What's coming


Here are a few themes that are recurring in the small/medium business I see.

Which ones do you feel you resonate with?

  1. You're struggling with getting your sales to be better.
  2. The market is highly competitive.
  3. You're pushed to play on (the lowest) price.
  4. You can't say No to customers. That's losing business (and stupid).
  5. If you say No to a customer, you're losing opportunities.
  6. Your competition is poaching your customers.
  7. Your revenue goals are not where you want them, despite everything you've tried.
  8. Raising prices has a big pushback from your customers.
  9. You can't charge more than what the market can hold.
  10. Discounts is the way to win business.
  11. Your closing rates are approx. 40%
  12. You apply to biddings, and win less than 30% of times.
  13. When giving proposals, you need first to "have a feeling of the customer" to know how price-sensitive they are.
  14. You respond to all the RFQs (Requests For Quote) that go into your inbox.
  15. You need to figure out how to fix/improve your costs to be profitable.
  16. Your margins are below 20%.
  17. If I ask you "How much are your top 20 customers making?" you don't have a clear, fast answer.
  18. You charge based on your time, effort, difficulty, materials + a margin.
  19. Your prices are based on the market.
  20. You rely on giving samples of your work (for free or for peanuts).
  21. You need to build strong relationships first, then talk shop.
  22. You can't give away how you do things. That's your secret sauce!
  23. Prices are given only in your quotes.
  24. You don't talk price BEFORE sending a quote/proposal.
  25. You need to accommodate to your prospects' budget.
  26. If they tell you they're tight on money, you need to concede so that you don't lose business.
  27. You trust their promises to grow and expand with you will happen. So you give them a "better" initial price.
  28. You have to tease the competition with lower prices, so that they lower theirs too.
  29. The focus of your business is on the revenue created —no matter how.

Lemme know. :)

Rod Aparicio

Get one tip, question, or belief-challenge that just might change the way you market, to help your customers buy. A *daily* email for b2b founders on improving your business —without the bullshit.

Read more from Rod Aparicio

It's pretty clear on a lot of replies to yesterday's email that under delivering is not the best option of them 3 (under delivering, delivering, over delivering). That's great. And even with that, you'd be surprised at how often a large portion of players in the market do under deliver. The bar is SO low that by doing a decent bare minimum, you kinda get away with it. If it's that obvious to you, what do you think make other businesses not deliver on their promise?

You made your promise to your customer (aka value proposition). Delivering it is as important as making it. Which one do you think is best? Under-deliver Deliver Over-deliver

"Every customer is important." It's not. If you had only 4 hours to have face-to-face conversations that define the future of your business, who would be these customers you'd have those 1:1? Physically, you can't do it with all of them. Who would you choose? In your gut, you already know. Just as you know the ones who are not. Focus. It's all about choosing. Choose wisely.