I’m sitting here on launch day (to my email list) for my Hope is not a Strategy course and you know what, there hasn’t been a single purchase yet.

Of course I sat around last night talking about how sales could work and running numbers.

Yes I even dreamed about selling out of all packages on day one.

Funny enough this great post from Seth Godin comes across my desk as well.

…while your intent is pure and your goal is to create magic, the most common mistake is to believe that the marketplace will agree with your good intent and support you.

I still feel like the course has way more to offer than it costs.

At this moment with no sales, so many questions about me are going around.

Have I really found a problem that other businesses are having?

Have I shown that I actually have expertise in this arena?

Have I wildly over estimated what others feel the material is worth?

and with clients

Sending estimates to clients used to be the same way with me.

I’d send an estimate and then sit around stressing about the targeting of the estimate.

Did the customer think my pricing was outrageous and totally out of line with the value I could provide?

Did they not like me?

I know that some of you are the same way when you send out estimates.

Not anymore

I don’t feel like that anymore though.

Now I’ve dug in to the value that the solution will provide to my client and state that value.

It took a long time to get that way though. Lots of estimates went out. Lots of trial and error.

You’ll get there too, just keep at it.

Focus on the value you provide to your client. Show them that you can provide the value and then tell them how much it’s going to cost for them to get the value desired.

photo credit: tijger-san cc

2 responses to “Does the market agree with you?”

  1. Jimmy Smutek Avatar

    Hey Curtis – you know, I was just sitting here reading your post and I had an interesting thought about value.

    My first inclination, as I read your post, was to reach out and assure you that I do, 100%, see the value in what you’re offering, and to tell you that if I had the cash flow there’s no question I would have purchased a package.

    I get that you understand that the lack of sales isn’t a reflection on you, but I still wanted to let you know that.

    For my part, I see the value based not only on your position, experience, and visibility in the WordPress world, but also – and probably more importantly – I see the value in your offering based on the persona that you convey through your writing style. I see you as a straight shooter, a straight talker, and maybe a bit of a hard ass, but in a compassionate way – a “I WANT YOU TO SUCCEED” kind of hard ass. Maybe hard ass wasn’t the right word – I see you as a person who won’t pull any punches in your quest to deliver value and help a person succeed and to be all that they can be. You don’t come off as one of these people who have their “business professional” persona, you come off as a real person.

    I’m not writing that to sound sappy, I am genuinely trying to convey to you where I see value in what you do, and why I follow your work. Does that make sense?

    On my end, with regards to the value prop, even a year in to being self employed, I am *still* so overwhelmed by all of the stuff that I have to learn, I am still so new to having to deal with all of the business stuff in addition to keeping up with all of the other tech and coding related stuff – everything that comes along with going from working for someone else to being a one man show…. I’m still at a point where I feel that your course, and having a mentor such as your self would be a god send.

    My wife is also self employed, she’s a photographer. She’s heading into her slow season and I’m in a bit of a lull. My most pressing concerns are business development at the moment and, though there’s some things possibly on the horizon, I don’t have a lot in the way of billable hours at the moment.

    Add to that 2 expensive equipment failures, my laptop and her flash system, and here we are today – moving money out of our tax account to temporarily cover groceries.

    So, obviously none of that is your problem, but what I am trying to convey is my position as a potential customer (skill level and business chops) vs. my business and financial position (kind of sucks at the moment).

    Which, brings me to my thought, hypothetical – I currently see myself squarely within your target audience, but I lack the funds to purchase your product – but, I wonder, if I were doing better, if I had a lot of business moving through and solid cash flow to pull from – would that change my value perception of your offering?

    You know what I mean? Like, I can’t afford it because right now we’re scraping by week to week – but, if I were in a position where I had the reserve cash to spend, then that would mean my business would be chugging along pretty nicely, I would probably feel a lot more confident, and would I still feel as if I needed to spend it on your business development course?

    Shit man, I’d like to say yes, but I don’t know the answer.

    Sorry if that was long, rambling or whatever. I read your post while waiting for regen thumbnails to run on a site and I figured I’d drop you a line. Hope that it serves as son food for thought or something.

    Thanks again for all that you do.

    – Jimmy

    1. Curtis McHale Avatar
      Curtis McHale

      Thanks for the words of encouragement Jimmy. Things do happen and cash was tight at my house this time last year as we replaced every major appliance in the house in 4 weeks.