Know the price of everything and the value of nothing
Running a business, you’ll be all too aware of the race to the bottom, where price has become the driving force in securing the sale. We all know where this will end; it’s inevitable. A business can only become more efficient to a certain degree; after that, something has to give, usually resulting in poor quality in product and service. If your strategy is to continually meet the buyer’s desired price, you are heading quickly towards eventual failure.
If this sounds like your current strategy, then you may as well just go and pick up the Oscar for best director in the failed business category. Oscar Wilde’s famous penned words in which his character Lord Darlington states that “a cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing” fit today’s business landscape better than any other statement that I can think of.
Who are these people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing?
I am a born cynic; it’s my job. Opposite to someone knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing, my role requires me to question everything and take no one’s opinion as the one truth. Sure, this ruffles feathers, and I get weird looks stating the blindingly obvious, but I am doing this when viewed from everyone’s position. The business, the staff, the audience, and buyers. This allows me to identify areas where value may be added for the people who know the price of everything.
If you’re calling me in, I am not here to follow your lead or instruction. Most businesses happily follow their peers, reflecting each other’s business and strategy of price first. It’s easy to say your business and products are unique in niche sectors, but in the mainstream, most companies are only convincing themselves. I am here to understand the things you do, find the negatives and positives, and fashion these into something that makes people question and prioritise their purchasing habits away from price alone.
Unfortunately, we have all been indoctrinated towards a technology-driven race to the bottom, so we are all the people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Dare to question yourself
Risk aversion seems to rule the roost, and for good reason. Trying something and it failing means one of two things. Either the concept was floored or the initiator was incapable. A website is not a floored concept. Having someone slap it together on the cheap or charge you a kings ransom for something that is crap puts most off trying again. The issue is not the website; it’s who you got to develop the website and how much you influenced the process. Just because you wanted an AI chatbot doesn’t mean your audience did. Maybe they wanted a telephone number?
Preconceived notions result in the outcome you had influence on. I am not here to be influenced by you. I am here to help your business reach it’s commercial goals. A question I always ask a business owner is, “What is the most profitable and least time-consuming thing you sell?” When I get the answer, I say, “So why don’t you just focus on that?” The reaction is one of disbelief, but after a few seconds I can see a new thought process being born. Funny old thing this marketing malarkey. I know too that you’re now thinking about that question in your own context.
Value your value and focus on it
I recently met up with a business owner who told me that their most active and profitable client required them to tender for the work each year. Not because their service or product quality was substandard or that they did not meet the customer’s needs. Purely because the board financial director said so. They told me how the customer team was all over the place, leaving it to the last minute to reorder stock, sending incorrect information, and not clearly communicating their requirements. All the things that make the job harder and consume an inordinate amount of time. My simple reply was, “You need to add value, and you can do that by helping the team communicate better.”
You may be thinking, but what does that mean? One solution could be a customer portal with an order system. You explain to the customer that this streamlined way of working not only helps ensure they do not hit low stock levels but also allows you to deliver further savings. This adds value in service and costs while at the same time making it harder for the customer to differentiate purely on price. You might even find that the customer asks other suppliers if they offer a customer portal and order system when it’s time to tender. We have ushered away from a “know the price of everything” position to one of value. The value in using the order system.
The same business owner’s reaction to my “What is the most profitable least time-consuming question?” has resulted in that one product being additionally marketed through a dedicated one-product website. Now that’s very interesting!
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