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Good morning. In this issue: how can you make your services easier to buy? Plus, understanding AI overviews and their impact on click-through rates; a nifty competitive monitoring tool you could use with your clients; knowing when to innovate vs. imitate; and more.
As always: any topic you want me to cover, or a question you want answered? Reply to this email and I'll see what I can do!
βοΈ
- Jeff
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FROM MY DESK
Make it Easy to Buy
A few years ago, I was looking to move to a small mountain town and build a new house.
I spoke to a variety of builders about what it might cost to build a house with them and how the process worked, finance-wise and otherwise. After all, I hadnβt done this before.
The answers I got were:
- It depends.
- Itβs about $300 per square foot, but that depends.
- First, you need to buy the land and then survey it; then you need to factor in engineering costs before we design the house.
- Youβll need a construction mortgage to start, etc.
This all felt very vague, high effort, and high risk for me.
But then one builder got back to me with something different:
βYou can have Model X or Model Y. Model X is $600,000. Model Y is $700,000. That includes a predetermined selection of finishes you can choose from. If you want custom items outside of that, it costs more. Iβve attached info on each model. You pay 10% up front and 90% on completion.β
Guess which builder is the most popular in town β and the one I went with?
The other builders were incredibly talented. But the winning builder made it easy to buy. The others didnβt.
Making it hard to buy meant:
- I was taking on all the risk.
- The costs were unknown and could easily spiral.
- There was too much choice and too many decisions.
Making it easy to buy meant:
- I got a fixed, clear cost.
- The up-front investment, and ongoing costs, were low
- I knew exactly what I would receive.
- I got enough choice β but not too much.
- Customization requests were handled clearly, with exact costs.
- All the risk was taken off my plate.
Look at the market you serve, alongside their problems, fears, and hopes. Look at the services and products your agency provides.
Then ask yourself: how can I make this easier to buy?
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AROUND THE WEB
The best links from this week:
- βAI overviews are likely tanking your (and your clients') click-throughs in search results. Here's a good writeup on understanding why, what that actually means, and what to do about it.
- βThere's a time to innovate and a time to imitate. We've all heard the "innovate or die" rallying cry from the EntreBros, but here's a nuanced and informed take from HBR on when to be what (one of my favourite, and most challenging, questions/decisions).β
- βWe have an endless list of chores to do, at work or home. But if we put the chores first all the time, how do we have the gas to do our impactful work as leaders, partners, and people?
- βAI tools can (and should) be used responsibly as part of your agency's sales efforts. Here are 10 AI tools for sales teams β what they do, what they're best at, and when to use them. But please, don't spam people's inboxes; it won't get you anywhere and your brand will take a hit.
- βHeadsUp is a monitoring tool that will notify you when your competitors (or better, your client's competitors) publish price changes, launch a new product, shift their positioning and more. Could be really valuable for some of your clients, and a proactive source of business for those of you with recurring strategic partnership work.
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QUOTE FOR THE ROAD
"To give without any reward, or any notice, has a special quality of its own."
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Anne Morrow Lindbergh
βοΈ What could you give to someone this week β your partner, a client, a teammate β without expectation of reward or thanks?
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Thanks for reading. Reply and let me know what you thought of today's newsletter if you'd like β and here's what's coming up soon:
- (It's actually scheduled:) The lies about flat organizations, why they fail, and why traditional structures aren't inherently evil, and
- The world's shortest helpful post (135 words!) on positioning your firm clearly and accurately.
Until next week!
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