Andrew McDermott, Author at She Owns It

Photo Credit: Ron Wiecki via Compfight cc

by Andrew McDermott | Featured Contributor

Apple announced the iPhone 5.

And customers were eager and excited to pre-order their phones.

Shortly afterwards Apple announced that pre-orders of their iPhone 5 had topped 2 million in just 24 hours.

And the amazing part of their story?

Not one of their customers haggled for a better price.

Apple customers were foaming at the mouth. They wanted to get their hands on the iPhone 5 and they were willing to pay full price to get it.

Which leads us to ask why customers are willing to pay full price.

Customer all-stars are happy to pay full price and they’re willing to do it for four distinct reasons.

You’re unique
There’s a relationship in place
They admire you or your business
Customers are active or engaged

1. You’re unique

When your business or product is unique, you’re one of a kind. When it’s done well, uniqueness creates scarcity. It also triggers loss aversion – customers don’t want to miss out on what you’re offering. They’re willing to do whatever it takes to get the one thing only you can provide.

2. There’s a relationship in place.

You’re looking for good relationships, the kind where there’s give and take. Good relationships are like oil. They keep things flowing smoothly and they decrease friction. Upsells, repeat sales and testimonials come easier when a good relationship is in place.

But this doesn’t automatically mean a one-to-one relationship. Your writing, content and marketing can help you develop good relationships with your customers.

3. They admire you or your business.

Customers that admire you or your work are different from other customers. These customers truly believe in your product or service. They care about your reputation and they’ll fight for you when you’re attacked.

Insult Apple or their prophet Steve Jobs and you attract a firestorm of negative attention. Need word of mouth? These customers become your evangelists, your informal sales team. They’ll work for free to spread the word about your business.

4. Customers are active or engaged.

Customers who aren’t active or engaged won’t want to pay full price. When they’re not engaged they haggle and complain. They ignore you. They’re flakey.

When customers are engaged they ask questions. They use your product often, sign-in regularly and reach out for help consistently. These customers can feel like pests but they’re the kind of pests your business desperately needs.

Those are the kinds of customers that pay full price.

Customers that are invested in your business are willing to pay full price. And at that point, it’s not just your business anymore, it’s our business.

But what does an invested customer look like?

1985 Coca Cola changed their formula. Their customers weren’t pleased.

Coca Cola started receiving letters from their customers expressing anger and deep disappointment. They received more than 400,000 calls and letters.

Customers were harsh.

One letter called then CEO, “Chief Dodo, The Coca Cola Company”. Another letter asked for the CEO’s autograph, stating that the signature of “one of the dumbest executives in American business history” would likely become valuable in the future.

Some customers felt that Coke was a fundamental part of their identity.

Would you discount that?

No customer wants to pay full price.

If there’s no uniqueness, if they’re not emotionally invested, a customer’s natural fall back is price. And it’s true, none of those customers want to pay full price.

Does this means you can’t offer discounts then?

Discounts set the wrong tone for your business, but it’s not a deal breaker. In fact, Coca Cola still discounts their products. Apple discounts their products.

But there’s a why, when and how.

Their discounts aren’t based on desperation. And it’s not based on fear. Because what they have is one of a kind.

Because Apple’s iPhone is one of a kind.

Their business and product is unique. Their customers are invested. They’ve internalized everything Apple stands for. So they’re happy to pay full price.

When your customers are invested and your business is unique price is no longer the focus. Create the right structure and your business will be filled with customers eager to pay full price.

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Andrew McDermott is the co-author of Hook:Why Websites Fail to Make Money and co-founder of HooktoWin.com. His Free 5 day mini course shows entrepreneurs how to fix website failure and attract customers automatically.

Andrew McDermott

Photo by Tomasz Stasiuk CC BY

by Andrew McDermott | Featured Contributor

It’s 2004. Rachel and I have decided to start our own business and my aunt was completely and totally against the idea of Rachel marketing to new customers.

“Women just aren’t good at getting customers.” after sitting me down.

“If you allow Rachel to do this, the men you sell to won’t respect you Andrew. It’ll make it harder for the both of you to find success in your business.”

I didn’t see that coming.

For years my aunt talked about opening her own restaurant. She never got around to it, choosing instead to believe that it simply wouldn’t work. Her dream died before it got off the ground.

Who says women aren’t good at getting customers?

Women do apparently, and it’s more common than you’d expect. I certainly wasn’t new to sexism. But I was totally unprepared for the fact that sexism against women would come from…well…women.

When I pointed to other women I knew who were doing well, the response I got was usually something along the lines of “They’re the lucky ones” or “they’ve got a man behind them”.

But is it true women aren’t as good at it?

And why would gender be the defining factor that decided whether a person was good at getting customers or not? Are men actually superior to women when it comes to business?

What we’ve found is actually the opposite. A 2011 study by Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman found that women outscored men in all but one of the 16 competencies that top leaders exemplify.

The same kind of things women need to win customers.

Things like solving problems, driving for results, demonstrating technical or professional expertise, communicating powerfully and prolifically. Women outperformed men in every single category. Except one.

My aunt was wrong.

So what do women have that men don’t?

Women have two big advantages going for them. The interesting part about these is that for most women one of these advantages masquerades as a horrible downside.

Women are trained (from birth), to develop relationships.
Women over prepare because they know they’re expected to fail.

Women are trained (from birth), to develop relationships.

As a man I’ve been constantly bombarded with the message that it’s weak to show emotion. It’s weak to tell your buddies that you care about them and want to hang out. But women can do this freely, it’s what makes a woman’s ability to connect so powerful.

A woman can look at another person and see them for who they are. They can speak with empathy and honesty – building relationships quickly. That’s not the case for most men, so we end up with awkward encounters like this.

Women overprepare because they know they’re expected to fail.

3 of my 4 sisters are career women. One of them owns a general contracting company, another works for Zurich, and another works in a research lab.

And each one of them tells me about a few of their co-workers, bosses and clients they know who have this unspoken expectation.

“You’re here to look pretty and fill a seat. You’re unable to contribute or you can’t. “

Yikes.

At first glance this stings, it feels like you’re being rejected before you’ve even had an opportunity to try. Look closer and suddenly it’s an opportunity.

Heresy!

Hear me out. Women train themselves to be better, to do more, to go above and beyond what’s expected. They spend more time on personal development – they improve themselves and those around them. And as we’ve seen from the study, it’s working.

So how can women expose this stereotype as the lie it is?

By hearing and facing the expectations and beliefs people have about you.

Naysayers believe you won’t generate enough leads? Find new ways to generate more leads than you can possibly handle.
Do cynics believe nobody will buy your product? Talk to your target audience; figure out what they want, then sell it to them. Share your success with cynics every chance you get.
Are the prophets of doom telling you that you’ll eventually fail? Share your success whenever you can. Use it to build others up

Most importantly, master your craft. Find the customers who are willing and able to pay. Give them what they want, as often as they want it. Every target audience speaks a different language. Learn to speak your customer’s dialect fluently.

Wait a minute, some women really aren’t good at getting customers.

It’s true. Some women can’t market a product to save their life. Some men can’t either.

As an entrepreneur, you have two distinct advantages that, when used, give you a serious leg up on the rest of your competition. Use these gifts, do the work and you’re unstoppable.

Because women are better at getting customers.

The training, the social conditioning, all of the uphill battles you’ve fought. These struggles give you power. Because no matter what anyone else says, my aunt was wrong.

Have you ever been told outright that you’re not good enough? How did you handle it? I’d love to hear your story.

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