No B.S. Price Strategy - by Dan Kennedy
Okay - I admit - Kennedy and I are pretty hard on eachother. Keep in mind that I have studied in the lions den with a lot of his students. The last post I did on him I more or less trashed his book about marketing in the new economy. I said it was a rehash. I have read a ton of his books and newsletters and can speak his language. But lets forget all that.... His points are valid and if you are not already a convert you should get all of his stuff. Lets move on....
This new book, "Price Strategy" is dead on. I have gotten a lot of useful insight out of this book and to be quite honest a lot of the view points are powerful. I see a lot of businesses I consult for ask for ridiculously low fees. I think a lot of them suffer from low self esteem. This can stem from depression era thinking. On the other hand a lot of them think in the commodity mindset. If Kennedy didn't write this book than someone had to do it and come forward because it really lays it on the line. By that I mean that it speaks from real world experience. If you are used to talking nicely to your boss or live in a cube and live in a world of permission you may not relate. Its a must read for every street guy who is out there fighting for a living and selling to put food on the table and to keep the bills paid. Its blunt, its offensive to some, but accurate.
How Can This Book Help You?
If nothing else it can help you cut through the clutter. By that I mean that you can save a lot of time on the phone haggling over price. You can also use it to sniff out weakness. I was able to sharp shoot some potential clients on the phone to find out if they are broke or not and saved myself 4 hours of meeting them in person, (including the drive over to the meeting location etc.). This sort of habitual meeting policy can criple your financial health. This is a fundamental that I am constantly trying to improve on. I do not take on every Tom, Dick and Harry I meet on the street as a client. That sort of thinking can bring your business to a grinding halt. You also let in a lot of Yo Yo's who can fly apart without a minutes notice and bring in an extroadinary source of unwanted drama.
Price is a complicated issue. Its more than numbers. Its more than what you think your product is worth. It has everything to do with the people you are trying to service. This includes a lot about perception on price and what it is that you are really selling. This could be about saving someone time. This could also be about selling money at a discount, (a big concept in all of Kennedy's teachings).
If you never thought about your prices you need to take a closer look at it. Find out why you come up with your numbers. Find out if these numbers speak about your business or if you are following someone else's defination of your industry. Here is my spin on it....
I have the tendency to take things to another level and I will touch upon just a few points.
RELIGION
This is a deal killer for me. Often prospects will ask me for information regarding my spiritual beliefs during a presentation which I find severly off topic. I usually blow off the question. But I find that a lot of people who bring this issue into a business offering have very poor wealth attraction. They will often use the God element to defend their price position and often will drag in scripture into the negotiation process. This is bad news and you should be aware of it.
GOVERNMENT FEARS
I get a lot of people in the medical community that talk about the horrors of chem trails, conspiracies, and poisoned water supplies. While I find this sort of talk unnerving and highly disturbing I do not find it nearly as disturbing as the amount these prospects are willing to cough up for my services. To put it politely these fragile souls can barely come up with a fraction of my current fee schedule. They also make THE WORST clients and quite honestly should leave business altogether.
There was a really good article a few months back on USA Today regarding the different types of God people believe in. Some of these versions judge harshly and hand out intense punishments in the form of hurricanes and destruction. Another version of God is more Universal and is more balanced in the aspect of karma. All in all there was roughly 12 different types of God people subscribe to. This can also bring into play how people view money and prosperity.
Now I know Kennedy did not go into all of these aspects in his book but I am merely elaborating on past concepts that I have heard in his circles. I draw my own personal experiences into this as well. I want to also mention the importance of NLP, Neuro Linguistic Programming, which is the study of human communication, (verbal and non verbal) into the price and sales process. These things should be studied closely when you deal with the whole spectrum of the sale.
This has everything to do with trust and building adequate raport. This will enable one participant to deliver money from his account directly into yours.
There are parts of this book that have already been dog eared. Within just a few pages I sensed fresh material and honestly I haven't enjoyed a Kennedy book this good in years. I can hold it up to his No B.S. Sales Guide.
The Book Has My Vote
Years ago I dabbled into the GKIC groups, (Kennedy's Marketing Groups) and met a lot of his herd toe to toe. While those meetings were very influential upon my marketing growth I have found getting the straight source from the author himself to be the best experience. Although getting the straight dope can be a bit of a challenge. A lot of Kennedy's top students will often contribute to the books, ( yes, there are guest authors in this book too) as well as some of his courses. I have found that getting Kennedy to open up with some solid and fresh content to be somewhat of a rarity these days.
Part of the reason for this is that his corporate partner, Bill Glazier, oversees the course material and the publishing aspect of his business. I am hungry from the real source from the man himself. I was fortunate to spend a day with him in a closed room session in Nashville, TN a few years back. I can tell you that this book touches upon some of that magic and it is worth picking up.
Its the best thing he's written in years.
Nuff said on that.
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