Greg's Right FIT #462

Quick notes to help you grow your business in less time with less effort. . . sometime next week. 

In this issue: 

- Thoughts on Selling to Outcomes
- Being Human
- Random Stuff

Thoughts on Selling to Outcomes

• Buyers develop buying habits based on selling practices. In other words, how we have been "sold to" determines how we "buy from." It takes time and commitment to change habits.
• Sales trainers love to talk about selling value as if it's something we do. It's closer to the truth to say we need to uncover or unlock client value. The only way to do that is through better conversations.  
• Sales and selling is my background. "You don't sound like a sales guy," says an executive. I nod. "Ok, describe an objective you're after. I'll give you an example of my work." He thinks a bit, then smiles. "I see what you're doing."
• In complex selling situations, it's easy to get lost. With multiple players and competing priorities, there's a lot to consider. Get broad agreement on an outcome, what the company needs "more of" or "less of," to keep us on track. 

Being Human - Agreeing on outcomes

If you have no objective, no goal, then you have no purpose other than work itself.

If you had an internship or hired an intern, you know all about the challenge of picking outcomes. When a task or outcome is assigned, if they get there faster than you planned, you think, "I should have asked for more." If they can't get it done, the intern thinks, "this isn't fair."

I thought about this when reading the WSJ's "AI Saves Ad Agencies a Lot of Time. Should They Still Charge by the Hour?" Especially the closing quote from PWC's Samrat Sharma,

“When you’re being paid on effort, it’s a very clear, measurable thing,” Sharma said. “You put in an hour, you get paid an hour, etc. When it’s done on outcomes, there’s a lot of variables, and therefore there’s a lot of risk.”

Pricing on outcomes creates two shifts. It shifts management to get the most out of their people because fewer hours spent getting the goal is more profitable. But the bigger shift, in my experience, happens inside the selling of services with outcome-based-pricing.

Getting the business development team to be excellent at these conversations is challenging because most sellers/buyers have a tough time agreeing on outcomes, let alone leading indicators. Like the intern example, there's risk in picking the wrong target. Buyers don't want to set the bar too low, sellers don't want the bar set too high. 

This can be overcome, but there's going to be a learning curve. 

If you charge by the hour and have thought about changing your pricing model, or if clients are starting to ask for a different pricing model because they perceive AI reducing your work load, we should talk. Navigating these transformations is what I do. 

Random Stuff

“The entire history of mankind is, in any case, nothing but a prolonged fight to the death for the conquest of universal prestige and absolute power." – Albert Camus

The fall garden is ready. I know this because a woodchuck (or a rabbit, or a big vole) ate all but one of my beets. (The cabbage must not be ready because it's still standing.)

The critters are a great indicator of ripeness. Half-eaten tomatoes, peaches, apples, even squash, tell you it's time to harvest. Gardens are good. We watched the Martha Stewart documentary on Netflix this week. She says everyone needs a garden. I like that idea. Gardening has been good for my brain, so it's probably good for others. It's fun to manipulate our environment a bit. 

One of the books I just finished is called "Four Lost Cities." Archaeologists studying these cities look for evidence of human manipulation. A wall here, a mound there, a fire pit, a trash pile, or actual human remains. Evidence of communities of humans trying to make a go of it in the world. 

What I found most interesting in the book is the "lost" part. The cities are all known, especially to current residents, but things change. Cities grow and shrink. People come and go. If you asked citizens for the high-point of their civilization, you'd get as many answers as the number you surveyed. The answer will be debated by future historians. 

In the next few days, this season's garden will be ripped out and the grounds prepped for next year. If I don't do any gardening or yard work for a few years, it won't take long before everything is overgrown, leaving little evidence of my efforts.

Things change. The fat little woodchucks, rabbits, and voles will move on. A new owner will dig around and think, what the hell? 

It might be a good idea to print a few of these newsletters to put in a time capsule. That would give them a clue as to the origin of the brickwork buried in the back corner of the yard. It used to be a putting green before the kids grew up and Wilson the ABC started dragging the green around the yard like it was his job. Before the grass took over, and it started looking like just a mound.

Come to think of it, a little mystery is probably better.