Expand your pricing paradigm, High stakes cognitive assessments & Need to increase pricing but the sales team is resisting?
12 February 2023 Newsletter
A company hiring a new CFO, asks only one question of each candidate:
“What’s 2+2=?” Everyone except the person they hired answered 4.
The guy they hired replied: “What number did you have in mind?”
Hope you’re Thriving!
It’s been a great week with a lot happening. It’s fantastic to be back in the rhythm.
This past week I’ve been with two teams who took years to fully act on their core customer, focusing on delivering what works and dropping what doesn’t.
Like everyone, they had other things going on and postponed the hard decisions.
And this week, both teams were forced to do things the hard way.
The lesson to share – take decisive action when you see things are working and take decisive action when they aren’t.
What have you changed your mind about?
I came across this interesting question last week that got me thinking. “What have you changed your mind about in the last decade?”
People aren’t going to respond by talking about minor things, like what TV show they like; it’s going to be some of the biggest things that are fascinating to discuss.
For me, it’s probably about relying on technology to solve our big problems. I used to think it would be OK, but now I believe that humans must make that technology solve problems – with humans changing behaviour as well.
Time of Day and High Stakes Cognitive Assessments
Last week I spoke about predicting hiring success and how the number 1 thing that connects with hiring success is reviewing work samples, and number 2 is cognitive assessments.
Number 2 is interesting because the time of day and time of year significantly impact cognitive performance.
A study of half a million UK students released last month found that taking a test at 1.30 pm produces better performance than 9 am or 4.30 pm. Also, the time of year makes a difference, with autumn (fall) creating the highest performance above the average.
Check out the published study here and the earlier conclusions.
Expand Your Pricing Paradigm
This week I found an interesting article discussing price setting, one of the most important decisions your team must regularly make, and how you can investigate inventive pricing strategies.
It makes such a difference – only last week, I worked with a CEO where we’re investigating bundling a product with a service to both differentiate AND get a 3x margin and transition to more of a subscription model. Unique and different ways to pricing can make an enormous impact!
Back to the article.
The article offers several ideas to think differently about your pricing:
1. Accommodate Different Usage Levels and Preferences
2. Appeal to Customers on a Tight Budget
3. Provide Price Break Opportunities
4. Establish Prices When Value Is Uncertain
5. Use Pricing to Enhance Business Efficiency
While those section headlines may not be compelling, I like how the article breaks down different tactics you can use, which may be helpful in different situations.
Read the HBR article here: Expand your pricing paradigm
You may also want to look at this week’s podcast below for another take on pricing, where we discuss the topic, “We need to increase pricing, but the sales team is resisting.”
Your product doesn’t suck
This week on The Growth Whisperers Podcast
We need to increase pricing but the sales team is resisting
Price increases are a bit of a dirty word in business – and they have become a critical success factor for companies in 2023 with incredibly high price inflation affecting input costs.
Enduring companies that have been around for many decades have mastered this discipline, whereas newer companies have not necessarily had to learn this lesson yet, and it hurts.
Big, experienced companies were making price increases fast and early – and profiting from it;
Smaller, nicer companies waited, thought about it, and many paid a serious price with their margins shirking and tier bottom line fading too.
Practically many businesses must increase pricing at some point, and people don’t necessarily like to do it – especially the sales team who deal with customers all the time.
In this episode, we talk about the method of price increases, why it matters and some of the best ways to do it in your business.
Episode 148 – The Growth Whisperers
Listen to The Growth Whisperers
Or watch it on YouTube
Onboarded: Fast Track New Hires to Success – Live Virtual Masterclass with The Growth Faculty – 22 February 2023
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