Duct Tape Marketing

You've got to sing like you don't need the money.

That lyric to an old Guy Clark song best demonstrates one of my long held marketing principles.

Generate more leads, more opportunities, and more clients than you can possibly serve, and then raise your prices.

Here’s the theory – If I have more demands on my time than I can meet. I can look someone squarely in
the eye and name my price, because I don’t “have” to get the order.

I suppose I learned this idea by trial and error, but now I use it to incrementally raise the price of any new
product or service I launch.

Okay, another very practical reason for the “keep generating leads even when you don’t need them”
school of thought is that it allows you to work only with clients you enjoy.

Too many business owners find themselves enslaved by maniac clients that rob them of their value. Just
say no can apply to marketing too.

Lastly, and coming back around to Guy Clark, nothing is more appealing than security. If a potential client
sniffs even a whiff of desperation, your selling effort will move away from your terms and you won’t have
the guts to name your price.

So, what is the moral of the story? No matter how much business you think you have and no matter how many times the phone rings in one day, keep generating new leads and opportunities.

The only way to expect more for the same amount of effort is to create more demand for more of you. And then, sell like you don’t need the money.