We talked previously about the massive uncertainties that we’re facing in 2020 — unprecedented unemployment globally, a genuine public health threat, a presidential election year, and social change that we haven’t seen in a generation. My recommendation was to narrow your focus, to pick one thing that you could do consistently and focus on doing…
It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who has been swimming naked. ~ Warren Buffett What’s going on right now is not a test, but it is showing you what’s not working. If you step back from the crisis a couple of paces and look at your business overall, the stress of…
Earlier this week, I talked about the pros and cons of retainer pricing, and some folks responded, asking, “So if I’m not doing retainers, how should I be pricing?” What is value pricing? When we solve a problem for a client, it creates value in their company. We either help them to sell more, spend…
In my last message, I talked about the problem of retainers, they seem like a great way to smooth out revenue and make delivery more predictable. Still, in reality, they may turn into a bog of over-servicing and under profitability. I asked you to tell me about your experiences, and you were very generous with…
Maximizing monthly recurring revenue (MMR) is a goal for most business owners. Knowing that we are going to have that retainer payment coming in each month makes it so much easier to plan our cash flow, our staffing and makes it easier to sleep at night. When I talk to agency owners they want as…
Getting retainer clients who pay you a fixed fee every month is one of the best ways to make your revenue more predictable. It’s incredible to know that you’ve got $45,000 from 5 clients coming in on the first of every month! But there’s a problem with fixed monthly fees — what are you delivering…
This week we talked about how the “market rate” for your services is irrelevant — your specific qualities and capabilities will attract different prospects than others in your market. Those qualities impact the price you can charge more than the market does. We also talked about we can identify ONE critical feature or benefit that…
In my recent survey of over 100 business owners, I asked them to agree or disagree with the following statement. We are priced significantly higher than our competitors. The results showed an almost perfect “bell curve,” with a slight tilt toward agreeing. Which brings up the question, “How do we know what our competitors are charging?…
You know when you are in a “tribe” because you do the things that your tribe does, you wear the things that they wear, you sound like them, you look like them… Seth Godin, in one of his most popular blog posts, called it “People like us do things like this.” So when you think…
I was sitting in a cafe last week when I noticed Every Breath You Take come on the background music. I’m not a big Sting fan, but it got me thinking. Sting wrote this song in 1982, and he’s still making money on it today! From Wikipedia: The song is considered to be both the…