Friday, December 22, 2006

Wishing you a Merry Christmas along with a story about the price of chocolate

For many of us Christmas is a time of much chocolate so I couldn't resist directing you to this amazing article about two Canadian accountants who set up a business selling some of the world's most expensive chocolate. I first read about it at Seth Godin's blog in a post with the interesting title 'Sneetchcraft'.

If you go to the Dallasfood.org source article about the worth of Noka chocolate, you will find a cautionary tale about being authentic and honest about who you are and what you stand for. You will also read a ten part article about how your customer and critics are no fools, and the lengths they may go to to keep you honest. You will probably also learn a lot about chocolate .... well worth reading.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you. See you in 2007!

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Last Price Yourself Right Tip for 2006: Don't be bullied!

Do you allow yourself to be belittled or bullied? Professional bullies will expect favors and demand that work is done unreasonably quicker, better, cheaper: “I don’t care; just do it.”

Bullies will take precedence over all your time and may even demand exclusivity—but beware—they don’t want you to succeed on your own; they need you.

Bullies are usually good at “reading” people and “pushing their buttons.” They use techniques like leaving things to the last minute to block escape routes, and dangle carrots that won’t be delivered, and often use “weasel words” (words like “virtually,” “almost,” and “possibly”) as out clauses. They rely on a network of higher authorities—lawyers, accountants, politicians, and the like—but will avoid putting anything in writing.

Bullies look for clues when recruiting their “team.” For example: At the end of a job well done, have you ever belittled your efforts by saying, “Oh, it was nothing, really,” or “Anyone could have done it”? Don’t do that—as insignificant as those statements may seem—a bully will notice!
Here’s another example: You’ve just told your client (or boss) that the job they want done will take you two days. She responds by looking surprised and saying, “But it only took Sue one day.” You take two days, but only charge for one—bullies like it when you do that.

The most effective way to address bullying in schools is to empower the victim. While it’s not the victim’s fault (that’s got very little to do with it), in the long run the best strategy is to teach the victim how to disempower the bully. In just the same way, you need to learn techniques to enable you to restore the balance of power—or develop your bully “antennae” and leave these customers for someone else to deal with.

©2006 Jane Francis is the author of Price Yourself Right: A guide to charging what you are worth (ISBN: 0-595-38601-6) available at Barnes and Noble (USA), WH Smith (UK) or online at amazon.com

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Price Yourself Right’ Tip 9: Never fear the rejection.

Does not charging what you are worth make you feel safe by reducing the rejection you think you’d get if you charged more?

Rejection is a fact of life. Sometimes you get to be the rejecter; other times you are the rejectee; but in either case, life goes on.

What did you do last time you bought a car? Did you buy the first one you looked at, or did you look around a bit, read the papers, surf the internet and get your “eye” in on price? Would you get more than one quote if you were printing a large run of brochures to drop in letter boxes in your area?

Some companies have a policy of asking for three quotes; that means two quotes are going to be unsuccessful—boo hoo—but it’s not personal.

©2006 Jane Francis is the author of Price Yourself Right: A guide to charging what you are worth (ISBN: 0-595-38601-6) available at Barnes and Noble (USA), WH Smith (UK) or online at amazon.com

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Price Yourself Right Tip 8: Read ‘Money Magic’

I just read a book I loved: Money Magic by Deborah L. Price.

As I said in the first sentence of Price Yourself Right, ‘I can always tell when someone isn’t confident about asking for money’, I then spent the first two chapters talking about understanding your conscious and subconscious attitudes to money …. But Deborah Price’s book goes into much greater depth. It doesn’t cover how to set your fees or give you practical tips on what to say and do in business to get your price but it’s a wonderful book to help you get your mind (and spirit) around money.

I especially enjoyed her comments about how we should value our time:

‘Unlike money, which we can always find ways to earn, our life bank only has so many hours in it – and we don’t know just how many hours we have left …Perhaps if we had a currency with denominations of time printed on it that we actually had to physically spend as we use time, we might value our life hours as we value money.’ Deborah .L. Price

'Money Magic' is available at amazon - and no, I've never met or spoken to the author and am not getting paid to write this. (Tho' I do plan to go to amazon and leave a review, one day soon).

©2006 Jane Francis is the author of Price Yourself Right: A guide to charging what you are worth (ISBN: 0-595-38601-6) available at Barnes and Noble (USA), WH Smith (UK) or online at amazon.com

Monday, December 04, 2006

Tip 7: Remember that, first and foremost, your buyer is after a solution.

Customers do not want to buy something that doesn’t work, or something they do not like. So, first and foremost, the buyer wants a solution then she’ll decide if it’s value for money.

If you are the salesperson and the deal is uppermost in your mind remember to put that thought to the back of your mind and solve your customer’s problem first. Price is more important in the mind of the seller than the buyer.