"Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces otherwise smart people into thinking they cannot fail." - Bill Gates Sometimes we see businesspeople grow fairly quickly for whatever reason, and they think they have the magic touch. They may. Or they fail to see the flaw in their next plan where…
Where do you find the time?
If you say "I don't have time for that," what you are really saying is "That's not important to me - not as important as other things I make time for." Finding time for a thing is really about prioritization; you deciding what is more important to you than other…
Stories Add Value
An experiment was done. They went to thrift stores and bought a bunch of insignificant trinkets for an average of $1.25 each. They hired a bunch of writers to invent a story "that attributed significance" to each object. They listed each object for sale on Ebay with the invented stories,…
Tell your story!
People want to know. Where did you come from? How did this happen? How was it made? Why? You have more of a story in your company than you or your people are telling. Maybe you don't think it's that interesting, but people want to identify with, learn, associate…
Listen
"When people realize they're being listened to, they tell you things."- Richard Ford It's good for a leader - listen.
Learn to take a punch
I have done a lot of cool things and I have come up with a lot of innovations. I'm trying, over and over. But the very nature of doing so is to put yourself out there - subject to failure, ridicule and embarrassment. Some will wait for you to stumble…
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Every basement in Seymour should have something Basement Systems
I used to believe this many years ago and I got by.
Then I stopped believing it and built a 5 million dollar company.
It wasn’t the customers that needed to change.
I believe that I am offering solutions to customers that help them and create value for them and usually solve a problem for them. When you think that way and truly believe it – and then translate that to the way you actually do things; the results for you, your customers and your company will improve dramatically.
Wow Tony! That’s cool ! I’m going to make a copy of this and give it to all our office and sales staff ( and myself)
Great morning in Chicago!
So true I’ve done this very thing myself. Self awareness is key to change.
To sell perceived value, you have to create perceived value. My experience is people buy with their eyes and ears, and justify that with “value logic – numbers.” You have to relate to your own experiences to understand that. Im at Starbucks right now – and they have a New Macchiato Drink, which has a 3-D Image of the Drink on a Chalkboard. It has the Green Straw, and on the white milk froth, it has the caramel syrup x-cross hatches. Very very enticing indeed. I asked my self, if they cut the Background music, took away that photo, and didn’t x-cross the Caramel hatches on the white froth, what the price percentage reduction would be. I came up with 40% on the low end. Maybe 60% on the upper end. Lets be honest, people want to feel good – and buy things which make them feel good. No one is asking what the percent of Caffeine in the Drink is, what the percent of white milk is. i.e. the Materials. Yes, they are quality. But what they think they are buying is the ambiance, the brand, and the white hatched cross marks on the top of the beverage – thinking to themselves – I deserve this beverage – it says I’m “together.” It reaffirms my beliefs about me being “okay” and “deserving.” PS Im having a small cup of coffee, with bottomless refills. 🙂 (The Cream I hear is Free, on the Counter around the Corner!)