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The Edge

The Edge

If you’re writing, speaking, recording, or otherwise marketing in some form and not causing your ideal target buyer to sit up and say, “Wow, that’s terrific—and very different,” then stop all that and reevaluate your approach.

To stand out in a landscape where millions of voices are shouting to be heard you need to say something distinctive not merely louder. No one is interested in hearing for the 450,000th time that leadership has to set an example, or that customers are key.

What they need to hear to be drawn to you is that customers have to be told what they need and leadership is about tough choices not vanilla consensus. You should fire some customers every year, and stop trying to save every employee.

I don’t tell people that value-based fees are smart and that billing by time units isn’t wise. I tell them that the only way to be paid in proportion to your worth is by value, and that hourly fees are unethical. Some people take umbrage. I don’t care.

If you’re afraid of offending people and looking to be popular, then you’re in the wrong business if you want to be successful. Randy Gage, an outstanding expert on prosperity, and I often commiserate that if we’re not being unfriended, unlinked, and unfollowed on a regular basis, we’ve simply lost our edge.

Your job is to provide the value that will improve your client’s condition, and to be paid commensurate with that value. I have two dogs who, apparently at least, love me.

But my clients pay me. And they know how to find me.

© Alan Weiss 2012. All rights reserved.

Written by

Alan Weiss is a consultant, speaker, and author of over 60 books. His consulting firm, Summit Consulting Group, Inc., has attracted clients from over 500 leading organizations around the world.

Comments: 1

  • Sean Davis

    September 13, 2012

    Very good read.

    So much in the past, I’ve felt like how many people like me is an indication of how good my work is. As time passes, I see the flaws in my logic. It seems that the better I get at doing what *I* do, the more people I rub the wrong way. I’ll take that over meaningless bliss anyday.

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