How to Sell Even When the Price is Not RightWritten by Jennifer Bosworth
How to Sell Even When Price is Not RightBy Jenny Bosworth http://www.internetwriters.com Do you ever wonder how you are going to make your product or service sell when you don't offer lowest price? Because people always go for lowest price offered, right? Not exactly. Do most people buy their cars from junkyard? Or their TVs from pawn shops? Of course not. There is one thing that customers value more than getting a good deal. They will pay exorbitant amounts of money to eliminate risk. This is not to say that, when two products or services are equal, your potential customer won't choose cheaper one. What you need to do is unbalance scales to ensure that your product is obviously less risky choice. A web designer friend of mine recently entered into a bidding war for a project. On one hand, my friend wanted to charge $70 per hour, which was fair considering his experience and work quality. However, he was bidding against some teenager workingo out of his basement, willing to charge only $10 an hour. The company offering project actually considered basement boy with his dirt cheap rates. That is, until my friend pointed out that they would get exactly what they paid for, and when their end product turned out to be junk, they could come to him and pay his rates to do it over again. The company realized that choosing Mr. $10 an hour posed certain risks, and that they might end up paying even more if they went with him. In end, my friend won bidding war, even though his rates were 7X his competitor's.
| | Soft Skills In the IT Environment – Part 1 of 2Written by Carole Nicolaides
by Carole Nicolaides, Copyright © 2002, All Rights Reserved www.progressiveleadership.comIn today's competitive environment, it is not enough to be best in your field intellectually. Competency is only half of what you need to climb ladder of success. Retail giant Sears uses a very appropriate slogan: “Come see softer side of Sears.” Just like Sears, you need to show softer side of you in order to be successful. What is softer side exactly? It’s that part of you that will be liked, admired, trusted and remembered. As an IT executive, you may find this philosophy new because you have been required to be strong and flawless for so long. However, new knowledge economy demands that leaders have both soft and tough personas. Do not get fooled. Soft skills training is not for “softies.” Exactly opposite is true. Soft skills are important no matter what business you are in. Most managers were initially trained to focus on competencies of an individual when in a business role. We look at their education, their accomplishments, and their career growth. However, people are people. Regardless of what vocation they have, each one of us is a human being first and foremost. Soft skills equip us to deal with person first, and business venue second. The results are simply amazing! I have had opportunity to spend of lot of time working with IT people and it was a real learning experience for me. One of things that I realized was that, due to their character and communication styles, many times IT folks would shoot themselves in foot once they received a promotion to management and had people under them. They would get overwhelmed, be unable to communicate well, to bond, or to motivate their people. Setting visions for their team seemed to fall completely to wayside.
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