Selling A Feeling

Geraldine Carter - The Forensic Bounty Hunter

Business coach Geraldine Carter joined me to brainstorm how her CPA clients could price three different phases of a forensic accounting engagement. Even if you're not a CPA, I think you'll find the approaches we came up with applicable to your service business. Here's a link to an interactive transcript: READ TRANSCRIPT(It was machine generated, so it's not perfect)

Projects vs Retainers

A More Useful Definition Of Strategy

Can I Value Price X?

Good News And Bad News

Coaching Call with Animated Film Director Wayne Thornley

Connect with Wayne on LinkedIn

Becoming A Rockstar

Provenance

In the world of vintage watches, provenance is a critical component of the value of a given watch.What is provenance?Here's a good description from Timepiece Chronicle:When discussing vintage watches, especially those claimed to have been owned by notable figures, the notion of provenance should always be kept at the forefront of your mind. Far more important than condition or value, provenance is the term used to describe the legitimacy of recorded ownership for a particular item. Whilst for many vintage watch purchases it is condition and value that are of primary concern when considering watches that are claimed to have belonged to an important figure, provenance is the most important factor.So... provenance is kinda like the backstory of a watch.For example:A 1930s era 14k gold Longines tonneau-shaped wrist watch sells for about $1000.A 1930s era 14k gold Longines tonneau-shaped wrist watch owned by Albert Einstein sold for $596,000.Almost 600 times more money for the same watch!But is it really same watch? Sure, the materials and construction and design are all the same. But one is a direct physical connection to one of the greatest scientific minds who ever lived, and the other... well, it tells the time (and probably pretty badly, at that).Here's the thing...The value of a product or service often comes from intangible things like provenance or status or brand or morale or peace of mind.This is not irrational buying behavior. You prove it every time you buy a Coke or shop at Target or splurge on a pair of Nikes and tell yourself that "this one is worth more because of $reasons".Value is not an inherent property of a thing. It's a perception in the mind of the buyer.The question is, what does your ideal buyer value?Yours,—JEnjoy this episode? Here are more things you might like:Hourly Billing Is Nuts—Essays On The Insanity Of Trading Time For MoneyLearn more »The Freelancer’s Roadmap—Learn The Tools, Tactics, And Systems You Need To Transform Yourself From Commodity Freelancer To In-Demand ConsultantLearn more »Learn Your Lines—What To Say When Clients Put You On The SpotLearn more »Pigeonhole Yourself—Transform Your Marketing From Soggy To Solid With These Real-World ExamplesLearn more »

What if no one listens?

Long time reader and friend-of-the-list Scott Gould sent in this great question about starting a podcast (shared with permission):Hi Jonathan, I’m curious - my thought on producing a podcast would be “would anybody even listen to it?” What’s your take on that? Because surely that’s the most important thing to consider? Yours engagingly, ScottSure, it would be nice if lots of people listened to your podcast, but if you start out with a one-on-one interview show format (which is my recommended starting format for new podcasters), it doesn’t really matter of anyone listens.Wait, what?You shouldn’t care if anyone listens to your podcast?Yep, that’s right. Having listeners is just one of the benefits of hosting a podcast, and IMHO it’s not the most important one. Here are three other benefits that I think are more important:1) Building relationshipsHosting a podcast means you always have something to invite people to (especially, luminaries in your field). If I reached out to Seth Godin and asked, “Hey, you wanna to jump on the phone for an hour so I can pick your brain?” he would surely say no. But if I asked instead, “Hey, would you like to come on our podcast and talk about that thing you care about?” he might agree.When I dreamed up the idea for TBOA, it was specifically for the purpose of having something to invite my favorite thought leaders to. It’s nice that the audience is growing, but all I care about is getting to talk to really smart people for an hour.2) Researching your marketThis is similar to the previous benefit, but instead of inviting rockstars to come on your show, you invite people from your target market and essentially have a free consulting call with them. This is a great way to get to know the hopes, dreams, worries, and fears of your ideal buyers without the pressure of trying to close a deal. As a side effect, improving your podcast interview skills will improve your sales interview skills.BONUS: If you are currently doing execution work (e.g., coding, copywriting, illustration, video production, audio editing, voice overs, etc) and want to transition into consulting, coaching, or other types of pure advisory engagements, inviting ideal buyers onto your show is low-risk way to road test your capabilities, and to combat impostor syndrome.3) Rapid content creationHosting an interview show is a great way to create a huge amount of quality content very quickly. An hour long chat with a guest will result in about 10,000 words of content. Could you write that many words in an hour? Heck no. For very little money, you can have your episodes transcribed and then read through to pull out rough drafts for shorter written articles that you could publish as blog posts, email messages, or social media posts.I could keep going, but hopefully you get the point. There are plenty of benefits to starting a podcast even if nobody listens!Yours,—JSubscribe to Jonathan’s daily list

Punishing Excellence

If you bill by the hour, there's no financial incentive to get better at what you do.Usually when I say this to people who bill hourly, their knee-jerk reaction is to reject the idea out of hand. They'll point out that they love getting better at what they do and that they often invest time and money in their professional development.And I'll say, "Sure, but whatever your incentive is to do that, it's not financial. The faster you get, the less money you make."Eventually, it will begin to dawn on them that there is a paradox at the center of their professional life. On the one hand, they love getting better at their craft. Who doesn't? On the other, there is no financial reward for getting better. In fact, there is often a financial penalty.Faced with this conundrum, they will sometimes deploy impressive mental gymnastics to avoid having to change anything. The most breathtaking effort I've heard so far goes like this:"If I get so good at my craft that I'm faster than all of my competitors, then my estimates will be the lowest and I'll always win the work. Therefore, I do have an incentive to get better even though I bill by the hour."The first time I heard this one, it made my head spin. It was so misguided that I didn't know where to start debunking it. It was like the guy said to me, "Sure, it's a race to zero, but hey... a race is a race and I want to win!" Unfortunately, this wasn't the last time I've heard this argument so maybe it's worth me walking through it.Here goes...For the sake of discussion, let's say Bob charges $100 per hour and gets twice as many new project leads as he can handle. His success rate with landing new projects is 50%. He's confident that if he could cut his estimates in half, he'd land 100% of these new projects.So, Bob invests time and money into tools, training, and systems that make him twice as fast at what he does. Now, his estimates for new projects are half what they would've been, and he does in fact start landing 100% of his incoming leads.Okay, so... what has Bob accomplished?He's now working on twice as many projects as before, but making only half the money on each as he would have. Therefore, his overall revenue has not changed, but his administrative duties and switching costs have increased. And he's out the time and money he invested in getting more efficient in the first place.Here's the thing...Even in this oversimplified example, there's clearly no financial incentive for Bob to invest in getting better at what he does. In a more real-world scenario, it makes even less sense for hourly billers to get better at what they do.In my experience, the problem that most self-employed professionals are wrestling with is not that their close rate is too low, it's that they don't get enough leads in the first place.Getting better at what you do so you can undercut your competitors and close more deals doesn't solve for the "I'm not getting enough leads" problem. In fact, it makes it worse because if you get twice as fast, you'll probably need twice as many leads to make the same money.(Regardless, you don't have to go to all the trouble of getting better at what you do just to beat your competitors on price... just cut your hourly rate in half. Boom. Done.)Hourly billing does not reward expertise, it punishes it. The better you get, the less you make. That's the hourly trap.Yours,—J Enjoy this episode? Here are more things you might like:Altitude Of Involvement—A visual walkthrough of how to charge more money for less labor by leveraging your expertise.Learn more »Learn Your Lines—What To Say When Clients Put You On The SpotLearn more »Pigeonhole Yourself—Transform Your Marketing From Soggy To Solid With These Real-World ExamplesLearn more »Hourly Billing Is Nuts—Essays On The Insanity Of Trading Time For MoneyLearn more »The Freelancer’s Roadmap—Learn The Tools, Tactics, And Systems You Need To Transform Yourself From Commodity Freelancer To In-Demand ConsultantLearn more »Group Coaching with Jonathan—Live group video Q&A sessions every other week, instant access to 20+ hours of previous sessions, and a dedicated Slack for group discussion.Learn more »Private Coaching with Jonathan—Do you have an established software business that is doing okay but has been plateaued for too long? My Private Coaching Program will give you the instruction, guidance, and accountability you need to get unstuck and increase your profitability.Learn more »

It's Not That Simple

It's not uncommon for a student to come to me for advice about some sort of relationship-related dilemma they're facing. Stuff like:  "I agreed to hire my good-for-nothing brother-in-law and now he's destroying my business!" "After working together for years, my biggest client is considering a cheaper firm and wants us to cut our price in half!" "My business partner wants to pivot into a business direction that I feel is unethical and I can't talk him out of it!"  Statements like these are usually followed by thousands of words of backstory full of slights and subtleties and worries and so forth. When they finally run out of steam, they conclude their monologue with the question:"So what do you think I should I do?" To which I would reply (in order of above list): "Fire him."  "Politely refuse."  "Split up." Usually, this is greeted with a few seconds of stunned silence, followed by: "But it's not that simple!"Yes. Yes, it is that simple. It's just not EASY. There's a big difference. When a problem is complex, a reasonable approach is to do research. When a problem is simple, research is procrastination. If your good-for-nothing brother-in-law is destroying your business, you need to fire him. It's not a complex problem, it's simple. The additional backstory (e.g., how mad your sister might be or what the BIL might do in retaliation or that your parents might disown you) doesn't change the fact that you have to fire him if you want to save the business. If your sister gets really mad at you or whatever, that's a separate problem to be dealt with separately. You might think I'm splitting hairs about the difference between "simple" and "easy". It's true that these two words are very similar and can be used synonymously sometimes, but in cases where you've got a hard decision to make, one's mind seems to want to put it off by tricking itself into thinking it's complex. Deep down, you know what needs to be done, you just don't want to do it. So you pretend it's complex and respond to the phantom complexity by "researching it" (e.g., asking for outside opinions, waiting yet another day to see if things change, back-channeling with parties who are familiar with the matter but not in a position to influence anything, etc). It's just stalling, which makes the problem worse. Once you recognize that what needs to be done is simple (albeit hard), your next steps will become clear. Yours, —JP.S. Are you wrestling with a business problem that you'd like to get clarity on? I'm available for a limited number of 1-on-1 coaching calls each month. You can book yours here: jonathanstark.com/call

Michael Zipursky - Consulting Success

Guest BioMichael Zipursky – Michael has consulted for organizations and advised leaders throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Middle East in over 30 industries, from service providers to billion dollar multi-national corporations including Panasonic, Dow Jones, Financial Times, Royal Bank and many others. Michael is an in-demand speaker and gives keynotes and workshops for the Certified Management Consultants Association, Canadian Internet Marketing Conference, Social Media Camp and others. Michael’s work has appeared in MarketingProfs, Huffington Post, Financial Times, FOX Business, Maclean's, HR Executive, Business Edge, Marketing Magazine and in several other media and publications. He is the author of 5 books including:  Elite Consulting Mind Consulting Success® ACT NOW Follow Michael on Twitter @MichaelZipursky LinkedIn: Michael ZipurskyRelated Links The Introduction Game by Jonathan Stark (PDF) Should You Write A Book? (AUDIO) How To Build Your First Productized Service (EMAIL COURSE) Built To Sell by John Warrillow (BOOK) Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You with guest John Warrillow (AUDIO)

Scope Last

How and why to flip the script in sales interviews.

(Re)positioning Yourself: A Crash Course

The lovely and talented Alex Hillman of PhillyFreelance.com invited me to speak to their membership last week about repositioning your freelance business in response to COVID-19. Here's the event description:With all the belt-tightening going on, it’s never been more important to quickly and clearly communicate your value proposition to potential clients. Whether you need to pivot from an old positioning statement to a new one, or to firm up your soggy positioning statement in response to a crisis, this interactive session will help you clarify your value proposition so that anyone you meet can easily understand:  What you do  Who you help  What you help them with  Why you're the best person for the job  Who is this talk for? This webinar is for freelancers, consultants, coaches, contractors, and anyone else who sells their services for living. ----The reaction from the audience was quite positive, especially regarding the Q&A segment at the end. Alex graciously allowed me to republish the audio of the talk as an episode of Ditching Hourly so other freelancers could potentially benefit from it. Alex has a long history of creating cool, useful, and innovative products and services, so if you're a freelancer or consultant you should really check out his stuff:  IndyHall.org StackingTheBricks.com PhillyFreelance.com If you'd like to have me speak to your community or appear on your podcast, just shoot me an email at jstark@jonathanstark.com and let me know what you have in mind. P.S. Here’s a link to the diagram that Alex mentioned in the intro: Make More For Less