Who is Janene?
Janene is a highly trusted Value & Profit Expert, working with small businesses, startups and entrepreneurs across industries and the globe...and she’s a Certified Pricing Professional. Her mission is to empower small businesses to sustainably grow their revenue and profit. By showing them how to use the pricing strategies and tactics that help them confidently create, communicate and charge for the value they deliver. Watch out, her passion for pricing is contagious
Key Takeaways
1. When people start in business they under-price. They're trying to cast a wide net, and attract anyone. They need to target.
2.. Pricing is rooted in a deep understanding of the customer. Because the customer is the final judge and jury on value. It's about making sure that your offer is pitched to the right audience.
3. Show Me the Money matrix. Four questions to help determine value to your customer offer.
How do I help my customers reduce risk?
How do I help them be more competitive?
How do I help them improve quality of their of their business
How do I help them bring economic efficiency?
Take those four questions, not only about apply, write down your answers, and then try to quantify them. And then you'll be on your road to understanding better the quantifiable value but that your offer delivers customers,
Valuable Free Resource or Action
Janene has a free webinar - details at her website thepricinglady.com
A video version of this podcast is available on YouTube :
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Transcript
Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
prices, pricing, question, business, customer, janine, great, offer, talk, coffee mug, quantify, spend, wide net, profit, webinar, generalist, common mistake, startups, differentiation, brilliant
SPEAKERS
Stuart Webb, Janene Liston
Stuart Webb 00:42
Hi, and welcome back to another episode of, it's not rocket science, five questions over coffee. I have my coffee mug here in front of me. I'm here with Janine, who is the pricing lady? This is gonna be a really fascinating discussion. Because for me pricing is something so many people get wrong. So many people are afraid of pricing, they're afraid of what it does. I think it's a real differentiator. It's the thing which sets you apart. If you are even a small business, even a solopreneur, your pricing can really set you apart. So I think Janine is going to give us some great tips to great points today. Get your coffee ready. This is going to be a great discussion. Hi, Janine. Welcome to the podcast.
Janene Liston 01:22
Hi, Stuart. Thanks for having me here. Hello, everyone.
Stuart Webb 01:25
This is this is going to be absolutely fascinating. So Janine, let's start off with the obvious thing. What's the biggest challenge? And I think we've sort of started to get into this already. What's the biggest challenge your ideal client has faces today?
Janene Liston 01:39
Right. So I think there's two things for the startups, the solo entrepreneurs, that group of people, it's really about, how can I understand the value of what I'm charging and set the right prices. So it really comes down to a confidence piece for more established businesses is really about optimising profitability, not chasing after profits at all in any cost, but optimising their profit.
Stuart Webb 02:07
I think that's a really good point you need the word optimising profit is something which I think a lot of time people forget the profit element of system, they're afraid of really understanding the profit margin. So, you know, that leads me on to the next question, what's the common mistake people make when they're trying to solve that problem of their price, without
Janene Liston 02:30
without help? Right. So I think one of the common mistakes that people make when they're first starting out, is under pricing. And usually, a lot of times that will come from trying to sell everything to anyone. They're trying to cast a wide net, and attract anyone. And in doing so they position themselves as a generalist. And when you're positioned as a generalist, your prices, quite frankly, if you're lucky, will be average at best, but you usually they're below average. So casting a wide net for most businesses isn't going to be the way to get enough traction, to be able to get going on a profit context. And quite frankly, profit is how you're going to grow your business later. So without that profit, you basically won't be there to serve your clients later on.
Stuart Webb 03:24
Janine, that's really interesting, because I think you've said something really interesting, which is this generalist point. And, yeah, I just like to, you know, we're going to expand a little bit on this, because I think it's really important. What you were saying is a differentiator, I've said that I think differentiation is a real key issue for many small businesses, many business, it's differentiation. But you've just sort of talked about the fact that that it, if you're trying to Castle wide that you become too generous. Can you expand a little bit on what you think that means in terms of what that does to your pricing?
Janene Liston 03:56
Right. So basically, what happens is, there are lots of people who want your product or service or who could use it, and different people will have a different value to it. So this guy over here may think it's nice to have, but I'm not going to spend a whole lot of money on it. This one might think, Oh, that's good value for money. And this one might really think, Wow, this is the best thing ever. And I'm going to give all my money for it. Now, if you're going to price for all three of them, then basically you're going to average those prices. And in order to capture a sort of majority of them, you're going to have to be on the lower end when it comes to an average price or target price. So in reality, what you either want to do is focus on one or segment them have different offers and therefore different price points.
Stuart Webb 04:49
You know, I was I'm reminded of a story and we could develop this but of a an experiment, a social experiment that we run by I think it was New York University where they put a virtuoso violinist outside of the New York subway station. And he played for 45 minutes and counted the number of coins that were thrown into his violin case. And the answer at the end of that, at that time were a few, a few dollars, He then played a 45 minute concert at a concert venue in front of an audience that had paid to come in here and play. And he gained something in the region of 1000s of dollars for that particular performance. The difference was the audience. It wasn't his playing. It wasn't his his performance, it was the audience he was playing to second audience paid to hear him play because they appreciated his art, his craft, whatever, that's what we're talking about, isn't it? It's about making sure that your offer is pitched to the right audience.
Janene Liston 05:56
Yes, I always say pricing is rooted in a deep understanding of the customer. Because the customer is the final judge and Judge Jury on the value. And the value is going to determine in the end with the prices. I think also in your story, you can say Location, location, location, also makes a difference. But you're right, it really pricing comes down to the customer. And if I may, this leads me to another mistake that people make. It's that they I lost my train of thought there. Oh, yes, I know what it is. So your service based businesses, when they tend to set prices, they go, Oh, I do this really great thing. Let me see what everybody else is charging. And let me price a little bit less. And your product based businesses tend to go, Ooh, I developed this really cool widget. Let me add at my costs and add a margin. And that's where I'll put my price. Now, if your were listening just a moment ago, then, you know, there's one problem that these two methodologies have in common. And that's both of them completely ignore the customer.
Stuart Webb 07:08
Brilliant, absolutely. Love that. I love that. And you know, the thing, it just there is it's highlighted, is that that value is that what is the value? What's the value to the customer? Just Just one other thing I was talking to somebody yesterday about a landing page, question that I had for them is how many additional customers and customer and customer value will that bring to your business, because that determines how much you want to put into the cost to develop that landing page. If it's going to bring you one extra customer, they spend another $1 a pound, then you don't want to spend a huge amount on that landing page. But if it's going to bring in 10,000 customers, and they each spend 10,000, you need to spend more on testing and proving. So it's all about the value it brings to your business as well as the value it brings to the customer. Absolutely. Terrific. So, Jenny, we could talk for many hours, I'm sure and we get and we won't, because otherwise this podcast will not be called five questions over coffee. But 10,000 questions over coffee? Well, let's just get to, you know, you have got some great ideas. You've got some great things teach us, what's the way that we can get hold of that knowledge from you, and hopefully, at great value to us.
Janene Liston 08:25
And so in terms of you're asking, like
Stuart Webb 08:29
free action or free resource that you're going to be able to sort of pass to us.
Janene Liston 08:33
Excellent. So there's, I'm running a webinar this weekend next week, which is Is it time to raise my prices and how to do it confidently? Twice? Yes, this time of year that is on top of everybody's minds. What am I going to do with my prices next year. And of course, this year, we're in really unprecedented sort of set of circumstances, right?
Stuart Webb 08:59
I think I think there's I think there's a drink there. If you've used the word unprecedented, I think we will have to take as long
Janene Liston 09:05
I don't have a coffee mug, I have my water bottle. Yeah, so this is a hot topic. And everybody is you know, a bit sensitive about what to do wants to know what to do. So I'm going to share with people how to know when it's time and give them some tips and strategies on how to raise prices really effectively.
Stuart Webb 09:28
Brilliant. I love it. I think it's gonna be a good webinar. So the details of that if you can see scrolling across the bottom of the screen, it's the pricing lady.com forward slash raising, raise prices sorry. Exactly. The pricing lady.com raise prices. Brilliant. Thank you so much to need. So what what contact book or talk has really been impactful in your experience.
Janene Liston 09:54
So one of the books that I read years ago well before I ever started my own business was called the E myth, and it has stuck with me for a day. And well, there's a couple of things. So first of all, it's really great for young businesses, startups, entrepreneurs. And what stayed with me one was a, it's an easy read. So pretty much anybody can read it. Being an American living in Europe, a lot of people hear English as a second language. So I recommend also for people who's you know, who are, maybe English isn't their strongest language, but it's also published in many languages. And there are two things that I like about it. One is its simplicity. And the two things that stuck with me are one that your business is about creating experience for people. So a lot of the value that you provide beyond the service or beyond the product is actually related to the experience that you create for people. And that can bring as much value as the service or the product itself. And I think that that's really such a strong message to keep in mind. And then the other thing is that when you start your own business, you think, Oh, I can do this better, or I can do this differently. And you think that what you're an expert in is what you're going to spend all your time doing. But those of us who have have a business now, that's not the reality of the case, you do have to be the salesperson and the marketing person, the accounting person, the finance guy, and so on and so forth. And there's a time and a place to do those things yourself. And there's a time and a place to outsources things.
Stuart Webb 11:31
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Right. That is a really key thing. I often say, to many entrepreneurs, I come across us what I call the path of least resistance, and they really should understand the value of their own time to their business because we get it wrong so many times. Jenny Lister fast, fascinating discussion, we could go on for hours, but I'm gonna come to question five. Okay, question five is my Get Out of Jail Free card, which is where I can't think of any good question. So I throw it over to you. What's the question that I should have asked you, that you think would have really delivered great value? And, and then please don't leave us hanging? Give us the answer to that question. back for another one of these in just a few days.
Janene Liston 12:12
Yes, of course. So I think that the the question is probably in people's minds right now is okay, you've told us we need to focus on value. How do I do that? Yeah, so I use something. I love the question.
Stuart Webb 12:25
I'm hoping we're gonna get a brilliant answer.
Janene Liston 12:28
Yes, you're about to get a good answer, a great answer, maybe even a really an answer. So I use something with my clients, I call it the Show Me the Money matrix. Okay. Okay. And what we do is we ask ourselves four questions, to help us quantify the value that comes out of our offer. It's not the features in your product, that brand, that is the value, it's what those features do for you. It's not the type of service that you offer. It's that experience that you have and what it brings. So there are four areas that we look at. The first is how do I help my customers reduce risk? How do I help them be more competitive? How do I help them improve quality that can be of life or of their business of their offer? And the last one is how do I help them bring economic efficiency? Take those four questions, not only about apply, write down your answers, and then try to quantify them. And then you'll be on your road to understanding better the quantifiable value but that your offer delivers customers,
Stuart Webb 13:35
gee, I love it. Sell the benefits, not the features sell the whole not the drill. We've always said it. Haven't we quantified a brilliant way of actually capturing what the benefit is in those four great questions. I love those questions. I will be writing those downloads and I shall make sure that I get it getting bedded into some question matrix that I use. Don't think I can steal your name because it will surely come shortly copyrighted. But those are four great questions about what it is benefit. Yeah, this has been a fascinating discussion. Thank you so much for spending some time but I think I think pricing is such an important topic. It's such a such a difficult one for people to get right. I think you've given us a really great highlights of how to get pricing right. I hope we can get people to come along and get onto that. That webinar. Yeah, just repeat it's the pricing lady. That's that's Janine she is the pricing lady the pricing lady.com forward slash raise prices get along to that webinar, see what you can do with your prices to help you to get the right price based upon the value you deliver to clients and and this is a great topic. So I think there's gonna be some great stuff coming out of that. Just to remind everybody if you want to see in the future, we send out an email before these to try and make sure that you know what's coming up if you want to get onto the newsletter list so that you can see what who get whose guests we get coming up. Get almost going and subscribing to TC a dot FYI, forward slash subscribe if you got to TCA FYI folks have subscribed to before filling your details. Let us know that you want to be told that we've got great interviews with people like Janine coming up, and we will send you an email on the Monday of the week coming up, so that you know who's coming up that week. Janine, thank you so much for being with us today. Really appreciate it. Really appreciate the stuff you've told us. I hope people come and come and populate that webinar. Myself, I'm gonna I'm gonna see if I can get on there and steal some great ideas from you because you've got so much to say about this. Thank you so much for being with us.
Janene Liston 15:34
Thanks for having me here. It was a real pleasure.
Stuart Webb 15:36
It's a real pleasure. Thank you
Five Questions Over Coffee with Janene Liston | The Pricing Lady (ep. 36)