Entering unknown territory is scary. Add in fog, a cryptic teacher, and larger than life nemesis and you get the cave on Dagobah.
In The Empire Strikes Back Luke Skywalker decides to enter a creepy cave during his Jedi training with Master Yoda. Although Yoda tells Luke weapons aren’t necessary, and he will only find what he brings in, Luke still grabs his lightsaber before entering. The scene that follows is pivotal in Luke’s training to become a true Jedi.
Want to become a master of charging (and getting!) what you’re worth? Then…
Enter the Cave you must.
This post is part of the monthly Word Carnival series of posts. This month, our carnies take on the challenge of knowing your value and conveying it to clients so that you can charge what you’re worth – and get it! Read the rest of the Word Carnival posts here for more great advice from some of the smartest business owners and entrepreneurs you’ll meet.
The cave represents the experience of selling your products or services. Close your eyes and let a scene form in your mind. The cave entrances leads to… what? Let your mind fill in the blanks, don’t force the answer. Yeah I know it sounds hokey, but remember when Yoda lifted the X-Wing out of the swamp? Don’t doubt the little green guy!
How do the people inside greet you?
As the scene takes shape, consider the actions of your prospective clients. Are they testing your product? Comparing your service to that offered by others? Are they arguing with you over price? Complaining about quality?
Take a moment to write down the answers (since we don’t have George Lucas recording it all).
In the movie LUKE strikes first, not Darth Vader. He wins the imaginary fight, but realizes that he’s only defeated himself.
In a situation where you expect to be attacked (figuratively) over pricing or service levels, it’s easy to just strike first. Get them before they get you. The best offense is a good defense right?
The strike first mentality may take shape in a number of ways. Here are just a few examples:
- You know your price isn’t the lowest, so you quote something much lower.
- You’ve often heard your product compared to company XYZ, so you start out by point out all the negatives about them.
- You’re worried they just won’t see the value in what you offer, so you throw in enough freebies to fill a Star Destroyer.
Unfortunately in the world of sales these actions are far more likely to hurt you, just like Luke hurt himself. Here’s how:
- If you don’t charge enough you’ll never make a profit. No you can’t make it up on volume. Consider this. If you sell one widget at a loss of $10 then if you sell 1,000 at the same price you’ll lose $10,000! Why would you pay someone to use your products?
- Trash talking a competitor isn’t professional. It makes you look petty and insecure. Highlight your strengths and advantages, your customers can figure out the rest.
- First of all this brings you the same problem as #1, except instead of changing the price you’ve just increased the services they get. The problem is those services cost time and money – where will it come from? Your profit. Instead of holding an everything must go fire sale, focus on the value your customer will receive. The value doesn’t have to be in dollars. It could be improved health, more engaged workforce, better productivity, or a logo that doesn’t your clients play 20 questions. If you can’t articulate the value of what you sell, why would anyone buy it?
Walk through this exercise with other “strike first” scenarios you can imagine. What is the possible negative outcome? If you get stuck, try brainstorming this with a colleague.
How do you feel as you enter cave?
Luke entered the cave fearfully. His fear drove his actions – attack first – which ultimately led to his defeat in the cave on Dagobah.
Now I’m not going to suggest you run off to a tall mountain and accost a Buddhist Monk to get a calm zen-like mentality. Besides the fact that it’s unlikely that monk has even seen Star Wars, it’s really not a practical solution.
Having strong feelings of fear, anxiety, worry, hope, concern and more are completely normal when you are selling to a potential client. The trick is to acknowledge them, and how you react to them.
Write down the feelings you usually have when selling. Now take each feeling and consider what you usually do as a reaction to that feeling. Does fear of losing a sale make you proactively offer a deep discount? Next time you consider offering that deep discount stop and think for a minute. Why do you want to do it? And what is the impact on your business?
Learn from Yoda Nicole Now You Will
Charging a fair price, and selling others on the value of your products and services isn’t as daunting as it may first appear.
Keep in mind the following:
- Be Prepared Sounds simple, yet how many times have you failed to consider the value to a specific customer before a meeting? Or considered which strengths you want to highlight given who else you know they are considering? Also be sure to have a firm price in mind. If they ask for a lower one, then offer to remove a service or upgrade to meet their price point.
- The
Death StarMeteor Scenario Bring your fears down to size. It’s easy to build up a meeting or sale. We’ve all done it. “I HAVE to get this sale or it’s all over.” Not really. If a huge meteor hits the Earth tomorrow THEN it’s all over. Suddenly failing to get one sale isn’t as bad as it seemed two minutes ago. - No’s can lead to Yes I’ve won a number of clients through the years that initially said no to me. Some even hired another firm and then came back later for help! The trick here is to remain professional, reiterate why you offer what you do, the value to them, and that the door is always open. Wish them good luck and mean it if they go with someone else. No one is going to come back if they expect to hear “I told you so”.
Final Thoughts
In the end Luke realized his own fears and action were his worst enemy, more powerful than Darth Vader himself. I can’t promise it will ever be easy to sell your products and services at a fair price. I can promise that it will get easier over time, and you may even have a few Darth Vader conversions of your own.
Sound off below on what you found in your cave. Were you surprised? How will you handle it in the future?
“Get them before they get you.” Uh, oh. Not cool. I can quickly grasp how that maneuver could turn you into your own competitor.
Great message here, Nicole! Love the way you’ve weaved Star Wars into your totally sound advice. 🙂
My biggest takeaway …
You win some. You lose some.
It’s far more important (and critical to your well being) to stand firm on your fees and don’t take it personally when someone chooses to decline your offer.
I appreciate your explanation of how lowering your price and then expecting to make up the loss in “volume” isn’t going to cut the mustard! No way will that work!
Thanks for a really good (and fun) read! 🙂
Melanie I think the “get them before they get you” is our lizard brain trying to implement fight or flight.
I’m glad you enjoyed the Star Wars theme. It had a huge impact on me as a kid, and even now looking back I’m amazed at the layers in the movie.
May the pricing force be with you!
“May the pricing force be with you!” And with YOU, Nicole, and all our fab fellow carnies. 🙂
Also …What Tea said — “I AM my own worst enemy.” I need to get out of my own way, as the saying goes, and let ‘er rip in the pricing realm! Discounting fees can be dangerous on many levels and leaves you feeling cheap, if you will. No one wants to feel like a dirt-cheap, bargain-basement throwaway.
I love your example of how a loss on one sale turns into a volume loss, Nicole, and especially like the idea of not being scared into giving discounts. Sometimes it can be hard to carry that strategy through, but you feel so much better when you do.
Sharon to take discounts one step further – if you do sell at a discount the only way to make up the money is to sell to someone else at a premium. So if you can’t sell your services to someone at regular price, how on Earth are you going to sell someone to pay a premium? Those discounts come right out of your bank account.
WELL! From one geek to another, I love your analogy. I also completely agree with your main point which is that basically we are our own worst enemies. All that self-doubt and self-negotiation and we have nothing left to actually kick some prospect butt.
I think the fear factor (am I going to get sued for saying that?) is the biggest thing for me. I’m constantly afraid someone will think I’m not worth it! Or too overpriced! Or some other manner of horrible thing. It takes a lot of practice. It takes a lot of reminders. But to another point you made so well… so, is the earth going to be destroyed if I get this wrong? Good stuff here that it’s such a shame it takes so many of us so long to learn!
Geeks of the world unite!
The force will protect you from lawsuits 🙂 Fear is hard to face. Remember courage isn’t the lack of fear (that would be filed under foolish), courage is feeling fear and doing what is necessary despite it.
Yes, I AM my own worst enemy. But in a slightly different way: I hear people say “I can’t afford it” (myself included) and I believe them. So I think I’m doing good by keeping my prices uber “affordable.” And then? They don’t value the exchange. It becomes a throwaway item to them. Not a great place to be!
Thx for the fab reminder here, Nicole.
Tea I’m with you. There were times I felt like a ruthless money monger because I wouldn’t drastically reduce my price so someone “could afford it”. Two things have fixed that. First – I now have options that start at $20. If you can’t afford $20 and some sweat equity then you aren’t serious about your business. (Caveat – this does not include those who live in third world countries and are served by Kiva. $20 to them IS a lot of money)
The second was meeting with a potential client. During the discussion it came out that she had two car payments. One car was a mid to high end sedan, the other her “fun car”. But when we got to the price range for my services she couldn’t afford me. (Note my monthly fees would have been on par or less than her car payment).
What a moment of clarity.
I LOVE Luke and Yoda…The force was with you! You ARE the numbers whisperer and have definitely demonstrated through all you outstanding advice that: Charging a fair price, and selling others on the value of your products and services isn’t as daunting as it may first appear. You make it way more interesting and fun….still hate that part…but you inspire me to at least continue the journey and this post helps to take my efforts one step closer to true reality. I get that all business is not the right business for us and we need to work with those that are a much better fit and most importantly appreciate our value enough to pay what we ask for. In the end, it is always a win win for all parties involved. There is an energy in the force that is circling and pushing us to take those critical next steps and I so appreciate having you in that circle as well…well hovering the hover craft leading the way! May the force be with you!
And I’ve got 8 lightsabers to prove it! I’m so glad to hear I’ve brought clarity AND fun to the numbers part of the business for you Michelle.
I agree there is an energy that is pushing us to move forward (and a great group of Carnies). We’re on this journey together. Next time you enter that cave on Dagobah look for pretty rock formations or crystals. Glitter drives the dark side away 🙂
“In a situation where you expect to be attacked (figuratively) over pricing or service levels, it’s easy to just strike first.”
OMG Nicole, this line reminded me of way too many years where I entered the client cave bristling with weaponry ready to do the good sales fight.
No wonder these probably quite innocent folk took fright. For the most part they were scoping out what we could do for them and yes of course they were interested in pricing, but my resilience was so low by the end of the consultancy years that I just took it as read that they would fight the price. And fight the price they did, because I had probably already stabbed them in the eyeball with the first of many angry darts! Feel like I should go back and apologise to whole bunch of people.
On the other hand, I am so grateful that I no longer exist in that world. There really is a better way to do business and your post exemplifies that. xx
After a few tough rounds in the ring (cave?) it’s easy to become defensive. Think of it as Pavlov’s dog in sales. I’ve done it too. Taking the fear out of it (or at least sticking in the closet while company is over), makes such a difference. I’m comfortable with my fees, and for my right people my services will deliver a great ROI. I’m glad you don’t live in that space either anymore.
Every person will get benefit from this post. It is such a nice post and very powerfully described. I would like to thank you for sharing this great post with us.
So when you enter the cave, make sure that you’re well-armed.