But please introduce yourself with your first,
last name, where you're located and the name
of your business. Hey, Jovanka. Hey, everyone.
I'm Simon Severino. I'm the founder and CEO of
Strategy Sprints. We help founders and entrepreneurs
accelerate sales and happy to be here. Thank
you so much. So accelerating sales. Tell me more
about that. You know, many people right now,
they look at their pipeline and they go, ah,
it's not full. And then there is some people
that look at their pipeline and go, well, it's
full, but not with the right people. They don't
have the budget. They're not the right fit. And
so these are serious problems because if you
run a business and your pipeline runs dry, that's
the main risk. The main risk is a dry pipeline.
The second biggest risk is you burning out. And
so it's a hard problem. And my mission is to
be here. That's why I'm a coach and I have a
team of coaches and we support 24 -7. We're like
Jarvis. to the Ironman, right? The entrepreneurs
are Ironman and we are their Jarvis. And it's,
oh my God, Simon, what should I do? Should I
send this email or that email? How do I get that
deal back on track? And then we're here to support.
Absolutely. So as an entrepreneur myself and
a real estate agent here in Texas, I am very
aware about pipeline leads, referrals, and if
they stop. business stops so what strategy are
you using or do you use in order to keep your
clients on track or have them to focus on so
as strategy sprints it's 22 years that we coach
so meanwhile we have 274 strategies that work
and depending on what they do if it's a low ticket
item or a high ticket item if they're depending
on which industry they are, we pull those blueprints
for them and those swipe copies for them. One
thing that every listener probably has in common
is the pricing question. How much can I charge?
How much should I charge? What's the right price
to charge for my offer? And that's why I've put
together a little guide of 28 things that people
can do. And I'm happy to share it afterwards.
28 things that people can do this week to increase
their pricing power. Pricing power means you
can charge 25 % more for your current offer and
your clients say happily yes. They say thank
you. But they wouldn't if you don't have pricing
power. If you just increase your price by 25
% without increasing pricing power and value,
well, then they just go away. But if you increase
pricing power, that means that you're creating
more value or helping them solve more problems.
And there are 28 very specific things that people
can do to do that. Are you finding that people
are... elevating or increasing the price and
not increasing the value? Most people are not.
So intuitively, most people think that they have
to lower the price, which is not the right strategy
because now you're competing in a downward spiral.
If you win that, you're toast. You don't have
any profitability, no margins. So you definitely
don't want to lower your prices. Actually, most
people should increase their prices. But before
you increase them, you should refine those 28
things so that you create more value, you decrease
the risk for the buyer, and you think from the
buyer's perspective, what is it exactly that
they need right now? And when you just refine
those things, you can actually charge more and
they will say, thank you. Yeah, you know, and
what's interesting is I've actually been having
this topic with a lot of business friends and
a lot of entrepreneurs is that they fear raising
their price, that they're going to lose customers.
So how can businesses charge more without losing
their customers or clients? Friction in their
workflow decrease the number of people that they
need to do something. Decrease the number of
tasks that they need to do something. Or you
increase the value for them. You increase the
stickiness. Like, oh my God, no, I would miss
this so much. For example, Netflix. I have three
kids. All three kids watch Netflix. If Netflix
increases their price by 25%, I'm happy to pay
more. They can increase by 75%. My kids are happy.
I'm happy. You know, the value is tremendous,
tremendous. And I can read a book when they watch
Netflix. So I would pay five times more. That's
the value that Netflix and they know it exactly.
And so they are increasing their price and they're
not losing customers. So the prerequisite is
that you think about the buyer. What do they
exactly need right now? And in the example of
Netflix, they are doing those 28 things very
specifically. This is one of the teams that we
learned this from. They obsess about what are
people doing? What are they clicking? Which thumbnails
do they like? Which colors of the thumbnails
do they like more? Do they like three people
on a thumbnail or one person on a thumbnail?
Do they like five words or two words? And they
are continuously... observing these things, noticing
these things and improving the product accordingly.
And, you know, that is a great point. And I'm
not plugging Netflix in. They're not paying us
anything. But I tell you, they've raised the
price at least five times since I bought it.
And I have I still don't know how much I pay.
That is the value. 10X, right? Yes. Yes. And
so that's a good point to make for our audience
that is watching. You know, it is about the value
and maybe some individuals won't, will be more
like myself, won't care because again, it has,
it's servicing us in the right way. So passing
that on back to you, Simon, that is a great example
for businesses. Definitely. Today, one of my
kids said, I'm playing so much chess on my iPad.
Can I upgrade here and pay 10 bucks a month?
And I said immediately, yes. I mean, 10 bucks
a month for my kid to play more chess in their
free time? Of course. My God, that's an amazing
thing to do in your free time. So yes, of course.
Would I pay more for Kindle? Oh, yes, of course.
If we do those 28 things and I've put them together,
people can watch them, can implement them. It's
28 steps. I put them together as 28 slides so
that they can really implement this afterwards.
If we do our homework, improve a little bit the
value and improve how we package the offer, you
guys can actually charge more and people will
happily say yes. Yeah, I really like that. I
think that as I can relate, you know, being the
podcast co -host, I can only imagine how many
of the audience or the individuals that are watching
this is clicking to them. Because I believe,
as I mentioned before, there's so much fear in
raising the price that you lose the customer.
But it reminds me of that very familiar saying,
quality over quantity, right? If you have great
quality and great value in it, most people will
pay for the increase in price or they may not
ever notice. So as you have become the founder
of Strategy Sprints and you're noticing all these
different things and you actually given this
information back to entrepreneurs, business owners,
tell me about your vision and all of this. So
I get energy from helping people. I'm a people's
person. And so it's 22 years that I coach entrepreneurs
for this reason. This is where I get my energy
from. So my vision is to do this another 20 years
and to enjoy the journey, helping more people,
helping in more time zones. Because I'm teaching
now, the Strategy Sprints method has become a
certification. There is a book out there in English.
came out in China. This year will come out in
Russia next year. So I'm adding time zones and
adding coaches. This is how I can help more people.
And my vision is that in 20 years, even more
people have better sales processes because when
they come back home. And they have better sales
processes. You know, they're better moms. They're
better fathers. They're better husbands. They're
better friends. They're better people to be around
because they are relaxed. They don't think about
work anymore. And they're more fun to be around.
So that's my little contribution. Absolutely.
I tell you, I remember working in corporate and
I would go home and give the world or the people
that I worked for 100 percent and come back and
give everybody else 25 percent. When now I feel
like I've reversed that, which is it makes it
so much easier. But also, you know, I'm. As I
mentioned before, and I will continue to say,
being a podcast co -host doesn't mean that I'm
the expert. I'm talking to the expert. And I
too am learning much like the audience. And I
love that. And so in 22 years, Simon, 22 years,
what was your most significant learning experience?
Yeah, so sometimes I come, I work from home,
so I don't come home. But I walk over to the
kitchen after. nine hours of work and I'm grumpy
and I'm grumpy. I'm going, I'm still thinking
about something that went wrong here in the office.
Right. And so one thing that I learned is to
not bring that to the dinner table. So now at
the dinner table before I say anything. we have
a little ritual that we say it's a little prayer
which calms us down because also my kids they
come with something from school or somebody bullied
them and they come charged with something and
so instead of sitting down and charging away
we have a little ritual that calms us and then
we start an interview what made you sad mad glad
today and everybody interviews everyone And so
we calm down and we are more grateful for the
food that's on the table. Absolutely. And I tell
you, 22 years in business is. I would call it
success and then making it 22 years more would
absolutely be a way of identifying success. So,
of course, you know, in my mindset and understanding
your mindset, what's success to you? Success
to me is helping other people do what they want
to do. So in my case, it's entrepreneurs. And
so I help them solve the pipeline problem because
that's one vital element in their life. With
a good pipeline, everything else is manageable
and they will manage. With a bad pipeline, it's
tough. So that's my little contribution. And
as, and not to take up too much more of your
time, but I do want to ask if you wouldn't mind
sharing some tips that you have for entrepreneurs
and business owners. Yeah. So I've put together
this little pricing power guide, 28 very specific
things that they can implement this week. And
I've put them on strategysprints .com slash pricing
power. It's free. They can download it. They
can implement probably most of them and already
have great results. If they want to go deeper,
I will go to Amazon by the book Strategy Sprints,
which goes even deeper into that and has checklists,
etc. But maybe those 28 steps are enough already.
Do me one favor, Simon. Tell me one of those
checklist items. that could actually just bring
others back? What's one? One of them is think
about what's coming for your clients in 12 months,
18 months, 24 months. And how can your service
or product help them be ready for what's coming?
That's good. So sort of not per se looking into
the future, but future serving that client. What
would that look like? Yes, I think of my boy
asked me if he's allowed to pay for the chess
game. And so I'm thinking, what's coming for
him in the next 18 months, 24 months? Well, he
needs to be smart. He needs to think strategically,
to think two steps ahead and not just the next
15 minutes. And so, hmm, is it good for him?
Absolutely, yes. This chess game is actually
preparing him for what's coming for him. Because
whatever he does, right, if he has a math school
problem to solve or if he's debating with friends
or even if he's mountain biking, he has to think
three steps ahead. OK, if I jump now, what's
behind that tree? So those are things that are
coming for him. And will this chess game help
him be ready for that? If it's just slightly
a yes. I say, yes, have the budget, do it, pay
for it. It's worth it. And so if we bring this
to the business owners, they are not, let's say
you sell a CRM or you build websites for them,
right? They're not thinking so much, does this
cost me $2 ,000 or $5 ,000? They're thinking,
does it help me solve what I need to solve? And
so if you are the expert and you have... You
have a deep knowledge about what's coming for
them. And this is where you show your expertise.
And if they feel, oh, these guys, they get it.
They know what's coming for me. And this thing
is designed to make me ready for that. then price
is secondary. Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision
Pros Live. I'm looking forward to seeing your
reactions as these episodes continue to move
forward. This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a vision pro yourself.