The first step to pricing based on value is to believe you create value. Belief starts in your mind. My guest, Dennis McIntee, teaches managers and administrators to create a high-performance culture within their organization. The only way he can challenge his customers to reach higher is if he has a value mindset. Two requirements to achieving a value mindset are shutting down the internal voice that creates fear and maintaining an intense focus on serving the customer. In this episode, Dennis shares how he establishes and maintains a mindset that creates significant value for his customer.
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How Does the Customer See Value?
- What is the most important thing you can share about pricing?
- The value of the product or service is determined by the customer, not by you.
- Go through an interview process to see what the customer really wants.
- There is a cost for not getting what you want.
- Look several months out to see what would have to happen to make the engagement great.
- Ask a lot of questions to unearth value, as opposed to coming with a pre-determined notion of the customer's needs.
- In a coaching engagement, start off by asking what would make the day a home run.
- There is a gap between expectations and reality: the bigger the gap, the bigger the frustration.
- If you do not clarify expectations, you will not do a good job of serving your customer.
- You have to peel it like an onion, starting with “What do you want?”
- Keep asking why it is important and what it would accomplish until you get through 5 layers.
- The answer is inside the customer; your job is to help him get clarity on what he wants.
- When the customer has clarity, you can help him form an action plan.
- When the heart decides the destination, the mind begins to draw the map.
- What have you learned about pricing in the last year?
- This year has been an internal battle.
- Believing in yourself and the value you provide is the first step.
- As goes your self-image, so goes your value.
- The fear never goes away; just step into it.
- Ray Edwards told him that you feel the same fear at $5000 or $50,000.
- If the fear goes away, you might be losing some self-awareness.
- Expansion and growth are uncomfortable.
- A relationship and a process are required to live at a higher level.
- Be around people who are a little bigger than you are.
- You are the average of the 5 people you hang out with the most.
- Upgrade your relationships and friendships to be around people who see and dream bigger.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Value of the product/service is determined by the customer, not by you. #pricing #marketing” quote=”The value of the product or service is determined by the customer, not by you.”]
A Mindset of Confidence and Fear
- How do you increase your confidence in the value you create?
- Monitor and train your self-talk.
- As a man thinks in his heart, so is he. – Proverbs 23:7
- Your thinking is how you talk to yourself.
- Live intentionally.
- Practical Exercise: Set alarms throughout the day to check into whether your are dialed into these four states (or the four you choose):
- Contentment
- Confidence
- Connection
- Courageousness
- How do you handle fear when quoting a “new” price?
- Ask yourself what a confident person would do.
- Put on those behaviors.
- In learning to put on the behavior, it changes your mindset.
- Doctors do not justify themselves; why should those in service professions?
- A higher price attracts a higher level person, because of the higher perceived value.
- A free workshop can attract people that are more difficult to deal with.
- When you have skin in the game, you value the service more, and your thinking will change.
- You do your best work for people who are paying you the best.
- What is the challenge of using value pricing with public speaking?
- It is much easier to define ROI with corporations than with associations.
- When working with association event planners, the budget is the budget, done by committee, with little variance.
- Providing options for the event planners to include books, products, and extra services, allows those event planners to pull money from other portions of the budget.
- Very few people are offering those options, so it sets you apart.
- If you have a product, you can offer it pre-sold.
- You could provide bulk pricing for attendees.
- Bundles are also a good option.
- Offer a recording of the session as part of the price.
- Be creative by asking questions of the event planner, from a viewpoint of service.
- Determine what else can you do to bless the customer.
- Service opens the door to people's hearts.
- If you want to reach the heart with through offer, you have to figure out how to best serve them.
[clickToTweet tweet=”You do your best work for people who are paying you the best. #pricing #marketing” quote=”You do your best work for people who are paying you the best.”]
GPS (Goals, Passions, Struggles)
- How do you use GPS (goals, passions, struggles) in a conversation?
- Like a GPS, it tells you where you are and where you are going.
- Goals are certain outcomes you want to see.
- Passions are what you love.
- Struggles are the constraints holding you back.
- Determine how to insert yourself to become the answer to one of these areas and then money is never an issue.
- Examples of questions to get at a customer's GPS:
- What are some outcomes you are looking for this year?
- What are some things that would make this year great?
- What are some challenges that your industry has? (They will tell you about themselves, not the industry.)
- The real goal is to create a safe place for dialogue with your customer.
- You create safety by being authentic and sharing your transparency as early as possible.
- What has being in a mastermind group meant to your business?
- It has caused Dennis not to be comfortable.
- He would live at the level of his comfort and not challenge himself.
- Striving to live up to the level of the other group members is a sign of a good mastermind that has a high level of trust.
- His pace is determined by the pace of the pack.
- The concepts of value are put into practice because everyone must show up in a mindset to provide value.
- It corresponds to customers because they can also reap more if they share value as well.
- When you are authentic and transparent, you can receive the most value from others.
- What is one of your best stories about creating value for a customer?
- A keynote for a large healthcare company in Indianapolis was attended by about 30 administrators and 30 nursing directors.
- Afterward, at dinner with the vice president, he shared the idea of leadership roundtables in different areas of the country for the company.
- He provided more value and earned five times as much from leading the roundtables based on that conversation.
About Dennis McIntee
Dennis McIntee is a consultant in the medical and financial industries on creating company culture. He is also a speaker who teaches leaders how to develop high-performance teams. He is the author of The 8 Qualities of Drama Free Teams and a former international missionary.
- Dennis's Website: dennismcintee.com
- Dennis on Twitter: @DennisMcIntee
- Email Dennis: info@leadershipprocess.com
This was great, thank you for sharing this. Very valuable and insightful.