By quantifying and qualifying value upfront, I can align my success with my customer’s success. We’re both accountable for the same outcome. By fixing a price upfront, based on that value, we put money behind us and we plow forward with a laser like focus on the desired outcome.
One of the side effects of this model, or perhaps the impetus for this model, is that I can try the little things that I think could make a difference. I can try the big things too. I can try whatever I’d like. So long as it takes us closer to our desired outcome.
A great example of this just happened today. I partner with a company to demonstrate their products to prospective customers. Normally we do these remotely as customers are scattered across the world. Today though, the customer is located in the same city. So, I proposed doing the demonstration in person or remote. Whatever the customer would prefer.
Onsite obviously takes more effort. And if I were billing based on effort, perhaps billing by the hour, it would end up costing more. Because I’m paid for results and not effort, I don’t have to ask for permission to offer an in person demonstration. And there’s no doubt in my mind that an in person demonstration is much more valuable, there’s a third dimension to the discussion you just can’t have with a two dimensional phone call.
So, when a customer lives in the same city I can give them the choice. Which makes all of us that much more likely to be successful.
If I were billing by effort, I would likely receive resistance that the added cost isn’t justifiable. I know from over a decade of experience with billing based on effort that customers tend to cut anything possible. And if the customer doesn’t cut it, psychologically I may have to justify it to myself. Do I feel right going the extra mile when my customer will end up paying more?
There are many things that I intuitively know will make a difference but would be hard to justify succinctly. That’s why I love the way I do business, because it allows me to do the little things that can make a big difference.
I can even take reasonable risks in trying new things without making my customer foot the bill for my exploration. So it’s not just about a framework of business that allows me to maximize my customer’s success, it’s also a framework that allows me to learn, innovate and grow.
And the other key to this is that I’m trying things that I hypothesize will make us more successful. I know what success means for my customer in terms of a desired outcome. I’m not trying everything under the sun to gold plate my work to handle any possible outcome my customer may or may not have in mind. I know the exact desired outcome.
What are the little things you could be doing that could make a big difference? What obstacles stand in your way? How can you change your business to lower the barriers to doing these things?