or:

How To Create Value (And Charge For It) In The Eyes Of The Prospect

[warning: this only works if you really have something of value!]

Recently got involved on Twitter (it should be pretty obvious that I’m only using this as an analogy, what I’m talking about here  is pretty much true in every arena of business, whether you’re self-employed, have a home-based business or even work in a big corporation) and the interesting thing is:

The majority of tweeters appear to fall into three categories

1) they either want to ensure that I have white teeth and get it done for only $5… (and as they know nothing about my teeth it can only be a statistical fluke that, yes, I could probably have whiter teeth. Then again, do I really want to look like Tom Cruise?)

… or …

2) they have discovered the sure-fire way of attracting tons of followers on Twitter (at least this is targeted, as there are so many people pitching their tooth-withening miracles, they probably need tons of followers (read: audience with dodgy teeth) Note: if you discover a way of attracting tons of followers with yellow teeth, now we’re talking)

… or …

3) they are (or at least have access to) the world’s leading experts in growing my business, getting tons of leads and making me rich …. all with the power of a teaspoon, no real skills and absolutely no work required.

Nice.

Appealing to our instincts (no effort, no skill, no time required).

And unlikely to deliver.

Which brings me to the retired policemen, a story my friend Bob shared with me a few years ago:

Bob is a photographer. He started his career as a commercial photographer, specializing in cars. And cars are like massive mirrors, so you have to get absolutely everthing right. And Bob did, and won tons of national awards for it (Bob, if I’m forgetting international awards, please forgive me).

And when Bob got fed up photographing cars, he got into wedding photography.

Like everybody else, he was charging around 500 (the unit is GBP, but that’s pretty much irrelevant these days, as Euro, GBP or US-$ are all pretty much interchangeable…) per wedding. And life was just about ok.

But then, with the advent of digital cameras, the problem started: it seemed like upon retirement, every single policeman was presented with a digital SLR as a farewell present.

And what did they do? Set themselves up as wedding photographers. Not exactly a teaspoon, but rather a digital SLR, but certainly no ‘real’ skills and not the years of hard graft put in learning how to capture the real moment (in the world’s biggest and most unforgiving mirror). And charging $/GBP/Euro 500 for it.

And so the bottom fell out of his market. (incidentally, those getting married weren’t better off due to the market pressure either: now they had no idea where to turn, who would really deliver the goods)

Fortunately, there is a happy ending (and a great lesson for everyone reading this): Bob simply increased his fee significantly (we’re talking close to adding a zero to the end of the amount he — and all the retired policmen — were charging beforehand) AND insisted that either the couple be extremely photogenic and/or the location be outstanding. We’re talking castles, posh hotels, country estates etc.

His exact words were:

You Are Only As Good As Your Last Job

and he made sure that every single ‘last’ job was simply outstanding. The paradox is: he could only get these jobs by charging more.

thoughts? Please let me know!

Veit

PS: this is Bob’s website, very good stuff. Must marry my wife again and get Bob to take pictures this time:

http://www.abbeyhousestudios.co.uk/