The Wrong End
The Wrong End
Meet Your Host, Alan Weiss
Alan Weiss is one of those rare people who can say he is a consultant, speaker, and author and mean it.
His consulting firm, Summit Consulting Group, Inc., has attracted clients such as Merck, Hewlett-Packard, GE, Mercedes-Benz, State Street Corporation, Times Mirror Group, The Federal Reserve, The New York Times Corporation, Toyota, and over 500 other leading organizations. He has served on several boards of directors in various capacities.
His prolific publishing includes over 500 articles and 60 books, including his best-seller, Million Dollar Consulting (from McGraw-Hill) now in its 30th year and sixth edition. His newest is Your Legacy is Now: Life is not about a search for meaning but the creation of meaning (Routledge, 2021). His books have been on the curricula at Villanova, Temple University, and the Wharton School of Business, and have been translated into 15 languages.
Get to know AlanShow Notes
In professional services (and even in most product companies) trying to “raise the price” is the wrong place to start.
You need to begin by raising perceived value.
Value is the improvement in the customer's/client's condition.
Perceived means they can identify it.
“Lead magnets” and “loss leaders” are from the 50s. Go watch Soupy Sales.
You need to build value and tell them and show them that value. It's often in what the product or service does (tax returns, wrenches) but usually is what it creates (saving money, more efficient construction).
A luxury is a luxury until you use it the second time when it becomes a necessity.
Value consists of new ideas, better practices, new interpretations, reframing—not solutions on the spot. Not obvious events.
You need to become an “object of interest” so that they want you around. If your brand is strong, they want to brag about being a part of it. Just ask Bentley.
Alan Weiss's The Uncomfortable Truth® is a weekly broadcast from “The Rock Star of Consulting,” Alan Weiss, who holds forth with his best (and often most contrarian) ideas about society, culture, business, and personal growth. His 60+ books in 12 languages, and his travels to, and work in, 50 countries contribute to a fascinating and often belief-challenging 20 minutes that might just change your next 20 years.
Introduction to the show recorded by Connie Dieken
