POPULARITY
5 episodes with commoditized
3 episodes with commoditized
2 episodes with commoditized
2 episodes with commoditized
2 episodes with commoditized
2 episodes with commoditized
In this episode, I dig into a question that's always lurking in the back of a portrait photographer's mind – what really makes light flattering? It's a term we all use, but what does it actually mean? Is it just about soft shadows and low contrast, or is it more about the connection between the subject and the photographer? I talk through this while reflecting on a busy week – from a stunning wedding at Head Saw House to a corporate shoot for Barclays, and a spontaneous portrait session that reminded me why I love this job. I also share some thoughts on the updated Mastering Portrait Photography book, which hits shelves in September, complete with fresh images and a whole new chapter on AI post-production. If you've ever wondered what makes a light truly flattering – and why it's about more than just the gear – this episode is for you. And as always, wherever you are and whatever you're doing, be kind to yourself. Cheers P. If you enjoy this podcast, please head over to Mastering Portrait Photography, for more articles and videos about this beautiful industry. You can also read a full transcript of this episode. PLEASE also subscribe and leave us a review - we'd love to hear what you think! If there are any topics, you would like to hear, have questions we could answer or would like to come and be interviewed on the podcast, please contact me at paul@paulwilkinsonphotography.co.uk. Transcript Well, as I sit here in the studio, the sun is shining in through the windows and it's been a beautiful, beautiful week. I started it with a trip down to Devon with the in-laws. One great thing about being married to Sarah, whose family are from Plymouth, there are many great things about being married to Sarah. But one of the ones, in terms of geography, at least, is her family still lived down in Plymouth, in Devon, by the sea. So it was absolutely glorious to spend a couple of days down there walking the dog, drinking a beer, enjoying the sunshine, and the sun is still shining here right now. And on that happy note, I'm Paul. I'm very much looking forward to a barbecue, and this is the Mastering Portrait
Stephen Dooley is Founder of Roamr, a corporate travel accommodation platform built for distributed teams. Merging insights from trust dynamics and the sharing economy, Stephen explains how a personal pain point led to an innovative travel solution rethinking cost structures and workplace needs. He shares how listening to customer feedback evolved the initial concept into a fresh approach to business travel that—being empathetic and practical—supports flexibility, connection, and culture while delivering measurable impact for businesses and employees alike. TAKEAWAYS [01:22] Stephen studies commerce aligning early interests in business and entrepreneurship. [01:45] A year abroad gives Stephen an exciting experience and global perspective. [03:11] The year studying in the US sparks Stephen's ambition and sharpens his interpersonal skills. [03:47] Graduate research initially focuses on financial technology and wealth management. [05:15] Stephen is interested in tech-related consumer psychology dynamics and adoption drivers. [06:25] The sharing economy reverses historical fundamental trust patterns and behaviors. [07:11] Younger consumers now influence their parents' tech-based adoption decisions. [08:34] Stephen takes a new role then the pandemic hits, requiring rapid learning. [09:28] A light bulb moment about new realities for travel, lifestyle and career compatibility. [09:47] A great workation opportunity is dashed by unaffordable accommodation. [10:42] Identifying remote work necessities reveal need for better infrastructure. [11:17] Location flexibility is widespread, but how to take advantage of new opportunities. [12:21] Societal tailwinds are behind Working From Anywhere and distributed work. [12:55] Roamr launches with an employee-focused offering home swaps for workations. [13:49] During customer discovery, many employers ask to apply the model to corporate travel. [14:20] Employees get alternatives to hotels, financially benefit, and firms save money. [14:52] Now business travel is more relationship-focused, so culture and collaboration benefits can outweigh reduced costs. [16:31] Travel expenses can be significant so more than 20% in savings is valuable. [17:09] Improved culture, engagement, and retention offer meaningful additional benefits. [19:21] More younger workers understand the Roamr concept and have much interest to connect and network. [20:09] Hosting income also helps employees towards meaningful financial goals. [21:04] Roamr aligns CFO cost savings priorities and CPO employee experience goals. [22:40] Global platform partners expand reach to over 100 countries. [24:31] Top talent understand their worth and if not offered flexibility will work elsewhere. [25:50] Finding the option(s) that work for each person—where is the middle ground? [28:08] Research revealed how taxi rides fostered long-term interactions. [28:46] Engineering connections by mapping users to have facilitated serendipity. [29:32] Adding personal networks to expand reach, connectivity, and flexible opportunities. [31:50] Employees can create and plan local events during work trips. [32:30] Visibility avoids missed connections among nearby remote coworkers. [33:15] Highlighting common interests to encourage sharing experiences while traveling. [34:11] In-person sales increase in relevance as AI outreach becomes oversaturated. [36:02] Commoditized business travel offers few incentives for employees to reduce costs. [37:15] Incentivizing smart booking combined with uplifts for culture and engagement. [37:47] Buffers in travel planning processes reveal hidden budget inefficiencies. [38:55] Roamr is a win-win choice – an optional, flexible alternative to hotels. [39:18] IMMEDIATE ACTION TIP – How can you think differently about business travel processes to avoid or reduce bloated costs? RESOURCES Stephen Dooley on LinkedIn Roamr's website QUOTES “What if we could make work from anywhere, work from everywhere?” “It's a platform that helps companies save 30% on their corporate travel accommodation and we do that by paying employees instead of hotels.” “We believe that's a way better way to build culture rather than a kind of team building awkward session in the middle of the office.” “So we're not just saying we want to save money. We actually want to make the experience better, more intentional, more engaging.” “How do we find a way to give some flexibility, but also bring teams together and make it work?” “Everybody can send a million emails now. How are we going to stand out? How we're going to build those relationships?”
The Twenty Minute VC: Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
Mike Krieger is the Co-Founder of Instagram and now CPO @ Anthropic. In Today's Episode with Mike Krieger We Discuss: 03:07 Where Will Value Be Created and Sustained in a World of AI? 04:59 Are Foundation Models Commoditised Today? 08:36 Should Founders Build for the Models of Today or Build for Models of the Future 12:19: Why Will Models Become More Different Than More Similar 16:38: Will Human or Synthetic Data Be More Prominent in the Future 19:28 Model Quality vs. Product UX 23:36 The Competitive Landscape of AI 32:27 Do We Underestimate China's AI Capabilities 33:59 What Did Anthropic Learn from Deepseek 34:07 Is Deepseek a Sustaining and Credible Threat? 37:04 Transitioning from Model Provider to Application Provider 38:26 Where Has Anthropic Chronically Under-Invested 39:08 Why Has Anthropic Been Slow On Consumer Product Development 43:50 What is the Role of a Software Developer in the Future 48:29 Balancing API and Consumer Products 51:09 Is Europe Stronger or Weaker in a World of AI 52:40 Quickfire Round: Insights and Reflections
Jack Martin speaks with Ari Galper, a renowned authority in trust-based selling. Ari shares his "One Call Sale." The post Trust-Based Selling as an Advisor in a Commoditized Market with Ari Galper (Ep. 77) first appeared on Simplicity InsurMark.
Episode 204 - Is your business a commodity Marketing Strategies to avoid being commoditized In this episode of the Marketing Guides for Small Businesses Podcast, we tackle the pressing issue of commoditization that many service-based businesses face. Hosts Ian Cantle, Ken Tucker, and Paul Barthel delve into why businesses struggle with becoming commoditized and how they can stand out in a crowded, competitive market. The episode offers actionable steps and strategies for differentiation, customer feedback, and leveraging technology to enhance your unique value proposition and secure lasting customer relationships. Key Learnings: Identifying Commoditization: Learn the early warning signs of commoditization such as price wars, customer churn, and lack of differentiation, and how these signs can impact your business.Importance of Differentiation: Discover why setting your business apart from competitors is crucial and how it prevents the risks associated with being viewed as a commodity.Practical Strategies for Differentiation: Explore actionable strategies to differentiate your service-based business, including productization, systematization, and understanding your ideal customer.Leveraging Technology: Gain insights on the key technologies, like CRM systems and analytics tools, that can help your business streamline operations, respond faster, and deliver an enhanced customer experience.Customer Feedback: Understand the role of customer feedback in identifying areas of improvement and discovering what your business does well, helping you to refine your services and increase customer loyalty. TAKE ACTION TODAY: If you found value in this episode, we encourage you to subscribe to the Marketing Guides for Small Businesses Podcast. Rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform to help us reach more listeners like you. Also, visit our website at https://marketingguidesforsmallbusinesses.com/ for free resources, more episodes, and links to set up free consultation calls with any of the hosts. Share our podcast with your colleagues, friends, and family. Keep calm and market on! GET IN TOUCH WITH THE MARKETING GUIDES: Ian Cantle of Dental Marketing Heroes and Outsourced Marketing Jeff Stec of Tylerica Marketing Systems Ken Tucker & Paul Barther of Changescape Web Solutions
Episode Summary: Susan Duke's entrepreneurial journey began in her mother's retail business, planting the seeds of her desire to own a business. Despite initially majoring in business administration, she found her true passion in English and history, eventually leading her to pursue a law degree. Her early legal career was fraught with challenges and a lack of mentorship, but she took a leap of faith to start her own law practice, which quickly became successful. Susan's experiences have taught her the importance of trusting her gut instincts, strategic financial planning, and fostering a strong company culture, all of which have shaped her resilient and adaptive entrepreneurial mindset. Here's what to expect this episode: Seeking mentorship and guidance from legal professionals is crucial for entrepreneurship success. Building a strong company culture and hiring based on values are key to maintaining a successful business. Believing in abundance rather than scarcity is important for long-term business growth and success. Financial planning and strategic growth are essential elements in building a successful law practice. Core values and Three Unique's can differentiate a business in a competitive market and shape its reputation and future growth. Connect with Susan Duke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-duke/ Connect with Stas Balanevsky: https://www.eosworldwide.com/stas-balanevsky
Anurag Arjun is the Co-founder Avail. Anurag's Twitter: https://twitter.com/anuragarjun Avail's Twitter: https://twitter.com/AvailProject Avail's Website: https://www.availproject.org/ Logan Jastremski's Twitter: @LoganJastremski Frictionless's Twitter: @_Frictionless_ Frictionless's Website: https://frictionless.fund/
Has Artificial Intelligence Destroyed the Creative Process? - Has Creativity Become Commoditized?
Today we delve into the leadership upheaval at Stability AI, Apple finally putting their cards on the table, the breadth of tools available for image and video generation, more ways to use LLMs to build micro apps, the release of numerous new models, and highlighting broader trends in the AI industry that may be rising to the surface. What might recent developments in the space reveal about the future of open source and centralized Ai? Are we headed toward a brighter, or much darker future? Find out in today's show. Links to check out Sora video generation (Link: https://tinyurl.com/2tmz8tt9) RunwayML (Link: https://runwayml.com/) Pika Labs (Link: https://pikalabs.org/) Stability Ai (Link: https://stability.ai/) Fountain.fm (Link: https://fountain.fm/) Host Links Guy on Nostr (Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney) Guy on X (Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann) Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann/) Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann) Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann) Bitcoin Audible on X (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible) Check out our awesome sponsors! Get 10% off the COLDCARD with code BITCOINAUDIBLE (Link: bitcoinaudible.com/coldcard) Swan: The best way to buy, learn, and earn #Bitcoin (Link: https://swanbitcoin.com)
Today we delve into the leadership upheaval at Stability AI, Apple finally putting their cards on the table, the breadth of tools available for image and video generation, more ways to use LLMs to build micro apps, the release of numerous new models, and highlighting broader trends in the AI industry that may be rising to the surface. What might recent developments in the space reveal about the future of open source and centralized Ai? Are we headed toward a brighter, or much darker future? Find out in today's show. Links to check out Sora video generation (Link: https://tinyurl.com/2tmz8tt9) RunwayML (Link: https://runwayml.com/) Pika Labs (Link: https://pikalabs.org/) Stability Ai (Link: https://stability.ai/) Fountain.fm (Link: https://fountain.fm/) Host Links Guy on Nostr (Link: http://tinyurl.com/2xc96ney) Guy on X (Link: https://twitter.com/theguyswann) Guy on Instagram (Link: https://www.instagram.com/theguyswann) Guy on TikTok (Link: https://www.tiktok.com/@theguyswann) Guy on YouTube (Link: https://www.youtube.com/@theguyswann) Bitcoin Audible on X (Link: https://twitter.com/BitcoinAudible) The Guy Swann Network Broadcast Room on Keet (Link: https://tinyurl.com/3na6v839) Check out our awesome sponsors! Fold: The best way to buy, use, and earn #Bitcoin on everything you do! Sats back on your debit card, gift cards, auto-buys, round-ups, you name it. Fold is the true bitcoiner's banking. Get 20K sats for FREE using referral code bitcoinaudible.com/fold Ready for best-in-class self custody? Get the Jade here and use discount code 'GUY' to get 10% off (Link: bitcoinaudible.com/jade) Trying to BUY BITCOIN? River, secure, trusted, bitcoin only, lightning enabled, simple. (Link: https://bitcoinaudible.com/river) Bitcoin Games! Get 10% off the best Bitcoin board game in the world, HODLUP! Or any of the other great games from the Free Market Kids! Use code GUY10 at checkout for 10% off your cart! (Link: https://www.freemarketkids.com/collections/games-1) Bitcoin Custodial Multisig Want to get into Bitcoin but not ready for self custody? Use custodial multisig for the best way to distribute trust across multiple institutions and even jurisdictions! Check out OnRamp. (Link: BitcoinAudible.com/onramp) Education & HomeSchooling Get the lesson in real economics that you never got in school, and teach your kids the truth, not the statist insanity that is Keynesia...
Struggling to compete on Amazon? Many sellers rush into competing with hot-selling products without realizing they're commoditized. This video by John Aspinall of My Amazon Guy explains how to identify commoditized products and develop winning strategies to stand out using branding. Learn why competing solely on price can be a race to the bottom. Discover effective tactics to thrive in the Amazon marketplace.#amazonfba #amazonseller #ecommerce #onlineselling #branding→ Use code STEVENPOPE6M20 and save 20% on your first 6 months of Helium 10!↳ https://bit.ly/3RTm5id→ Already have Helium 10? Get a special discount for upgrading your account!↳ https://myamazonguy.com/h10upgrade→ More reason to invest in Helium 10! ↳ https://myamazonguy.com/helium-10-service/Our Amazon Agency specialists here at My Amazon Guy are always on the lookout for the latest updates in Seller Central Amazon in order to better manage our clients' listings. Click here to know more:↳ https://myamazonguy.com/seller-central-amazon/-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Join My Amazon Guy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/28605816/Follow us:Twitter: https://twitter.com/myamazonguyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevenpopemag/Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/myamazonguys/Please subscribe to the podcast at: https://podcast.myamazonguy.comApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/my-amazon-guy/id1501974229Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4A5ASHGGfr6s4wWNQIqyVwTimestamps:00:00 - Introduction: Commoditized Products on Amazon00:52 - Identifying Commoditized Products01:35 - Standing Out with Branding for Commoditized Products01:53 - Competing on Price with Commoditized Products (Not Recommended)02:27 - Considering Costs Before Competing on Price02:50 - Conclusion: Don't Blindly Compete on PriceSupport the show
The Sales Management. Simplified. Podcast with Mike Weinberg
During Week 1 of the 2024 Sales Kickoff Meeting Season, one of Mike's clients included a live Q&A to conclude a virtual session. The questions from the salespeople and sales leaders were so good, and so different from what Mike is typically asked, he decided to share them (along with his answers) in this episode. You'll want to share this episode with your sales team! Take a listen for Mike's answers to these eight great questions: At what point do you move on to the next opportunity? How many NO's do you need to get before giving up, or how long do you continue to pursue a prospect who has stopped responding? How do we get your training to stick? What would you tell salespeople and managers to ensure that what you're teaching gets implemented…and makes an impact? How does using the business plan help the salesperson and manager set short-term and long-term goals, and also help to achieve those goals? How can your training (and approach) help our ecosystem develop both a better sales culture and also help us deliver a better customer experience? What is necessary for us to be successful going “upmarket” (selling solutions instead of hardware) and getting into higher-level customer contacts? After winning a deal and handing it off cleanly, how can we get salespeople back to selling instead of having them continuing to come back to make sure the project is moving and/or installed? What do you think is the number one sales sin of the Ugly 8 Reasons Sellers Get Viewed as Amateurs, Relegated to “Vendor” Status and Commoditized? Can you speak about the most resistant sales organization you have dealt with? Were you able to get them to change, and through that change, what was the outcome? Resources Referenced by Mike in Episode 68: The New Sales. Simplified. Video Coaching Series Ugly 8 Reasons Sellers Get Viewed as Amateurs, Relegated to “Vendor” Status and Commoditized (PDF) Mike's wife's irrational, but wonderful, response to her gorgeous new putter (blog post) A Foolproof Framework to Guarantee Consistent Deal Flow and a Full, Healthy Pipeline (podcast episode) 9 Powerful Reasons to Have Salespeople Write Individual Business Plans (podcast episode) 5 Fundamental Focus Areas for a Successful Sales Attack (podcast episode) This episode is sponsored by Pursuit Sales Solutions. If you looking for help adding A-player talent to your team, contact Mike's friends at pursuitsalessolutions.com/weinberg
Welcome back to another episode of the Natural Born Leader Podcast! Today I had a call with Abysuss (a member of GCP) and we had a great talk that I wanted to share with you guys. We talk about his journey, how he got started in this space, and some of his biggest breakthroughs since working with ClientAcquisition.io Thank you for listening Find Serge Gatari Here: Natural Born Leader Community | Instagram | YouTube | Twitter | ClientAcquisition.io
Greg Romanzo and his partners spent 17 years growing a freight forwarding business. As the company expanded to 200 employees, the partners faced a realization: their decisions now impacted 200 families. This responsibility became overwhelming, and they decided to sell.
“The world doesn't need another expert.” So says today's guest, Andrew Davis. Experts rely on hacks, tips, tricks, teaching, preaching, and over-promising. Visionary leaders a) tend not to call themselves that and b) focus on the quest for knowledge itself, with enough humility to admit what they don't know, or the problems they are exploring even while still in process. In today's conversation, you'll learn how to move past commoditized content toward launching a quest that builds trust and brings your audience along for the ride—while embracing digital doppelgängers to help you get there. More About Andrew: Andrew Davis is a bestselling author and internationally acclaimed keynote speaker. Recognized as one of the industry's "Jaw-Dropping Marketing Speakers," Andrew is a mainstay on global marketing influencer lists. Wherever he goes, Andrew Davis puts his infectious enthusiasm and magnetic speaking style to good use teaching business leaders how to grow their businesses, transform their cities, and leave their legacy. He is the author of Brandscaping, Town Inc., and The Referable Speaker.
For this in studio episode I am thrilled to welcome Fabio Carrara, founder and CEO at Brazilian renewable energy firm Solfacil, that has raised over $130m from the likes of QED, Fifth Wall, Softbank, VEF and Valor Capital. In today's episode we will discuss: 1. Window of opportunity: why market timing is everything? 2. The heat of the crowd: how to thrive in commoditized market? 3. Go slow to go fast: how to become an ecosystem player? 4. Solar space market in Brazil: market opportunity, key profit pools and obstacles to adoption. 5. First principles thinking: structured approach to disrupting complex markets. If you would like to get more insight from LatAm's leading tech founders and investors, subscribe to our new YouTube channel and follow us on Spotify or Apple. Follow Olga on LinkedIn or Instagram Olga is an entrepreneur, venture capital investor, mentor at Techstars and founder at The J Curve, Latin America's leading English speaking podcast about tech builders. She's been investing in the USA, SEA and Latin America for over 13 years. Companies she backed include tech unicorn ClassPass (acquired by Mindbody) and Vitalk (acquired by Gympass). --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/olgamaslikhova/message
In this insightful episode of Full Funnel Freedom, special guests Mike Wolf and JP Acosta from Delgado Stone Distributors are welcomed. The conversation unravels the strategies that have positioned Delgado Stone distinctively in a commoditized industry, underscoring the importance of exceptional customer service and a collaborative approach among sales, customer service, and marketing teams. What you'll learn: The innovative strategies Delgado Stone employs to differentiate in a commoditized industry. How an unwavering commitment to customer service and product integrity forms the cornerstone of Delgado Stone's success. The essence of synergistic collaboration among sales, customer service, and marketing teams. The pivotal role of technology in streamlining processes and fostering work-life integration. How a culture of learning from failure and genuine customer interactions underpin Delgado Stone's sales philosophy. Resources: -=+=-=+=--=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+= Free offer for listeners of the Full Funnel Freedom Podcast. It's incredibly frustrating as sales leaders when our sellers get a deal almost across the finish line, but can't quite push it to the finish, even though they've promised us that it's coming in real soon. We are offering a Free white paper on Three ways to get those sales across the line. To get this free, insightful report, visit us at fullfunnelfreedom.com/sputter -=+=-=+=--=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+= Full Funnel Freedom https://fullfunnelfreedom.com Sandler on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sandler_yyc/ Sandler in Calgary - www.hamish.sandler.com/howtosandler Connect with Hamish Knox on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hamishknox/ Sponsorship or guest inquiries - podcast@fullfunnelfreedom.com
Transforming the brand into a commoditized category requires strategic thinking, innovation, and a deep understanding of the market and consumer dynamics. To discuss this topic, Rich Kylberg, a former Arrow Electronics CMO, joins the podcast to explore some key insights and strategies that can help reshape the brand's role. Rich emphasizes the value of empowering others to do something great. You can help empower others by getting them into their goal without imposing the presumption of your goal upon them. It is important to hear Rich's insights on these strategies and learn about his experiences in transforming the role of a brand in a commoditized category, particularly within the context of Arrow Electronics.Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.monigle.com/
In my latest podcast episode, we explore a topic that is often overlooked but extremely important - community engagement. Small healthcare businesses often face marketing strategy gaps due to their over-reliance on SEO and an inconsistent online presence. Listen to the episode for valuable insights on how to harness the power of the community as a marketing tool.Linkedin Company: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nearsite Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joealexlemon/ IG: https://www.instagram.com/joealexlemon/ TikTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdF9f7hg/
Cisco Acquires Accedian and SamKnows https://twitter.com/willtowntech/status/1674446283858227201?s=46&t=W46jiq63kgn_RPDlW_rmJQ July Reminder: Don't Eat Dirty Data https://www.ibm.com/products/watsonx-governance AMD Epyc in Storage https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2023/06/23/research-note-oracle-launches-exadata-x10m/?sh=26db92f56a6e https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/06/21/2692088/0/en/AMD-EPYC-Embedded-Series-Processors-Power-New-HPE-Alletra-Storage-MP-Solution.html What a Mean AI Bot Can Do https://arxiv.org/pdf/2305.15324.pdf HPE Discover Recap https://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickmoorhead/2023/06/26/hpe-further-highlights-greenlake-on-prem-cloud-through-at-discover-event/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2023/06/22/hpe-extends-its-enterprise-naas-leadership-at-discover-2023/ https://twitter.com/MattKimball_MIS/status/1671289647769739264 https://twitter.com/MattKimball_MIS/status/1671218196236619776 https://twitter.com/MattKimball_MIS/status/1671295050670817280 https://twitter.com/willtowntech/status/1671874959356882944?s=46&t=W46jiq63kgn_RPDlW_rmJQ IBM's 1st Quantum Data Center in Europe https://newsroom.ibm.com/2023-06-06-IBM-to-Build-its-First-European-Quantum-Data-Center-to-Serve-Expanding-Ecosystem Infrastructure is not Commoditized https://www.forbes.com/sites/moorinsights/2023/06/30/analyst-quick-take-oracle-database-on-arm/?sh=6c3d50e26139 https://aibusiness.com/verticals/dell-hpe-lenovo-and-nvidia-tout-ai-hardware-solutions-to-enterprises- IonQ's Swiss Quantum Data Center https://investors.ionq.com/news/news-details/2023/IonQ-and-QuantumBasel-Partner-to-Achieve-Future-Quantum-Advantages-With-Deployment-of-Two-Generations-of-IonQ-Quantum-Systems-in-Europe/default.aspx Disclaimer: This show is for information and entertainment purposes only. While we will discuss publicly traded companies on this show. The contents of this show should not be taken as investment advice.
Guillaume Roux-Chabert from Interactive Brokers Singapore joins with Senior Portfolio Manager – Stefano Grasso, MBA, Enhanced Value Fund. Over 20 years of investing experience, most recently in commodity trading with Eni as head of the Singapore Office (APAC). Prior experience with McKinsey and Company in Milan and London. Disciple of Warren Buffett and passionate about value investing philosophy. Sponsor Information: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stefanograsso/ EVF@8vantedge.com
In this episode of my journal entries, I share one of my most popular presentations. A presentation that I gave to many businesses around the globe and at conferences from coast to coast. In this particular episode, I'm going to be sharing the audio from a webinar I did with the team at Metadata.io about how SaaS brands can win in commoditized markets. You know. Here's the biggest problem I see right now in our industry: Brands have forgotten that Content Marketing is a two word concept. As such… They've shifted their focus to creating content and that's it. Content. Content. Content. And absolutely no marketing. It's a shame. More organizations across SaaS need to be thinking like a media company. But I won't stop there…because, I'm sure you've heard that. I go on to say that SaaS brands need to embrace the idea of marketing at its core. Which means companies in the SaaS space need to think holistically about their marketing efforts. Not just creating blog posts and hitting publish for years on end. Blog posts should be the tip of the iceberg for your content marketing engine. A great content engine recognizes opportunities for research, development, press releases, and a great content engine will ultimately lead you to the conversations that you want to have with industry and global leaders. --- Follow Ross on YouTube Instagram Twitter Connect on LinkedIn
In this Their Story podcast episode, Michael Parisi and Sean Martin dig into the challenges and implications of compliance, cybersecurity, and the risk of commoditization in the industry. The conversation focuses on the importance of maintaining a strong security posture, the role of stakeholders, and the need for education among non-technical individuals, such as CFOs and board members, to prevent a race to the bottom in cybersecurity.Parisi's main concern is that compliance has become an outcome rather than a mission, and that cybersecurity could follow a similar path if we're not careful. With an increasing number of organizations turning to managed security service providers (MSSPs), the risk of commoditization looms large. Parisi and Martin also discuss the challenges posed by the "fog of more" in the cybersecurity landscape, with an overwhelming number of security solutions available and a potential race to the bottom in pricing.The conversation shifts to the role of stakeholders in preventing this downward spiral. Parisi argues that stakeholders have the power to save the industry, but only if they care enough and are adequately educated about the importance of cybersecurity. He believes that educating boards and business owners is crucial to creating more stakeholders with a genuine stake in the game.Note: This story contains promotional content. Learn more: https://www.itspmagazine.com/their-infosec-storyGuest:Michael Parisi, Head of Client Acquisition at Schellman [@Schellman]On Linkedin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-parisi-4009b2261/ResourcesLearn more about Schellman and their offering: https://itspm.ag/schellman9a6vFor more RSAC Conference Coverage podcast and video episodes visit: https://www.itspmagazine.com/rsa-conference-usa-2023-rsac-san-francisco-usa-cybersecurity-event-coverageAre you interested in telling your story?https://www.itspmagazine.com/telling-your-story
Are you tired of blending in with the competition? Want to know how to stand out and succeed in a commoditized industry?In this episode, we dive deep into the world of innovation and marketing with Peter Mann, Founder and CEO at Oransi, who shares his unique approach to thriving in a crowded market. Discover the secrets to connecting with customers on an emotional level, outsmarting your competition, and disrupting a commoditized industry.
In this Their Story podcast episode, Michael Parisi and Sean Martin dig into the challenges and implications of compliance, cybersecurity, and the risk of commoditization in the industry. The conversation focuses on the importance of maintaining a strong security posture, the role of stakeholders, and the need for education among non-technical individuals, such as CFOs and board members, to prevent a race to the bottom in cybersecurity.Parisi's main concern is that compliance has become an outcome rather than a mission, and that cybersecurity could follow a similar path if we're not careful. With an increasing number of organizations turning to managed security service providers (MSSPs), the risk of commoditization looms large. Parisi and Martin also discuss the challenges posed by the "fog of more" in the cybersecurity landscape, with an overwhelming number of security solutions available and a potential race to the bottom in pricing.The conversation shifts to the role of stakeholders in preventing this downward spiral. Parisi argues that stakeholders have the power to save the industry, but only if they care enough and are adequately educated about the importance of cybersecurity. He believes that educating boards and business owners is crucial to creating more stakeholders with a genuine stake in the game.Note: This story contains promotional content. Learn more: https://www.itspmagazine.com/their-infosec-storyGuest:Michael Parisi, Head of Client Acquisition at Schellman [@Schellman]On Linkedin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-parisi-4009b2261/ResourcesLearn more about Schellman and their offering: https://itspm.ag/schellman9a6vFor more RSAC Conference Coverage podcast and video episodes visit: https://www.itspmagazine.com/rsa-conference-usa-2023-rsac-san-francisco-usa-cybersecurity-event-coverageAre you interested in telling your story?https://www.itspmagazine.com/telling-your-story
Paul focuses on the challenge of selling value in a tough, competitive market. Show Notes It begins with attitude. If you believe your solution is the same as everyone else's, that's exactly what your customer is going to think. You must remind yourself that you are selling a unique, bundled package: the three dimensions of value (the company, the product, and you – the salesperson). There is no commodity in creativity. Creatively add value to the customer experience. Have you asked your customer this question: “What problems are you experiencing that I can help with?” Become customer-focused. View the world through the eyes of the customer. Did you enjoy the podcast? Go to Apple Podcasts to rate/review the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-q-and-a-sales-podcast/id1485103513. Click “Listen” then the “ratings and reviews” button. Visit www.ToughTimer.com to get started on the 30-Day Tough-Timer Challenge! Order your copy of Selling Through Tough Times from Amazon or Barnes & Noble! Click here to purchase the latest edition of Value-Added Selling! Interested in our public seminar offerings? Click here to learn more. *** Thank you for tuning in. Our show is updated weekly with the questions you ask. So, please go to the home page to ask the question that you want answered. Thank you to our production team at The Creative Impostor Studios. Be sure to follow our show in your favorite podcast app and share this episode with a colleague or friend. And most importantly...make it a big day.
In this episode, Cheryl and Scott discuss: The difference between being interested and being passionate How to know your biggest, most audacious dream Why we need to know ourselves and our gifts Potential energy and kinetic energy Key Takeaways: There's a world of a difference between being interested in something and having a burning desire for it. The first step to making your dream come true is to make sure that you truly are passionate about it. Figure out the biggest, most audacious dream that you can have by giving yourself two minutes to write down all the scary things you've wanted to do. Narrow down that list to three and then choose one. Understanding ourselves is key to identifying our superpower and bringing our best selves and best gifts to work every single day. Nothing happens until you take action. By preparing, planning, and motivating yourself for your audacious goal, you've stored up potential energy. Taking action is what releases that energy and puts you in momentum toward the direction of where you want to be. “You can not outperform your self-image.” — Scott Carley Read, “Who Not How” by Dan Sullivan, Benjamin Hardy: https://www.amazon.com/Who-Not-How-Accelerating-Teamwork-ebook/dp/B0867ZJ151 Book a call with Scott by clicking on this link: https://calltheenergizer.com Connect with Scott Carley: Website: https://scottcarley.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scott.carley Twitter: https://twitter.com/SACarley Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sacarley/ Get in Touch with Cheryl: Website: www.cherylknows.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwvWKXBC6fKn1dLGY11hxIg Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dynamiteproductionsinc LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cherylknowlton/ Show notes by Podcastologist: Justine Talla Audio production by Turnkey Podcast Productions. You're the expert. Your podcast will prove it.
In this episode, we sat down with Mr. Will Harris of White Oak Pastures. In this discussion, Will shares the pivotal agricultural shift that took place after World War II along with his own transition from conventional to regenerative farming in the mid-1990s. We also covered the benefits of having an on-farm USDA-inspected processing plant, the radical transition of Bluffton, Georgia, and the interconnected nature of the pharmaceutical and pesticide industries.Find White Oak PasturesInstagram // @whiteoakpasturesWebsite // whiteoakpastures.comNon-profit // Center for Agricultural ResilienceDocumentary // Food and CountryFind HomegrownInstagram // @homegrown_education, @lizhaselmayer, @joeyhaselmayerWebsite // homegrowneducation.org
Seems like everybody is selling the same digital marketing products. And that makes them low-margin commodities. Gordon & Corey wonder if it's time for media companies to go back to doing what they do best -- selling higher-margin O&O inventory. They get some insight from omnichannel marketing expert Oliver Jacob, president of Frequence.
Eric Siu shares how marketing is becoming harder but why it's actually a good thing. Tune in to find out! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:00] - Marketing is becoming harder [00:47] - Diversify your creatives [01:02] - How to maximize your data to launch successful marketing campaigns [01:25] - Diversify your channel, here's what it means [01:45] - Becoming a T-shaped marketer What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review here Subscribe to Leveling Up on iTunes Get the non-iTunes RSS Feed Connect with Eric Siu: Growth Everywhere Single Grain Leveling Up Eric Siu on Twitter Eric Siu on Instagram Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sky Cassidy founded and runs MountainTop Data, a data company that sells leads -- but differentiates by selling 1) guaranteed lead quality 2) a la carte: that is, you buy (not rent) a certain number of leads without an ongoing contract commitment. Seems simple, but that's the beauty of it. We talked about some of the practices in his industry, and the large competitive white space some major competitors have constructed for him. Thanks, Sky! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In the sixth episode of our second season, we sat down with Dr. Pitamber "Pitou" Devgon, co-founder of Velano Vascular, active angel investor, and Lecturer at the Wharton School of Business. We discussed the origins of Velano Vascular's central PIVO™ technology, the importance of collecting insightful data to de-risk early ventures, innovation through acquisition, and much more. Founded in 2012, Velano Vascular set out to transform the patient experience with PIVO™, a needle-free blood collection device. After inventing this breakthrough technology, Pitou led Velano Vascular's growth through eventual acquisition by BD in 2021.
Read: https://thebusinessengineer.org/posts/ai-moats
No and low code tools continue their explosion of growth. They are becoming more specialized and capable. I believe this to be because software engineering has been the bottleneck on development teams for some time. While custom engineering isn't going anywhere, the future of the role is likely to change. Let's talk about the opportunities that might create for product teams.If you want to find product-market fit faster, sign up for my free 5 day email course here - https://nxtstep.io/fitEpisode TranscriptHey folks, Sean here and today what I want totalk to you about is why I think software engineeringas a skill set is becoming slightly more commoditized andwhat that might mean for product teams everywhere.So I'm sure my product teams arefairly familiar with this, but for thelongest time now, the biggest bottleneck productdevelopment has typically been the engineering component.As in it takes the longest amount oftime in order to go from our designsand our required experiments to actually getting thosefeatures and functionality into the application itself.As such, over time, a significant amount ofresources have been placed here trying to figureout how to do so faster.And there's been all kinds of invented models andnew tools that have come to market, enabling usto be able to speed this process up.Here everything from the Lean Startup kind of revolutionall the way to and through what is commonlyreferred to as no code or low code platforms,which I've dived into and pretty significantly as well.Also I've leveraged them for a numberof my client projects and we've builtsome pretty comprehensive and impressive products usingsome of these platforms like Bubble. Bubble.IO is kind of an ecosystem, if you will, ofbeing able to build almost an entire application, if notan entire application, that has the look and feel ofbeing able to be pretty significantly customized, but is largelya no code or low code platform, meaning that youdon't really need to write significant amount or really anycode at all in order to create the kind ofexperience that you're looking for.Which again, if you are heavy with tuning intosome of my content, you'll understand how important Ifeel that that is for us and our roleas product leaders to make sure that the experiencethat our product ultimately delivers is optimal and matchesessentially solving the customer's top problems and pain points.So because that's the area of focus, it's reallyimportant if we have an opportunity to place mostof our resources and focus there because that's ultimatelywhat we're doing on the back end in termsof how the technology works.And self admittedly, I'm an engineer myself and I havea lot of respect for the work that engineers do.However, having said that, recognizing the fact thatit has been the bottleneck, these applications havegrown significantly in that their popularity has grownpretty aggressively because this has continued to bea challenge for product teams, especially when lookingto do something new or create new featuresand functionality and want to speed up theproduct development production process.These tools have enabled us to be ableto do that and that pattern continues.Very recently, I've read about a productcalled cumul.io, which has raised Series Aover $10 million very recently.And that is a tool that enablesyou to incorporate some essentially more advancedanalytics and bi type tools for businessintelligence capabilities into SaaS platforms.But to do so yet again as a low code platform,which is pretty advanced capabilities as it pertains to low codeor no code platforms, but an all important one because stillyet a bottleneck on the demand side is how do weprocess and get the best type of information out of allof the data that we have now?Because there's an overwhelming amount of data inthe world and not enough processing power orcapabilities to really better understand and extract informationfrom it, which is typically the desire.So products like Familio which are specialized,and bubble which are more generic, areproviding us with essentially an ecosystem worthof options when it comes to building.Now, there's still a placeobviously for custom engineering, right?If you need a product to scale as aggressively assomething heavy like a salesforce or a HubSpot or somethinglike that, your NoCode platform is not typically going tobe able to handle that type of volume, at leastnot yet, and may be able to do so eventuallyif this pattern and trend continues.But for now, your custom engineering will enableyou to benefit from operational efficiency at scale.However, before you get there, when you're tryingto experiment and you're trying to test newproducts and things like that, if you wantto speed up the product development process.So far the trend has been no code andlow code platforms seem to be here to stay.They continue to be able to raise money,they continue to be adopted by product developmentteams and they continue to enable teams tomove faster in the development cycles.So what I'm trying to explain for you here isthat how I see this pattern developing over the pastfew years and where I think that it's going andthen I want to talk more about what I thinkthat means for developing product teams and the changes thatmight become so if this trend continues.What it will mean for product teams, in my opinion,is that as I've thought about how it gets brokendown before in terms of responsibilities on a product team,I usually do so in three different ways.I would put the what we are intending to build andwhy we are intending to build it into the product category.So product managers and product peoplewho are interacting with customers andusers to do research and discovery.It's our responsibility to figure out what the priorityis, to build what the problems we're solving are,where the obvious unmet needs are those types ofthings, and then work with our engineering or developmentteams in order to prioritize those for development, whichI would consider to be the how.As in how are we going to capitalize on thatopportunity, how are we actually going to build that, howare we going to bring that experience to market?So that's where I draw the line most of thetimes, the what and the why lives on the productside, the how lives on the engineering side.What I'm continuing to see more of, especiallyin the early stages of this work, isthat the how is becoming more commoditized.And I think that is happening because it's, forquite a while now, continue to be the bottleneck,as in folks have wanted to move faster.Everything else is accelerating, yet that'swhat's taking the most time.So much of the innovation has gone into that spacein terms of figuring out how to speed it up.And I think that's where we're seeing alot of this development come from in termsof low code and no code platforms.As such, over time, I could see teams changing tobe less engineering focused, more product focused, as in thenew bottleneck, which I think is still something that doesn'thappen all that efficiently, if at all.On a lot of product teams is the research anddiscovery aspect, which I would argue a bias to yourcourse because now my heavy focus is product.But I still think that is one ofthe most important, if not the most importantway that product teams can achieve success today.You have to get with your customers, you haveto spend time with your users, and you haveto better understand where the opportunities are.So refining that process and making that process moreefficient will ultimately make it more effective, which willenable your team, as part of the next phase,to move even faster in terms of success.So I just wanted to share these trends withyou and that this is what I have continuedto see and I think it's going to continueto follow this pattern for the foreseeable future. Free Email CourseHow to Build a Profitable AI-Powered B2B SaaS Business for Less Than $750Notes generated by Podcast Show Notes (podcastshownotes.ai)
In this episode, Blaine talks about the 2 biggest factors that cause the commoditization of an industry, and the 3 warning signs that its happening. Learn also how to take advantage of a market or an industry where the products and services are considered to be a commodity and chosen based primarily on price! Be at the top of the Appraisal business game!
In this bonus episode, Eric and Kostas preview their upcoming live stream episode featuring Willem Pienaar of Tecton and Tristan Zajonc of Continual.
Michael Girdley (@Girdley) and Bill D'Alessandro (@BillDA) talk about two cool deals relevant to holiday vacations: A ski rental in Colorado and a fireworks store in Oklahoma. Both are traditional-type businesses. We get to determine if these crazy, fun deals are indeed interesting in terms of real estate captures, scales, wholesales, moats, and if the risk would be worth expanding the businesses.-----Thanks to our sponsors!* Guardian Due Diligence is the diligence solution for first-time buyers and self-funded searchers.You should be able to acquire a business with the comfort that the numbers are solid and the seller is not fooling you. Your lenders and equity partners want and need the same.Guardian's Quality of Earnings reports give you this confidence.Contact Elliot Holland at eholland@guardianduediligence.com-----Show Notes:(00:00) - Introduction(00:53) - Our sponsor is Guardian Due Diligence(02:09) - Deal 1: Ski rental shop for sale(04:21) - Financials and price: Do they make sense?(05:09) - What makes this deal catch the eyes of the buyer?(08:07) - What are the retail risks of the deal? What is the key factor to this deal?(09:27) - The value captures from Real Estate: How to protect yourself as a buyer?(12:39) - What are the limitations of this Deal? How does the location act as a limit for this business?(13:56) - The Deal's trap: Think about the lifestyle choice(20:17) - Deal 2: Fireworks business(22:54) - Why would we say the seller has 2 operations?(24:13) - What about the retail part of the business?(24:42) - The situation for wholesale: Should we consider it valuable?(25:59) - What are the growth opportunities here?(28:11) - What are the regulations and permitting requirements if you want to add another business to the store? Is it worth entering risky retail markets?(31:08) - Commoditized product risk: defendable or vulnerable?(32:25) - Moats, scale, and building a defensible business-----Links:Guardian Due Diligence offers free reviews of LOIs and company valuations at www.OfferFromElliott.comhttps://www.bizbuysell.com/Business-Opportunity/Seasonal-Ski-and-Snowboard-Rental-Repair-and-Sales-Shop-in-SW-CO/1937618/https://www.businessbroker.net/business-for-sale/fireworks-premier-seasonal-business-oklahoma/504864.aspx-----Additional episodes you might enjoy:#106 A Pet Product and Saas business for sale. Which one do we like?#105 How to Make Money in the E-Commerce Game - Bill D'Alessandro gives an e-Commerce masterclass - part 1#79 What do Investors want? - Dig into an investor's mind with Bradford Hardin#75 SBA Loan Secrets with Heather Endresen, expertise from a Billion-Dollar Loaner
Michael Girdley (@Girdley) and Bill D'Alessandro (@BillDA) talk about two cool deals relevant to holiday vacations: A ski rental in Colorado and a fireworks store in Oklahoma. Both are traditional-type businesses. We get to determine if these crazy, fun deals are indeed interesting in terms of real estate captures, scales, wholesales, moats, and if the risk would be worth expanding the businesses.-----Thanks to our sponsors!* Guardian Due Diligence is the diligence solution for first-time buyers and self-funded searchers.You should be able to acquire a business with the comfort that the numbers are solid and the seller is not fooling you. Your lenders and equity partners want and need the same.Guardian's Quality of Earnings reports give you this confidence.Guardian Due Diligence offers free reviews of LOIs and company valuations at www.OfferFromElliott.com Contact Elliot Holland at eholland@guardianduediligence.com-----Show Notes:(00:00) - Introduction(00:53) - Our sponsor is Guardian Due Diligence(02:09) - Deal 1: Ski rental shop for sale(04:21) - Financials and price: Do they make sense?(05:09) - What makes this deal catch the eyes of the buyer?(08:07) - What are the retail risks of the deal? What is the key factor to this deal?(09:27) - The value captures from Real Estate: How to protect yourself as a buyer?(12:39) - What are the limitations of this Deal? How does the location act as a limit for this business?(13:56) - The Deal's trap: Think about the lifestyle choice(20:17) - Deal 2: Fireworks business(22:54) - Why would we say the seller has 2 operations?(24:13) - What about the retail part of the business?(24:42) - The situation for wholesale: Should we consider it valuable?(25:59) - What are the growth opportunities here?(28:11) - What are the regulations and permitting requirements if you want to add another business to the store? Is it worth entering risky retail markets?(31:08) - Commoditized product risk: defendable or vulnerable?(32:25) - Moats, scale, and building a defensible business-----Links:Guardian Due Diligence offers free reviews of LOIs and company valuations at www.OfferFromElliott.comhttps://www.bizbuysell.com/Business-Opportunity/Seasonal-Ski-and-Snowboard-Rental-Repair-and-Sales-Shop-in-SW-CO/1937618/https://www.businessbroker.net/business-for-sale/fireworks-premier-seasonal-business-oklahoma/504864.aspx-----Additional episodes you might enjoy:#106 A Pet Product and Saas business for sale. Which one do we like?#105 How to Make Money in the E-Commerce Game - Bill D'Alessandro gives an e-Commerce masterclass - part 1#79 What do Investors want? - Dig into an investor's mind with Bradford Hardin#
For more than 25 years, Robert has helped marketing leaders balance the art and science of marketing, and tell their story more effectively. Over the last ten years, Robert and his firm, The Content Advisory, have advised more than 500 companies, including 15 of the Fortune 100. Robert has served as the Chief Strategy Advisor of The Content Marketing Institute since its launch in 2010 and, helped guide it to be the leading global content marketing education and training organization. Robert was CMO of CrownPeak – leading the marketing and product development of one of the world's first enterprise Software-as-a-Service web content solutions. Robert is the author of three best-selling books on marketing and content strategy and is the co-host of the popular marketing podcast This Old Marketing, which has been downloaded more than two million times in 150 countries. What you will learn about in this episode: How we can use the “what's next” idea for more effective forward-thinking What is the “Smile Strategy,” and why is it important in business development Ways to put into practice the “So I can” methodology Ways we can get our clients to perceive us as strategic advisors How we can achieve the “land and expand” instead of being commoditized Resources: Website: www.contentadvisory.net LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robrose/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/tcadvisory YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsmqoUbLSGHd3JZQA1LnyuA
I'm excited to have Daisy McCarty on the show today so she can give us some insight into branding, messaging, and how to set yourself apart from the crowd. Daisy is a branding and marketing strategist and FCO of the Marketing Blender. In this episode, she gives us her take on the dental marketing scene so we can gain insight into what we might be missing (especially when it comes to branding) and where we can step up our game. Check out the show notes for more information!
The Sales Management. Simplified. Podcast with Mike Weinberg
Mike pulls no punches wrapping up this mini-series covering the Ugly 8 Common Reasons Sellers Get Relegated to Vendor Status and Commoditized. Buckle up as Mike takes on salespeople who are either insecure about price or too quick to make it about price (Reason #7). The blunt #SalesTruth is that THE JOB of a professional salesperson is to justify the difference between our premium pricing and the lower price of a competitor. That. Is. Our. Job. Mike confronts sellers who whine that if their price was lower they would sell more with the reality that if they had the best price then we probably wouldn't need them! Companies who are the low-price leader don't deploy highly compensated salespeople, do they? Mike also reminds sellers that the SALES STORY is your most critical weapon and when your story (messaging) is boring, confusing, or self/company/product-focused (Reason #8) and doesn't articulate the issues you/your solution address and the outcomes you achieve for customers, it is almost impossible to be perceived as a value-creator, advisor, or consultant. But when your sales story is great, everything changes and everything about sales becomes easier. Due to the overwhelming response to this series, Mike is hosting a free Q&A session to take your toughest questions around these common Ugly 8 Reasons sellers get downgraded in the customer's eyes and treated like just a vendor or commodity seller. Register for that Q&A session at mikeweinberg.com/QandA This episode was brought to you by the New Sales. Simplified. Video Coaching Series. If you're looking to achieve breakout success in 2022 and create more opportunities and close more sales than ever before, check out the year-end special on Mike's best work to help salespeople Win More New Sales.
Are architectural services commoditized? Here's the problem: it isn't uncommon for clients to undervalue architectural services, to undervalue what it is that we do. And when they don't value it, they don't want to pay for it. This leads to a race to the bottom and unrealistic and hard to meet expectations of clients. Today I'm joined by Rion Willard. After training at London's Bartlett School of Architecture and a successful career as an architect, Rion Willard joined the Business of Architecture team. Rion is the Director of Consulting and Business Transformation here at Business of Architecture. In this episode, you'll discover 3 reasons why architectural services get commoditized, and what you can do to prevent it so you are respected and compensated for your creative work. ► Access your free training at http://SmartPracticeMethod.com/ ► If you want to speak directly to our advisors, book a call at https://www.businessofarchitecture.com/call ► Subscribe to my YouTube Channel for updates: https://www.youtube.com/c/BusinessofArchitecture ******* For more free tools and resources for running a profitable, impactful, and fulfilling practice, connect with me on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/businessofarchitecture Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/enoch.sears/ Website: https://www.businessofarchitecture.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/BusinessofArch Podcast: http://www.businessofarchitecture.com/podcast/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/business-architecture-podcast/id588987926 Android Podcast Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/BusinessofArchitecture-podcast ******* Access the FREE Architecture Firm Profit Map video here: http://freearchitectgift.com Download the FREE Architecture Firm Marketing Process Flowchart video here: http://freearchitectgift.com Come to my next live, in-person event: https://www.businessofarchitecture.com/live Carpe Diem!
The Sales Management. Simplified. Podcast with Mike Weinberg
In this installment of the Ugly 8 Reasons WHY SELLERS GET RELEGATED TO “VENDOR” STATUS & COMMODITIZED series, Mike challenges you to… Take a hard look at how you are executing what might be the most critical aspect of selling – The Sales Call and whether you are Presenting or Demo-ing PREMATURELY Evaluate the potential damage caused by conducting ineffective sales calls and committing sales malpractice by presenting before doing proper discovery work Consider that maybe the reason you don't stand out from your competition and get lumped in with everyone else and commoditized is because you look, dress, sound, and act like every other salesperson We in sales often confuse presenting with selling. “Presenting” is not a synonym for selling. Most of us typically present too much and too soon – often way too soon. Just because a prospect asks us for a demo or to come in and present a capabilities overview, that doesn't mean it's the right time to do it or even the right thing to do. “Spray and pray” is not an effective sales methodology and when we present or demo prematurely, it's almost impossible to be seen as a trusted advisor or respected consultant. After breaking down the common causes of ineffective sales calls, Mike offers his favorite, simple, powerful way to verbally set up the meeting, share your agenda, get the customer's input and buy-in that not only puts you firmly in control but also removes the awkward adversarial dynamic where it feels like we are pitching and the prospect is resisting. The episode concludes with an entertaining and memorable sales lesson from Jerry, the kooky kitchen remodel contractor who won Mike's business by standing out from the competition. Instead of playing with graph paper and thumbing through cabinet brochures, listen to how Jerry differentiated his approach and deployed excellent discovery work (including cutting a hole in the drywall without permission) to win over Mike and his wife. Sales Friends, the bottom line on Episode 18 is this: LAME + SAME = VENDOR/COMMODITY SELLER Take a listen for practical tips on how to be bold, break the mold, and come across like professional problem-solvers, consultants and value-creators! Be sure to download the free guide that accompanies this series from mikeweinberg.com/ugly8 Mike mentioned a special on the New Sales. Simplified. Video Coaching Series. to help you have breakthrough success in 2022. Check it out here: https://mikeweinberg.com/morenewsales/
On this week's PRQL, Kostas and Eric preview their upcoming conversation with Ciaran Dynes of Matillion.
The Sales Management. Simplified. Podcast with Mike Weinberg
This series will help you identify which of the common Ugly 8 Sales Sins might be derailing your/your sales team's sales effort and preventing potential clients from viewing you/your team members as the consultant, value creator, trusted advisor you so badly want to be. Be sure to download the free guide that accompanies this series from mikeweinberg.com/ugly8 In this hard-hitting episode, Mike holds up a mirror for you and explores the first two UGLY 8 Reasons WHY SELLERS GET RELEGATED TO “VENDOR” STATUS & COMMODITIZED. 1. They Arrive Late to the Party (last to a sales opportunity) Discover the perils from living in reactive mode that often result in sellers being late to the sales party/last to an opportunity where it becomes infinitely harder to to bring value or be perceived as a consultant. It's no fun “chasing” the opportunity when your prospect has already formed their buying criteria – or worse, they're following the lead of your more proactive competitor who wasn't stuck in reactive mode, but instead was proactively working the prospect finding ways to create an opportunity. Being forced to play the already in-progress game is not only not fun, it often dooms you to vendor status while your competitor's salesperson smugly sits in the consultant/advisor chair. When you're last to the opportunity it's very hard to stand out and get attention unless your price is much lower. LATE often = COMMODITIZED. 2. They Lead with Product (or their service/solution) So many salespeople lead with their offering and put and their solution front and center – making it the focus of the sales conversation. While this practice is common it's often deadly. Leading with our product/service/offering/solution instead of the customer's issues and desired outcomes makes a loud, clear statement to customers that we care more about what we sell than addressing their issues/needs/desires. It is a surefire way to get commoditized because it's almost as if we are telling the prospect that neither our company nor the salesperson brings any value to the equation and they should simply take our features and pricing and put them on a spreadsheet to compare to everyone else's. Sales Friends, in this series Mike is requesting that you open your ears, eyes, and mind, and put your ego aside. Take a listen, download the Ugly 8 Guide, and determine which of these sales sins is potentially hurting your effectiveness, margins, win-rates, and results.
The Sales Management. Simplified. Podcast with Mike Weinberg
This brief series kickoff episode is classic Weinberg with simple, blunt observations about what works and what doesn't when it comes to developing new business. In introducing this series, Mike comes out swinging to set the stage for tackling one of the biggest challenges facing salespeople and sales teams today - getting downgraded in the customer's eyes and perceived as just a “vendor” instead of the value-creator, consultant, professional problem-solver, and trusted advisor we so badly want them to be. Mike was inspired to do this short series based on the feedback and reaction from sales leaders who wrestled with this topic at recent Supercharge Your Sales Leadership events where he shared these… 8 Common Reasons that Salespeople Get Viewed as Just “Vendors” and Commodity Sellers: 1. They Arrive Late to the Party (last a sales opportunity) 2. They Lead with Product (or their service/solution) 3. They Conduct Lame Sales Calls and Premature Presentations 4. They Look, Sound & Smell Like Every Other Salesperson (same, same, same) 5. They Play Order-Taker, Do Whatever Customers Request, and Don't Own Their Process 6. They Aim Too Low in the Customer Organization 7. They're Insecure About Price or Too Quick to Make It About Price 8. They Can't Tell the Story (ineffective, self/product/company-focused messaging) We are creating a free, downloadable handout and slides to use with your sales team that will be available with subsequent episodes in this series. Mike's hope is that you can use these episodes and the accompanying material as “mirror” to help your team members identify which of these common issue may be damaging their own sales efforts and how customers perceive them. Enjoy this kickoff episode and encourage your sellers who would benefit from a wake-up call on this topic to listen as well. Here's to great sales leadership and helping our salespeople upgrade from “vendor/supplier/commodity seller” status to value creator!
This week we had on Vinay Iyengar (@VinIyengar) of Two Sigma Ventures. Two Sigma is a multi-strategy fund that invests from seed to Series B across a number of industries. Vinay helps lead up the San Francisco office, and he focuses on early-stage investments in enterprise software, machine learning, marketplaces, and infrastructure. In this talk, we discuss: Why now is the golden age to start a business Implications and second order effects of software becoming commoditized Ways to demystify the job search process
Visit out website: https://sowhatisyourpoint.com
What do you do to keep going? How do you avoid the trap of quick money and the long term cost of taking shortcuts now? How do you keep your people happy and your business profitable as you grind away while at the same time work to create something meaningful for everyone involved? Join me as I speak with Erik Hytonen as he shares his journey. Like all of us, there are unique lessons and experiences Erik's acquired over time, and he shares what's worked and what hasn't. What's kept him going and what he had to get out of his way if he was to succeed as a leader in this changing environment and highly commoditized industry. Follow Erik Hytonen on Linkedin Mobile Eco Detailing Specialists
How do you become more than just another agent? Carey Ann, Monte and Jason talk with Coach Bill Maddox, Chief Executive Officer at bluedress INTERNET MARKETING® about the ways you can make yourself stand out from the growing crowd of agents in and around Middle Tennessee. ****You can listen to this and all recent episodes at: www.talkmusiccity.com We Educate and Motivate All Things Real Estate! Have a question about buying/selling real estate and mortgages? Email questions@talkmusiccity.com or use #talkmusiccity to get your question answered! The Talk of Music City Real Estate is sponsored by Music City Removal: www.musiccityremoval.com A few things that came up: -The virtue of reinventing yourself - BILL This real estate market is different than the others before it 6:00 - BILL it's always a challenge trying to get someone's attention 7:00 - BILL Slow down and ask, "what am I really good at?" 9:50 - BILL you're going to have be comfortable getting uncomfortable 11:25 - BILL you must find a way to be different than your contemporaries 13:00 - JASON find your story and communicate it 13:25 - JASON people value service and customer service is in short supply 13:55 - BILL know what your strengths are, not before you get up to bat 15:25 - JASON you have to embrace the notion of reinventing yourself 16:40 - CA challenge yourself to do something you've never done 18:15 - BILL commit to your industry 20:45 - BILL everything we do is an exchange of time and energy 21:50 - BILL ask a lot of questions and don't be afraid of looking like a fool 22:35 - BILL getting into video was scary for him 23:30 - CA be as creative as you can 25:00 - BILL today there is no box, don't worry about being inside it 26:00 - BILL use landing pages 27:15 - BILL a strategy is just a plan defined 30:10 - CA take the time to show how you're a specialist in something 32:25 - CA execution is most important 32:45 - BILL put your ego aside and have the courage to try something 36:25 - BILL the only thing holding us back is ourselves 39:00 - BILL landing page offer $399 Follow Bill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-r-maddox-98232285/ https://bluedressinc.com/ __________________________________________ Carey Ann Cyr manages and operates one of the Top Branches for CMG Financial in Franklin, TN. She and her team have become known for closing nearly impossible deals! They have processed over 300 million in mortgages since 2016 with over 613 families ushered into their dream homes! Contact Carey Ann: www.yourtnlendingsolution.com Monte Mohr owns Realty One Group Music City and has sold over $1 Billion dollar's worth of real estate and over 3000 homes sold over his 30+ year career! Interested in joining Monte as an agent? www.topagentsuccess.com The Talk of Music City Real Estate is Produced, Voiced and Edited by www.jimmccarthyvoiceovers.com
Standing out in today's market is more critical than ever. Distributors can't just lean on product know-how and great customer service to differentiate. They have to go deeper. In this episode of Wholesale Change, Peter Neuberger, President and CEO of United Performance Metals, joined Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein to talk about how the distributor has built a successful value-added services model in the highly commoditized metals service center industry. Peter Neuberger has been in senior leadership roles over the last 30 years for a variety of manufacturing and distribution companies across industrial supply, building products and metals sectors. He is currently CEO of United Performance Metals, an ONI company. UPM is a global specialty metal service center company headquartered in Cincinnati, OH.
Michel Tricot is the CEO and Co-Founder of Airbyte, the new open-source data integration platform that syncs data from applications, APIs, and databases to data warehouses. In 2020, he co-founded Airbyte, the new open-source ELT (extract, load, transform) standard for replicating data. After only five months, Airbyte raised $5.2M in seed funding from Accel, YCombinator, 8VC, and some high-profile business angels, including the co-founder of Segment, the former GM Cloudera, and the co-founder of Liveramp and Safegraph. 600+ companies have synced data using Airbyte in the first 6 months. Michel has been working in data engineering for the past 15 years. Previously, as the head of integrations and engineering director at Liveramp (NYSE: RAMP), he grew the team responsible for building and scaling the data ingestion and data distribution connectors. Michel’s team was managing over 1k integrations with adTech partners, delivering hundreds of billions of requests daily to these partners and ingesting over a terabyte of data daily on behalf of all LiveRamp customers in a privacy-compliant way. LiveRamp was acquired by Acxiom for $310 million on July 1, 2014 and is now a $3B independent company. Michel was also a founding member & Director of Engineering of rideOS, a Mobility as a Service (MaaS) technology provider that empowers automotive, autonomous vehicle, ride-hail, transportation, and delivery businesses to build, operate, and scale on-demand transportation offerings utilizing both self-driving and human-operated fleets. In this exclusive episode, Michel offers a detailed account of the story behind Airbyte’s success and how Airbyte makes data integration much easier for businesses. Here are the major points of discussion: How Michel built his career as a software engineer and used it as a foundation to start his own company. Creating a product that’s not only a good-to-have but a need-to-have. How to outreach potential customers to survey their needs and use the interviews for product improvement. The ingenious idea of using the same outreach contacts to test out the MVP. Advantages of the open-source approach to data integration and software development. The importance of community building for constant improvement and business growth. What’s the story behind Airbyte’s exponential growth and getting investment. What makes Airbyte different and better than others? Why do you need external and internal data integrations to grow your business? How Airbyte makes integrating external and internal data sources much easier. If you are a software engineer thinking of starting your own business or you are already running a business and want to know how you can integrate external and internal data sources to grow your business, this is the episode you shouldn’t miss. BusinessAnalytics, DataEngineering, DataIntegration, ProductDevelopment, CustomerExperience, DataScience --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/analyticsshow/message
Is your agency at a turning point? What if you could focus more on strategy and less on the execution of that strategy? It's time to make that change. James Robert Lay of Digital Growth Institute talks about why you should focus on the thinking side of business and how you can change your agency model to be more effective, profitable, and fun.
Wondering how to grow your business in a competitive and commoditized market? And how to add value and make yourself irresistible to your ideal clients?Back in 1980, Bill was working as a waiter at The Keg restaurant when he hit upon a “magic formula” to sell lobsters to restaurant customers. Using his formula, Bill managed to sell 1400 lobsters in 3 months. And to put things in perspective, the waiter who came in distant second just sold 90.Bill figured out soon enough that he could apply this same magic formula to other businesses as well. And this led to him forming The Big Idea Company in 1987.“So, what was the magic formula due to which Bill ended up selling an obscene number of lobsters?”, you may ask.Well, his lobster story taught Bill the importance of understanding his clients and then rewiring his thinking. Unless you are willing to expand your thinking to make it more aligned to the current scenario, you will end up fighting a losing battle where you are just struggling to survive. Bill has since taught hundreds of clients to profitably and sustainably scale their businesses by providing more value and differentiating themselves in a commoditized market.You will learn the three things that you can do right NOW to get rid of your fears and embrace this new-age thinking. Enjoy!What You Will Learn In This ShowScaling and growing your business in a commoditized marketHow to make “gourmet” offers that win your ideal clients over The three things that you can do to stop managing and start entrepreneur-ingThe five super-powers that robots do not have And so much more…ResourcesNew Factory ThinkerStudent Works Chris Thomson LinkedInChris’s Email
Commoditized fee structures, salary pressure and low-profit margins are all symptoms of a larger disease: the actual value that architects create is not realised for them financially. It is a prominent issue which doesn’t just happen in one country or to a certain group of architects, it is a general problem which undeniably contributes to a level of disarray affecting all aspects of our life. So in this episode, I will discuss: - The 3 key issues that prove for the current system of both academia and practice to be broken - And a vision of a better, more inclusive future which is a key driver behind why I take a voice, through hosting this podcast. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/sarakolata/message
"Clients don't understand that their success is related on standing out, not fitting in....you want to be the needle in the haystack, not the haystack" - Don DraperOn some recent This Week in Coverager episodes, I have asked this question, if a local mutual disappeared, would anyone notice or care? The majority of people I survey say NO! Why is that? It's because they have been commoditized. Essentially selling a product that is easily replicable with lots of substitutes in the market (like auto or homeowners). If one disappeared, a customer would have lots of similar options elsewhere. This is a massive problem in not only insurance, insurtech or fintech but in all of business. So how do stop being a commodity???You differentiate!In this episode, I spoke with branding expert, Ben Baker as we discussed this problem. We discussed a bunch of simple and straightforward ways that any company can differentiate themselves and their product. Everything from real customer-centric actions, to culture, hiring practices and perhaps scores of other ways outside of price (superior of simplified coverages, go more vertical or horizontal in your product/service etc). No matter what your competitors are doing, no matter how big they are or how many resources they have, there are customers they can't serve better than you. Figure that out, execute, control your fate! Connect: Ben Baker (LinkedIn) - https://www.linkedin.com/in/yourbrandmarketing/Leading Beyond a Crisis - https://amz.run/3dkNFree Chapter - Musical Credits: Shadows by David Cutter Music: https://davidcuttermusic.com https://soundcloud.com/dcuttermusic Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/shadows-david-cutter Music promoted by Audio Library: https://youtu.be/qiBHOiEl9EIVideo Credits: Intro Stock Footage by Videvo
Seth Rosen is the Co-Founder of CustomMade, the world's largest online custom jeweler. It's a simple business strategy to make people happy, with a complex process behind the scenes. Seth shares his journey of buying the CustomMade.com website, selling it, and repurchasing it with a different idea in mind. His story will get you hooked, and his lessons learned make this episode a must-listen for any business leader.
Futurist Trond Arne Undheim interviews Tom Ryden, Executive Director of MassRobotics, the biggest co-working space and robotics community in the US.In this conversation, they talk about what's happened over the past decade, where is the robotics field now (from R&D, to standardization, to big company implementation, the role of robots in contemporary factories, and consumer applications). They discuss the changing form factors, the pivotal role of AI and IoT towards a "Cambrian explosion" in robotics. What are the hottest startups? Where are we going in the next decade?The takeaway is that the future of commoditized robotics just took a major leap forward with COVID-19, as pilots became huge deployments and the automation of manufacturing suddenly became a survival strategy not a future proofing strategy. Next, we might see an uptick in collaborative robots, so-called co-bots. After listening to the episode, check out MassRobotics, and Tom Ryden's online presence:MassRobotics (@MassRobotics) https://www.massrobotics.org/Tom Ryden (@TRVgo) www.linkedin.com/in/tomrydenThe show is hosted by Podbean and can be found at Futurized.co. Additional context about the show, the topics, and our guests, including show notes and a full list of podcast players that syndicate the show can be found at https://trondundheim.com/podcast/. Music: Electricity by Ian Post from the album Magnetism. For more about the host, including media coverage, books and more, see Trond Arne Undheim's personal website (https://trondundheim.com/) as well as the Yegii Insights blog (https://yegii.wpcomstaging.com/). Undheim has published two books this year, Pandemic Aftermath and Disruption Games. To advertise or become a guest on the show, contact the podcast host here. If you like the show, please subscribe and consider rating it five stars.
In the latest CloudCents, Jack talks cloud, digitalization, and the evolution of digital services during the pandemic. He emphasizes how the permanent change in our technology landscape has caused digital services to surge and companies to accept cloud as the new now.
Ask yourself, do you believe your plastic surgery procedure is becoming commoditized? With so many different plastic surgeons out there, it can be challenging to find a personalized experience that once flooded the industry. Here at Davis Cosmetic Plastic Surgery, we take pride in each of our procedures being as prioritized as the next. Take a look at our brand-new CoolSculpting center and all the different modifications we offer. Even when we have clients come in that may not be able to sit through the traditional process, our office can adjust to their standards. Just because a plastic surgery office offers a specific procedure doesn't mean it will necessarily be your best fit. That's where our team of professionals comes in. Don't let the average experience at a plastic surgery office wear you down. Dr. Steven Davis is happy to get your looks precisely the way you want them.
Getting your priorities straight when it comes to taking care of yourself, your business, and your customers is extremely valuable. Dr. Mike Burgdorf is a cosmetic surgeon from Nashville who has a unique backstory that will bring us some new and important insight around building a powerful business. His story is full of resiliency, humility, and determination, and he has a finger on the pulse of practice growth and entrepreneurship. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://bit.ly/2MgUEPp
This is a conversation with Dr Chase Cunningham. Chase’s work focuses on integrating security into operations, leveraging artificial intelligence and planning for future growth. He holds 6 patents in the arena of data science and virtual cybersecurity tool construction, a Ph.D. in computer science from Colorado Technical University and is the author of 4 books related to cyber warfare and cyberspace education. In this episode, Chase talks about the scale of the cybersecurity challenge as hacking has become democratised, billions more IoT devices come online powered by super-fast 5g and remote working becomes the norm. He shares a terrifying drone use case, and explains how to be forward-facing in protecting yourself from hackers.
Rant time. Trends around the globe aren't going to allow for software engineering work to continue with such high costs. If you think you're going to keep making $100k writing Javascript code, ask the 1970's Auto Workers how that's worked out for them. How do you prepare yourself?
Indie Horror is for the value of intrinsic reward. Nights, weekends, self-finance, sacrifice and passion made some of the best horror movies of the past 50 years and still makes them today. Commoditized return on investment could never...
Have you ever attended a workshop on human connection? In today's episode I reflect on the new products born from a fragmented community, how self-expression has become something special in a repressed world, why people are creating workshops to teach people how to be human, and how we destroyed the ordinary to then put it on a pedestal as something extraordinary. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/jackpandaspeaks/message
The old methods of business no longer work. Times have changed. Most entrepreneurs are taught a system that focuses on marketing and sales. This leads to two (compounding) fatal outcomes. Commoditized products and services. And ineffective, sensationalized marketing. This ends in the intense need to sell, sell, sell. Where Relationship-equity is the after-thought. Leading the business to extreme foundational weakness. To change this, StoryAthletes deploy the two foundational tenets of a Profitable Impact Business to transform people and communities, while achieving superior financial security. Listen in.
15-Minute Strategy Podcast EP5: Doug Davidoff [Sprocket Talk] In this episode, we talk with Doug Davidoff from Imagine Business Development imaginellc.com about how to fight against being a commoditized sales professional or team.
On this episode of the Reel World Theology podcast: The most popular show on NETFLIX is back and brings with it all the nostalgia and mystery that we have come to expect. Stranger Things enters its third season and there is no sign that its popularity is waning. We talk about what the latest edition to the Stranger-verse does for the show's mythos and lore. We also talk about the interweaving of messaging from both the inclusion of Russians and malls into the latest season. All in all, just like the show, a lot of fun!
Dustin Burleson is a great thought leader in dentistry with a wide array of experience in orthodontics. As an educator and teacher in the dental arena, Dustin's point of influence sets him apart from the pack, and he joins us today to discuss the competition and hurdles that dentists face these days, as well as how to overcome them. You can find show notes and more information by clicking here: https://bit.ly/2Jmn0XR
Happy Thursday podcast. Today's episode is an inside look into our 4Ds consulting course. As I'm sure many of you know, we bring small businesses and entrepreneurs into VaynerMedia HQ to teach them all things social and digital. This episode took place on May 28th, 2019 and has a really powerful hour long Q&A with myself and the people attending. A lot of value in here!! Check out the link below to learn more about 4Ds and tweet me @garyvee if you have any feedback
Happy Thursday podcast. Today's episode is an inside look into our 4Ds consulting course. As I'm sure many of you know, we bring small businesses and entrepreneurs into VaynerMedia HQ to teach them all things social and digital. This episode took place on May 28th, 2019 and has a really powerful hour long Q&A with myself and the people attending. A lot of value in here!! Check out the link below to learn more about 4Ds and tweet me @garyvee if you have any feedback
Deborah Tavares, Fresh Info from UK Conference, Dangers of Commoditized Green Economy, 5G Genetic Damage, Killing Fields Are ON, Globalist Plans to Create Digital Cybercage, Need to Prep Up for NutriMeds and Tech for Health Survival, Dr Bill Deagle MD AAEM ACAM A4M, NutriMedical Report Show, www.NutriMedical.com, www.ClayandIRON.com, www.Deagle-Network.com,NutriMedical Report Show,5G Danger: Hundreds Of Respected Scientists Sound The Alarm About Health Effects As 5G Networks Go Up Nationwide For information regarding your data privacy, visit Acast.com/privacy See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
As the chill of Obamacare becomes felt, more and more physicians are looking for alternatives to commoditized medical practice.
Has the term commodity ever been used to describe what it is you sell? Have your customers said in no uncertain terms I get get the same thing down the street for less? Or how about your sales team, have they come to believe that the only way they can sell this stuff is if […] The post Commoditized Hell? Here s What You Must Do with Don McNeeley appeared first on Dirk Beveridge.
What is The Pricing is Positioning concept and how can it help you with your overall pricing strategy? In this episode I share with you what I mean when I say pricing is positioning and how your brand’s value and pricing of products is important to this overall concept. Plus, I share seven very specific tips that will help you develop a better pricing strategy for your business or brand. These tips are ones I’ve learned through my own journey as a consultant and during negotiations, as well as, strategies I’ve learned from some of the greats like Alan Weiss, Ron Baker and Blair Enns. In this episode, I’ll cover these topics: Your brand’s perceived value in the marketplace Using the pricing of your products and services to command the right type of clients The importance of valuing yourself, first Commoditized service businesses, productized service businesses, and customized services Value ladders, what they are and how they can help your brand Using anchoring and options in your pricing strategy Plus, my thoughts on proposals (what’s better long proposals or short proposals?) Resources and links referenced: Cliff Ravenscraft - Free the Dream Conference 2019 Ken Davis Scorre Speaker Training Blair Enns - Pricing Creativity The Business of Consulting Workshop - Los Angeles The Business of Consulting Workshop - Sacramento The Product Pricing Roadmap Connect with Paul: Web: www.paulklein.net LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulkleintv/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/paulkleintv Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/paulkleinTV/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/PaulKleinTV YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoQRkgXR4ClPAub12lXgPwg
In this episode we talk to Ron Dichter, Founder & CEO of BlueDog. Click here to connect with this guest on LinkedIn.
Brad Compere is the Co-Owner and Managing Partner of Compere & Gorman, a real estate law firm in Austin TX, as well as President and CEO of Capstone Title. When you think of a title company, you may think transactions — not relationships. Brad has made Capstone’s core values revolve around love: They love being […] The post ML88 – Corporate Sincerity in a Commoditized Market with Brad Compere appeared first on Jake A Carlson.
Eric Hippeau, managing partner at Lerer Hippeau Ventures, has invested in many entrepreneurial projects over the years. When looking for his next investment, one of the first things Hippeau considers is the passion and life experience of its founders. He joins us for a conversation on the Making Marketing podcast by Digiday.
We've allowed it to happen. The questions is what are you doing to differentiate and stand out beyond price and photos. Thanks for listening. Please subscribe in Apple Podcasts (https://goo.gl/87NKxo) or Google Play (https://goo.gl/7k7Bx1).
#4 Freelance designers, do you know why a client should hire you when they can pay $50 to Fiverr or 99Designs, or set up a Wix, Weebly or Squarespace site themselves? Learn how to set yourself apart from commoditized services, so you can command the fees you deserve.
This week's question is... Dear Strategy: “How do you weave innovation into a commoditized product?” Read the full blog post Hosted by Bob Caporale
EP101 - Indochino CEO, Drew Green An interview with Drew Green (@Drew_Green), CEO and of Indochino. Indochino is one of the largest made to measure menswear brands globally with active customers in 50 countries. We spoke with Drew about his previous e-commerce startup Shop.CA as well as Indochino's business model, Amazon strategy, and the future of the indsutry. Don't forget to like our facebook page, and if you enjoyed this episode please write us a review on itunes. Episode 101 of the Jason & Scot show was recorded on Thursday, September 14th 2017. http://jasonandscot.com Join your hosts Jason "Retailgeek" Goldberg, SVP Commerce & Content at SapientRazorfish, and Scot Wingo, Founder and Executive Chairman of Channel Advisor as they discuss the latest news and trends in the world of e-commerce and digital shopper marketing. New beta feature - Google Automated Transcription of the show: Transcript Jason: [0:25] Welcome to the Jason and Scott show this is episode 101 being recorded on Thursday September 14th 2017 I'm your host Jason retailgeek Goldberg and as usual I'm here with your Tahoes Scott Wingo. Scot & Drew: [0:40] Hey Jason and welcome back Jason Scott show listeners this week's episode we have a really special treat for you, in a world where everyone's really scrambling to survive against Amazon we wanted to highlight a brand that is really thriving please welcome to the Jason Scott show Drew green CEO of indochino who is joining us live from Vancouver, thanks guys I appreciate you having have an assignment scratch. Jason: [1:09] It's entirely our pleasure let's get the really controversial questions out of the way early did Scott pronounce your name right. Scot & Drew: [1:16] Hey daddy daddy didn't say where to me but that's that's okay cuz I don't use the at the end of Green. Jason: [1:23] Awesome and you don't want the things we always like to start out with is get an idea of how you. [1:32] Came to your current role on so before we talk about your control can you tell us a little bit about your background and in what way does the origin story for indochino. Scot & Drew: [1:43] Yeah well I don't know what I do both because both her are bit different so you don't myself I've been in you know e-commerce. Retail for almost 20 years first company we we built up was really the time of time of my life I was told to double click in the late 90s and from there. I have this amazing journey by double-clicking New York I love being out of retail. And as you know double quick was was acquired a couple times by private equity in the Google and then went to have the privilege of. Going to a company by the name of shop.com and helping build that into a top 10 multi-category retail destination in the US and the UK and that eventually became part of. Market America which I think is that isn't IR 500. Iri R50 excuse me online Merchant sound of my own company and I really enjoyed that Journey House shop.ca here in Canada. Multi Merchant market place that has since been Amalgamated with. Several Brands under an umbrella company called emerge Commerce of which I'm sure. And you don't back in 2015 it feels like. Feels like quite a few years ago but but really only a few years ago I really got the opportunity to come into indochino. And help transform the way men dress and it's been you has been an incredible few years you know the business has tripled in size. [3:18] Are we done so probably attracted some world-class Partners investors and of course. You every success starts with a team would God just a fantastic team at the company. Your top to bottom so it's it's been a great experience indochino was founded in 2007. So you know we've been around for for just over 10 years. And have become you know the last few years have become really the market leader globally answer to what does that mean while it means that from a made-to-measure custom apparel standpoint I don't believe there's any other company in the world. I cells and produces as much as we do and so that's had somewhere very proud of but you know we treat with a lot of care and a lot of humility because you know we want to continue to build the Great business not only for the team here but. Obviously first shareholders. Jason: [4:13] Terrific some before we jump into indochino actually have a shop.ca question. [4:19] So I use them or I should say you all the time as an example of one of the the first e-commerce sites to turn their entire customer base into affiliates. [4:33] Am I being truthful there I feel like that. Scot & Drew: [4:36] Yeah that sucks yeah that's actually shop.com and and so you know that was post-acquisition that that occurred. And you know that is the that is sort of the bread-and-butter or models at that market America's built their business on and and you know they felt that that was the best application for. Shop.com I mean shop.com originated as a Marketplace not unlike. Amazon Marketplace but it was bifurcated we had both you know card transactions as well as affiliate transaction. Orly cost as it would be known but yeah Market America turned it into a almost a pure purely and consumer affiliate site after they acquired. Jason: [5:19] Don't you very cool and did you have you applied any of the the best practices from that in your current gig do you guys do like customer referrals and all that sort of stuff. Scot & Drew: [5:30] Absolutely I mean I think you know that the interesting thing about that is I think it's excessive. Going to take you out online only but it really any retail business is based on. Your consumer advocacy or or fandom as we can talk about sometimes it into Chino you're the more that you can have fans of the the product of the brand of the experience. In particular for us that in the channel the experience. Yeah really the more the more not only are you going to grow about the more efficiently you're going to grow you know when you have customers that are telling. Your friends and fam. [6:07] They had a wonderful experience and the noset friends and family coming and make breakfast it just creates a really efficient gross and so yes certainly I would say that refer-a-friend weather. Whether through paid or unpaid is probably a second biggest Channel at its cheetah and so certainly we feel like we have a ton of fans. You're talking about the Brandon and appreciate an experience we deliver, cool the server folks that may not have had the opportunity to to use the site Maybe, can I give my dog a quick picture of of indochino you you said kind of measured so does that mean someone comes to me and measure so and I know you guys have it you didn't take so long to hear what that is. [6:51] Yeah so if you think about you know bespoke or made-to-measure custom apparel. You know it's an industry that's been around for hundreds and hundreds of years you know man have gone and gotten measured and. You have been able to to create their own garment what we wanted to do was you know create a platform essentially to allow it to be mass-market to allow anybody to measure themselves. Girls online only first pick their Fabrics pick their customisations their personalization such as a monogram. You know I'm on the Garment and and really create a one-of-a-kind garment and so you know we were the first globally to ever sell made-to-measure online. [7:36] Really proud of that but we realized in 2015 and really what what I've been driving the most. [7:43] After years is you knows our success is based on an omni-channel experience and really giving customers the choice of. Did I buy online which I calls or the self-serve mode or getting a full serve experience and whatever that 70 show rooms across North America. [8:02] Yeah that's a good Segway cuz I kind of mentally put you guys in the bucket with but no bows and Stitch fix and kind of what what Andy done calls digitally native vertical Brands and then just like those guys you guys, open up the showrooms where they're kind of a smaller Outlet the no kind of a traditional retail experience and kind of different unique buying experience, so tell us a little bit more I think that's all been in your 10 year or did the company have some started. Yeah I mean we we we've essentially opened every one of our showrooms or relocated them you know 2015 to 2017. We really felt like to be. You know that the Undisputed leader and made to measure but also to compete with ready-to-wear that we needed to provide customers with an omni-channel experience and you know what it's really allowed us to do is to open an app. You know the made-to-measure experience to customers that just might not be comfortable. Making their first purchase online as it relates to a you know for the $500 purchase offer a garment and. Yes really become actually are number one acquisition Channel think about online only business is really scaling that business from a media perspective. And you know you are a retail environment not only benefits customer but it really benefits are model and creates you don't media efficiency from. [9:33] I'm back from a girl's perspective you know we'll have averaged just over 50% growth year-over-year lost. You're so 2015-2017 and we're seeing a declining across for acquisition and cost for crossbow order. From a media perspective in that you know almost entirely to do with with our our commitment to retail and channel. [9:57] I'm having not add up to you being a showroom may be described it as it's like I'm imagining 2000 square feet some some examples that kind of thing but then I've seen pictures of Foosball Tables kind of curious where that. Yeah you know every showroom that we have it as I mentioned we got 70 you going to us were in Boston we got to in New York to in the Philadelphia area. Now one in Washington one in Chicago San Francisco and Beverly Hills every showrooms a bit. Different and unique but they all have a very open Design Concepts and they all allow for you no appointment no I won't what we have isn't as appointment base model where the customer would come in. They would be masked with what we call a style guide for that hour and that's the guy that I said would help them create their at their garment they would walk them through and get the measured. They would have the customer you to pick out fabric since we got almost 300 fabrics for suits in almost 300 rabbits for shirts. So they would pick their fabric that they're stitching and pick other customisations and personalization said you know at the end really allows them to. You know create this one-of-a-kind garment that that nobody's going to be there not going to go to a party or dinner or an event and see somebody wearing the exact same everyone is is entirely unique a customer. Jason: [11:26] That's awesome. [11:29] Question about the sort of omni-channel experience so it makes perfect sense that their children's could be your top acquisition Channel you go in there you you get fitted you get that first suit and have a great experience, but I'm presuming that now you have their measurements on file and now that that customer has a lot more confidence in your brand, are you able to turn those kind of full service customers from their first experience into more cell service customers for subsequent orders is that. Scot & Drew: [12:00] Yeah that that that's exactly what happened so course you got some customers that just you don't prefer either the retail environment or our showroom environment but. You know the reason that we're investing in retail in such a big way is that the majority of our retail first customers actually come back on their second third and fourth purchase and buy online and so it Christmas really sort of official relationship with a customer. We get it right the first time. Bathroom showroom perspective but because we've gotten it right there the other entirely comfortable coming back and buy it online you know we don't have a subscription model but if you looked at. Yes they do that the repurchase rate in our business here is almost like we do you know customers are very loyal to the experience very loyal to the brand. And frankly you know what we found especially these last couple years is you're made to measure and custom apparel is becoming mainstream. And so you know a young man or or you know someone at that house that experience was made to measure is saying you know what. I no longer want to buy a suit their shirt and Blazer pair pants off the rock I want to I want to create my own, because it's not easy and it's a crime. Jason: [13:12] Cool yeah you know one thing I filled it to ask about is can you talk just a little bit about what the like sort of into end time line is for it for a customer that buys a product like you know. Scot & Drew: [13:24] Yeah absolutely so that you know what you're doing if you're doing me buying processor. You know what we are at from an internal perspective because the conversion final you know it does take some time so it's not a an instantaneous purchase your you're choosing all your selections on the Garmin. But once you've done that and you know the Garmin essentially arrives and. Right now under three weeks we've we publish for is the expectation but we've really improved that through your different Partnerships and optimization supply chain. And so if you think from start to finish your you're basically creating your own garment your own one-of-a-kind garment and receiving it and under in under 3 weeks. Jason: [14:10] Wow very cool. [14:13] In my my senses like sort of old-school made-to-measure garments when you go to a local tailor or certainly like you have some of the the International Suit house is like the. Like one of the big pain points traditionally with me to order is that there's a super long lead time. Scot & Drew: [14:33] Yeah yeah I need a Nazi that you're absolutely right I mean some. You're on some environments your weight 5 6 7 weeks for your for your garment and we've really. You got to really compete against made ready-to-wear to really be an alternative to off the rocks. You know we feel like we've got to get that that turnaround time you don't continue to optimize I continue to approve it and we don't have a timeline for it we don't have. Your specific launch date but our goal is to get at under a week. And you know once you get it under a week because think about your own experiences buying a suit even if you buy off the rock you're still going to have to get it alteration so. You know when we are at under a week in terms of production and and final delivery. You know we're entirely competitive with ready-to-wear and and just that much more appealing to two all types of consumers. Jason: [15:31] Yep that brings up another day question that so. One of the Banes of the apparel industry in general in e-commerce is the return rate is higher than we'd all like and I am curious if, the me to order it helps resolve that problem because you've got a chance to meet the customer and you you know that you have less fitment issues or you know. Part of me feels like even with a bespoke tailor and a made-to-order suit like they're often is more than one round of of adjustments if you will if I'm if I'm saying that right how do you handle that that's what it's about. Scot & Drew: [16:08] I mean neither of us are really question cuz if you know what I think back to you know the first time I took a look at this business and and the things that really jumped out to me was the fact that. You don't return rates were so low you know they were two three sometimes 4% depending on the time of the year and as you guys know and e-commerce in apparel Footwear. That's that's incredibly low number now we've actually been able to get a returns to well under 1%. I'd have been there for over a year now and again that's that's an incredible number now we do have. Alterations by a small percentage of the Guard. You know sometimes if it's not made to the customer's exact specifications will do it what we call a remake but again that's the the minority of of of the garments that we create. It's all Rino return rate as one of the most incredible things about this business because if you compare you know two other apparel or paralyze a category. You're most of the Power Rhonda you know in the twenties or even 30% from a return perspective. Jason: [17:19] Yeah I think I think most people would give us some significant body parts in exchange for getting down to a 2 - 4%. Scot & Drew: [17:25] Well I absolutely because it because it's the biggest impact online only. Apparel retailer it's it's it's very difficult and I from a model perspective it's very different. Difficult run p&l perspective then so you know where we're pretty proud of the fact that you don't return rates are so low. Jason: [17:48] And then when I scratch. [17:51] On on the general business I noticed on the website you also have weddings in your in your taxonomy and we recently had the Zola on the show so we we've done some talking about how lucrative the the overall wedding industry could be what, how are you guys playing in the wedding space. Scot & Drew: [18:11] Yeah me back that really goes to the customers that we serve an alien are number one and for the core demographic would be Millennials 65% of our transactions online. Or are serving you know that Millennial mail it's a little bit lower and in our showrooms closer to 50%. But really what we committed to a couple years ago and it's become our fastest-growing demographic is the is the wedding Market. And so you must send you message foosball tables earlier and call you know one of the things that we've done with each other room is set up a groom's lounge and that's really just serve that market. And to really become you have a place that that young man or any age men can get can get themselves in there and their groups party you know fitted for their wedding and so I would I would say that wedding is probably our fastest-growing segment. And certainly something that we're going to continue to focus on, it wouldn't be a Jason and Scott show if we didn't talk about Amazon a little bit so Jason I do a joint talk or we talk about you know, the obviously how big amazon is how much they're soaking up the growth out there but one of the big rabbits we give people on protecting yourself is to wrap a service around a product and seems like you guys, done that dude you have any fear of Amazon doing that or do you feel like this is a quadrant e-commerce are probably not going to get to, yeah I was watching you can never live live in fear you you got to. [19:46] You got to continue to innovate and continue to ideate you know whatever business you're running I think. I just have a tremendous amount of respect for Amazon and and within the apparel categories are obviously very very committed to it and doing some amazing things. You'll for us one of those things that we really. You're committed to not just to not this to differentiate ourselves from Amazon but really I would say the entire apparel category is really not. Not put forth that we're selling a product we've really focused on selling or even just providing an experience and so more and more. For our customers what we Aspire and what we try to inspire is the fact that we do provide an experience and it's it's a totally different experience than. You're going into a store going online and buying an item in that instance you really just buying a product right and and for us it's entirely different. It or whether it's you know the interactions that they have with our saw guys and how what they're trained or the you know the online experience of pretty on Garmin we've really focused on selling an experience versus a product. Call you guys have obviously caught the eye of you season an environment when it's really hard for me, she kind of companies to get funding I noticed madronas in there that's that's a really kind of real consumer Blue Chip how much, Capital if you guys raised yeah we're really we're really fortunate to have you no work last set of investors we got. [21:22] Madrona and Scott Jacobson at Madrona as my partner there. Yeah I'm deeply involved with the success of the company at Portside equity which was formerly Highland consumer is also very very involved. And our success and has been you know a big force and driving it we also out of strategic investors so we have no Diane group that's based in in China and one of the largest. And best suit manufacturers in the world owns a part of the company. We got a media company here in Canada that that took ownership in the company and will continue it to round out and look for what possible. And you lots of that say you don't really good position to be in, the best time to raise money is when you don't need it in my experience, to quick one so you kind of peaked my curiosity with the millennial kind of, concentration at any interesting observations as someone that's been in the industry for a while about in your all these kind of it's kind of funny meme that says joke around office money orders are killing this any other but they're they're obviously, not killing YouTube suits so any observations you can share about what you see in there. [22:42] Well I think there's a few different things I think number one you know it's a it's a the demographic that really takes a lot of pride in. And being their own brand and your for us I think that's why we resonates so well with Millennials you know they're able to create. You know one of a kind in the Chino which in a lot of ways becomes a representation of who they are and and their own brand and so. You know I think that that we are just the experience the product that we provide really fits into that. They're also they become and we see it in our. In our lifetime value studies and repurchase rate studies extremely loyal you know if they if they enjoy something if they like something. You know they're going to be loyal and they're going to tell their friends and so. But it is important to get it right I think that's true and in any demographic. Jason: [23:43] When it when the things it's interesting to me in the short of a custom product space which I I sort of put you in. [23:52] You know all customers but in particular Millennials in and Western CSN genze as well like the. [24:00] There seems to be a strong preference for more individualistic process products and in sort of you know Wes following the pack but. They also want people to know that it's individualistic so I I'm almost wondering like are you know that I think there's certain features in your product that, sort of reveal it's a made-to-order product as opposed to it you know looking like a ready-to-wear product like to do you find customers like. Intentionally select those pictures so that they're sort of broadcasting a little bit that they that they wearing a maid. Scot & Drew: [24:34] Yeah I mean that's not what I mean about being able to create their own brand right there not. You know they're when they're creating an indochino garment they're creating something that's truly one of a kind. And they're able to you don't put a monogram very very easily you know what that the jockey on the shirt or on other parts of the Garmin. You know they're able to pick their own lining from dozens of different choices are able to pick a fabric. And maybe mix. Fabrics you know applecross the suit and so you're really there's dozens of difference. Customisations in personalizations and if you know you kind of look at all the permutations that could be great just literally tens of millions of different types of suits. I could be created I think that's really feeling you don't know if you guys remember but I always hated you know in high school going to a party and. Bought a sweater at you know whatever retailer and then find out that there's three other guys about party with the same sweater or same jacket out of you and so yeah that doesn't happen within the Chino grated your own again one of a kind. Jason: [25:44] I totally get your point but I don't think Scott or I got invited to parties in high school very much. Scot & Drew: [25:50] I've I've seen Scott of the few parties I don't know then I don't know. Jason: [25:55] I am teasing you like to see your urine. That's one of the Leading Edge category in terms of made-to-order I do do you see that extending two more generally the other consumer products like the fact that that's a continuing Trend or do you think it will stick with you no particular vertical. Scot & Drew: [26:14] Are you know what's another great question that I do think that. A big part of the future retail is going to be more customize and personalize product and the more of that you know retailers or companies or any tractors can get away from. Commoditized product I think more success than the house and so I really do feel like at the highest level custom but I'll say is custom. Your product is is is really the future of retail in a lot of different verticals but certainly in a Peril for sure. Jason: [26:50] Yep and obviously that's that certainly helps you build a competitive moat. Scot & Drew: [26:55] You know what does I mean you'll think about competitive Moses you got to be you know aware of of what you need to do to to protect and grow the business and you know we constantly look for. What are call additional Motes if you will but you know where we're at work we're humbled by the response that we're getting from consumers right now. And we're very excited about what you know what the decades ahead are going to bring some. Jason: [27:25] Another area is our future looking that I'm always interested in and I talked a lot about fit man we talked about, in the ready-to-wear space the return rates are huge and typically the number one reason for returns are are fitment issues you obviously saw that for the subset of your customers that go to a show and they think they can get. Measured by a tailor but to enable more people to be self-service and reach more people I I imagine you're always interested in your how to best get measurements at home I know there's at least one company in the space that tries to use, the mobile phone camera for fitment and I I think you know I suspect that strongly a gimmick but I do know there's a lot of phones coming out with sort of, 3D scanning capability in that, you know I've always speculated that potentially is really useful for fitting in are you guys looking at all it does sound kind of Technologies. Scot & Drew: [28:20] Yeah we are I mean we're always looking at new ways to create and craft a perfectly fitted garment I think. You know if it's an extremely complex business right in terms of creating you no one to one product on app for Consumer bases and. Well those take that Technologies are full and you know seem to be enough to come in and out I I do think the back-end operations of how you create. You know I shouldn't Wonder one product her customer is is the most important the last thing you want to do. Is introduced the technology that you're going to end up with you know return rates that are closer to you know traditional apparel on so there's going to be a lot of Technology development around. You know how you get measurements or how we get measurements but you know how I kind of like what we're doing right now in terms of the technology that we used to. We got the garments right on a one-to-one basis. Jason: [29:21] Gotcha another Trend like in this are the Jason spaces that I've been a little interested in last quarter Adidas did this interesting pilot wear their weaving sweaters. On demand in a store and then I think it's Ministry of Supply in Boston literally have a. [29:40] A blaze or weaving machine in the store and I'm going to say Loosely they make a Blazer while you wait I think it's like a three or four hour process. [29:51] So obviously not not super convenient or scalable right at the moment but like is that a potential. [29:57] Opportunity for you or competitor for you in the future iqc the technology ever getting good enough that a lot of the stuff gets made in in real time in stores or ship same day to customers are those kinds of things. Scot & Drew: [30:09] Yeah I mean I think anything's possible as we you know as we go through the years and decades ahead of deep deep thought of being able to create. You know garment like we create but do it same day or in the store or have it delivered the same day I mean that's an incredibly. You know bold dream or delivery but you are hot for my from a super spective I do believe that were one of the fastest in terms of how we produce. Supply chain all the way through the consumer demand and like I mentioned earlier you no more costly off to my second tweaking. Because once you get it down to under a weeks you've got something very very unique and highly competitive. You know what is essentially about a 7 billion dollar Market North America on South. Yeah I've seen I'll call them campaigns or product launches that you mentioned but I think we're a little ways from being able to scale that I'm a space South. Jason: [31:12] For sure for sure it does certainly seem like that kind of you know early tip of the spear examples on which are always interesting but probably not economically viable for the last question. Anything else that has you excited or interesting about the the future of Commerce in general or or your space in particular and India. [31:31] Trans you are seeing on the horizon. Scot & Drew: [31:35] You know what man like I said as a technology e-commerce guy I'm just. I really really big fan and really interested on how retails of all day you know it's that's what's got me most excited and interested on how. Online-only Brands transition into either or not the channel environment or how do they leverage retail to drive their business I think there's going to be. Thriller credible Innovations and developments over the coming years and we hope to be part of that we think we are actually you have big part of it and Four Mile from a later shift perspective in and leaving the weather. Jason: [32:15] Terrific I think that's actually going to be a great place to, to wrap up because it is happen again we've used up all our a lot of time so Drew I really want to thank you for joining us in the sharing the indochino experience with the RR listeners and I'll remind listeners as always, you're welcome to continue the dialogue on our Facebook page if you like today show we would certainly appreciate a 5-star review on iTunes if you hated today. Scot & Drew: [32:44] Absolutely do not review cuz it was probably my fault if you hate it you guys are great I appreciate your time today. Thanks truly look forward to hearing more about the success of indochino. Jason: [32:59] Until next time happy conversing.
This week's question is... Dear Strategy: “How do we continue to ‘know’ our customers in a future with ‘commoditized’ experiences to differentiate our products in the marketplace?” Read the full blog post Hosted by Bob Caporale
Has the term commodity ever been used to describe what it is you sell? Have your customers said in no uncertain terms I get get the same thing down the street for less? Or how about your sales team, have they come to believe that the only way they can sell this stuff is if […] The post Commoditized Hell? Here s What You Must Do with Don McNeeley appeared first on Dirk Beveridge.
Join Jerry Jones and Kevin Anderson on Episode #1 of THE Jerry Jones Show, as they discuss the current State of Dentistry and the challenges faced by Solo and Small Group practices as they battle for relevance in an ever-changing industry. Jerry and Kevin will also discuss a number of solutions for Dentists to not just opt-out but flat-out battle against the forces of Big Dentistry. If you're wondering what to do to stay top of mind with your patients and remain THE #1 choice for dentistry in your community, you'll love this very first episode of THE Jerry Jones Radio Show. For more information, visit Jerry's website: http://JerryJonesDirect.com Support the show (https://jerryjonesdirect.com)
Join Jerry Jones and Kevin Anderson on Episode #1 of THE Jerry Jones Show, as they discuss the current State of Dentistry and the challenges faced by Solo and Small Group practices as they battle for relevance in an ever-changing industry. Jerry and Kevin will also discuss a number of solutions for Dentists to not just opt-out but flat-out battle against the forces of Big Dentistry. If you're wondering what to do to stay top of mind with your patients and remain THE #1 choice for dentistry in your community, you'll love this very first episode of THE Jerry Jones Radio Show. For more information, visit Jerry's website: http://JerryJonesDirect.com
Commoditized products are impacting prices and margins, thus threatening companies in all industries, including manufacturing. Are you threatened, as well? Almost all industries today are struggling with the increasing commoditization of their products and services. This is putting considerable pressure on prices and margins and leads to fiercer competition. And not only the mass market is being affected: even more complex and innovative products are subject to increasingly technical and qualitative standardization. A 2014 study by Roland Berger and the International Controller Association shows that 63% of the companies surveyed are already facing the commoditization of their products and services, yet 54% have yet to take sufficient action to escape. You CAN separate yourself from your competition, but do you know HOW to do that? In this webinar Steve Miller will share his unique specialty: how a business can create an Uncopyable Advantage. Steve will talk about the three primary business elements that can push a company into the commodity trap and steps you can take to avoid it. Host: Steve Miller Kelly’s Dad, Marketing Gunslinger
Matt Report - A WordPress podcast for digital business owners
This isn't your typical how-to select a WordPress theme tutorial. Instead of comparing and contrasting features, we're comparing and contrasting the expectations of a theme buyer and a theme seller. This article should serve as a guide for buyers to understand where they should invest their money and for sellers to ease the pain points of selling themes in ruthless marketplace. I've been selling themes for a while now, dating back to 2007, when I sold Drupal themes for the real estate market. Slocum Themes launched in late 2009 after I started my WordPress development shop, Slocum Studio. Since then, we've been moderately successful with themes. The first year was abysmal, but as we've progressed, created new themes, and became more known in the WordPress space — it's turned into a nice revenue stream for our overall business. And that's exactly how we (currently) look at our theme shop — as an add-on to the overall business. We're not living off of theme sales, but we're also not struggling to stay afloat just selling them. When it comes to marketing our themes, I take a very organic approach: Content marketing Podcasting YouTube channel Free distribution via WordPress.org This nestles in nicely with our overall mission of being a client services company & a product company. tl;dr Audio Version Like the show? Review us on iTunes! Current state of the theme business Everyone has the same inventory & features “Commoditized. Cheap prices. Too much competition. Dominated by crapware. Selling a WordPress theme is akin to selling a new car. If you're a Chevy dealer, chances are, there's another Chevy dealer within 20-40 miles of you. You both, for the most part, have the same inventory available. If not, you could certainly get whatever it is you're customer is looking for. Because of this, new cars, in terms of profit, are always the slimmest. Everyone's got ‘em and everyone's looking to move ‘em. Even different brands have identical looks and features. Does this sound familiar yet? For the buyer, you've got plenty of choices — and that's great. It also means prices should stay pretty low — and they are. If you complain about a $59 purchase for a website that powers your business, dive into what should be right up your alley, Building Websites All-in-one for Dummies. This 747-page read is what you'll have to plough through to get a better understanding of what went into building a theme. That and over a decade of learning & improving the craft. What is a theme? Our Modern Business theme in .org Before we go too far, let's define what a theme actually is. It's the presentational layer of your project's content, data, and media across many devices. Most commonly presented as a marketing or presentational brochure and increasingly becoming a way to present products for sale. It's the pretty front-end of your website. What about the concept of a theme or the utility, as it were? For me, it's very much the essence of the 80/20 rule. Something that is going to accelerate a project 80% of the way, with very little effort and at an affordable cost as it relates to the overall budget. A theme should be a fraction of your overall budget, while you spend the rest on expanding it, consulting, and building out the website. That's the final 20% and the phase that is sorely overlooked. When adapting a theme to your needs, that last mile is always the most challenging, so don't expect it to go as smoothly as the first 80%. But this isn't new to you, this is life: Losing the last 15 pounds on a diet is always the hardest. Getting an A+ isn't easy as easy a B-. Perfecting your credit score is nearly impossible. Back to the car analogy, you can't add a second set of doors to a 2-door coupe. It just wasn't built that way. You also can't order a new color that doesn't come from the manufacturer. They already determined the best available colors for that vehicle, in that model year. A theme is a great starting point for your project's first iteration of an online presence. As your needs and audience change, you must reinvest and build something that meets your goals. A theme is either built as a generic use-case or to serve a specific niche vertical. In either case, it doesn't deliver 100% on your needs, across the board. Often, buyers get custom development and ready-made themes confused — and it's not the same. If you find yourself forcing a theme to do something other than what it was naturally inspired to do — find another theme. Remember, there are plenty. Otherwise, asses your goals and understand what hinges on getting the perfect WordPress website for your business. If the most basic requirement is to generate tens-of-thousands in revenue annually, go custom. Don't try and force a square peg into a round hole. How to choose a WordPress theme (and provider) You shouldn't consider purchasing a theme without considering who you are purchasing from. If you travel in the same circles as I do, there's a tendency to blame the sellers for pricing their themes too low. As to say, we're blaming other shops for the slim margins which in turn, makes it hard to survive on theme sales alone. Allegedly, this causes the market to shift to more inexpensive or even free themes. @mattmedeiros I don't think that anyone is doing anything to help that. More theme shops, more cheap themes, race to the bottom. @ClorithMJ — Mario Peshev (@no_fear_inc) July 25, 2015 While I don't disagree with that, I won't blame a seller's price point, but I will blame their lack of quality and disregard of the long-term for both the customer and their own product. Let's explore this: On Theme Prices Cheap themes aren't necessarily bad for us. What does erode the market is when theme companies cannot or do not offer up long-term support for the customer. Because they don't have strong profits or large volume of sales, they cannot afford to operate as a well-rounded business. Bottom line: they aren't making enough money. My opinion is, the $59 – $129 theme is right where the market needs it to be. No more, no less for just the theme. “But, where's the $1,000 theme?!” It's coming as is our WordPress industrial revolution. If the REST API can get baked into core (and arguably even if it doesn't), we're going to see more advanced themes for sale. Only when WordPress themes become more advanced, expanding on the presentational layer of content, data, and media will we see the rise of theme prices as we know them now. I once turned a $59 theme sale into an $18,000 custom project? More on this: On Theme business models Sellers, who are not making the profits they had once hoped for, need to take a closer look at their business model. For example, we offer a Hassle-free theme setup and install service at Slocum Themes. This sets expectations in a few ways: We don't do this for free in our standard support agreement There's more to setting up the perfect WordPress website than installing the theme It's still not that easy to do for a beginner “Oh, there's more to buy from you?” (my favorite) I read a lot of complaints from theme authors and shops that support for their product is drowning them. The enduser doesn't understand how to use WordPress and they have ridiculous expectations from the seller. We experienced that too, and we dealt with them by expanding our offerings. You know how new car dealers make money on those slim margins? They sell extended warranties, accessories, or they sell them a certified car that no other dealer has, for greater profit. Like a unique plugin, perhaps. (read: Like how we offer Conductor plugin) Many theme authors hate to sell. They hate to upsell. They still, to this day, are plagued by the “If I build it, they will come” syndrome. So, how did I upsell a $59 theme to an $18,000 custom project? It's easy, let's look at the tiered offerings: Free: Customer downloads the theme and installs it themselves. No help or direct support from us. $59: Purchase the theme, receive e-mail based support based on an annual recurring subscription. $59 + $99: Purchase the theme and our basic setup service. We'll get it setup in 48 hours looking like the demo, with your logo uploaded. $59 + $997: Purchase a theme and have us setup a membership or e-commerce site for your company. Includes 1 hour of phone based training, configuring the site for content marketing, analytics integration, lead capture and e-commerce. Custom: Our agency work starts at $10k. When we can demonstrate that to being the equivalent of 10 times (if not more) of the work it takes over our $997 package above — it starts to click with your customer. Of course, you have to back that up with a portfolio of accomplished projects and then you've got yourself a winning strategy of uspelling and moving a customer up channel into a better product. Not every customer is price conscious, but when dealt with the wrong information, they assume $59 is the way to go. The way it “should” be. Mind the, “into a better product,” bit. If my $18k customer purchased the $59 theme or even our $997 membership setup fee — it's the wrong product fit for them. It doesn't delver on their needs or expectation. Just because something is affordable, doesn't make it the right choice for a customer. I don't select doctors based on price. As a theme seller, it's adapt or die. Unless you are trying to hit Unicorn status of a theme, something that still takes a stroke of luck to achieve on WordPress.org or Envato — start with a solid profitable business plan first. Build a good product, and offer paid services around that product. Put yourself in a position to be sustainable for your customers and your business goals. Times are changing and this holding pattern is going to take some out of the box thinking until the next revolution hits. On the long-term support Proverbial thinking about the future photo. All of this thinking boils down to the seller's vision of longevity. For their business, for their product, and for their customer. I don't know about you (sellers), but I want to be around in 5 years to support customers who purchased a theme from me. I can't do that if I'm not thinking about the future — for both buyer & seller. As I said earlier, this is where I lay the blame on sellers “doing it wrong.” There are theme shops that do not care to follow core WordPress coding practices that ultimately hurt the experience of using the beloved open source project, or worse, leave the customer vulnerable to attack. This molds both sides of the coin: customers that feel burned from the purchase or customers that now realize, they got what they paid for. This usually leads to customers giving up on WordPress as a whole, while others realize they have to spend more money and invest in a professional agency or consultant.The good news? I'm beginning to see more of the latter in my world. Organizations that went the cheap route are now realizing they should have invested more from the get go. Again, not entirely their fault, but the fault of the overall marketing message at large: “A WordPress theme that can do anything you want, with 600+ fonts, for just $49! Get going in minutes!” It's more likely this statement leads to bloated code structure and a boat load of features that are stagnant, confusing and un-used by the end user. In the end, the overall experience would have been saved had they known a better product existed, even at a higher price point. Which brings us to the last piece of the puzzle, technical debt. Or you can also read it as: shit code. I'm not here to argue Sass vs LESS. I'm talking code that is slow, interfaces that suck, and the duct tape it's all held together with. The worst part is, your average buyer doesn't realize it until it's too late. Until they get hacked or they finally begin some web marketing work and notice the site takes 17 seconds to load a single page. Then the vicious cycle begins! They request support, only to realize the author doesn't provide any or no longer exists. Check your plugins or your host, the seller says. The buyer is beside themselves. What looked like a way to start a company site for under $100 and a 6-pack, is now WordPress' fault. I thought this WordPress stuff was going to be easy! They take to jobs.wordpress.net looking to take out their frustrations in a job post, only to offend anyone that's even remotely qualified to reply: “I need an easy fix to my menu on mobile. Dear developer, I'm looking for someone to fix my mobile navigation on my company's website. It shouldn't take long, it's just not working and my logo is bleeding into it. Please respond with how much it will be to fix.” Yeah right. When in fact, the author should have never given you the ability to change that specific CSS or layouts for the theme. Even if they did, they should have browser tested to some degree or fully-understand the downside to that option. I'm not saying we can solve for every instance, but the less control we give to non-designers, the better. Provide solutions that won't lead someone to break the site, but continue to deliver on more broadstroke customizations. Write code that can stand up to the test of WordPress backwards compatibility and keep an eye on the roadmap. At Slocum Themes, we're always testing against nightly builds of WordPress. In the end, if you can't, provide some form of paid valuable support service to maintain and support the user — it's not going to be pleasant for anyone. Finally, on selecting a WordPress theme Made me laugh. Everything, including free, comes at a cost. When recently replacing a busted exterior faucet on my home, I went to Home Depot and spent $50 on parts. Only to realize, I don't have a small torch to heat up and remove the old soldered pipe. Only to realize further, I can't find my hacksaw to cut the new PVC pipe. Maybe I should have just hired a professional to get it done for me, it probably would have cost me less. I ask that both parties, buyers & sellers, think this way: Theme buyers, please don't expect the world for $59. Expect that you'll get a well-coded WordPress theme that will continue to be supported for the life of your support license agreement. However, don't expect your theme vendor to login and configure your website while troubleshooting the 18 plugins you installed previously. Theme sellers, don't expect your customer to be fully-knowledgeable on WordPress or how you setup your options panel — they don't do this for a living. Build a product that works well, isn't overly complicated and solves a particular need. Go further and have some reasonably priced support plan in place for when the time comes and please find new ways to stay profitable. The more profitable theme shops that stand the test of time, the better for all of us. A bonus for theme sellers Selling themes is more turbulent than ever. From overwhelming GPL license debates (and lawsuits) to shops skyrocketing in revenue, leaving you to wonder — how will I compete? If you listen to the Twitter chatter, you will see people mention “doing things the WordPress way.” Often, it's used in a snarky way to separate the “I know what I'm doing” crowd from the noobies. First, ask yourself, do you want to be accepted into the community? Is this important to your soul and not just your business? It can be a scary launching your first product. There will always be naysayers — ignore them. There will be people that don't like your designs — ignore them. There will be people that say you charge too much — ignore them. Do you want acceptance or results? I heard Michael Port say that on a podcast and I fell in love with it. It rings true in the WordPress space. So many of of us strive to do it the “WordPress way”, but what is that, exactly? Who says we have to follow the rules? I don't mean break the law, but to challenge the status quo. I want results. Like this post? I'm launching a new product called Julep. It's an easy way to make images a little more fun in WordPress. Check it out and join the upcoming beta list! ★ Support this podcast ★
Are you in the business of transactions or transformations? It's crucial to understand the difference between the two — and where your business stands — so you don't fall into the chasm in between.
This week on Awesomecast 242, we talk awesome things in technology, including: News on the Surface 3. Sorg giving his thoughts on Meerkat and Periscope. Google Maps turning maps into Pac-Man levels. A Game Boy Camera gun. The Chromebit: A stick version of Chrome! Discussion on stick entertainment. News on upcoming events. A new Amazon button. After the show remember to: Eat at Slice on Broadway if you are in the Pittsburgh area! It is Awesome! (sliceonbroadway.com) Follow these awesome people on Twitter: John Chichilla (@chilla) and Mike Sorg (@sorgatron). Also, check out sorgatronmedia.com and awesomecast.com for more entertainment; and view us livestreaming Tuesdays around 6:45 PM EST!
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