Episode 52: Eric White on Jobs To Be Done

May 2, 2016

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Today I have an awesome interview with a long time student of mine, Eric White. When Eric started he was a typical commoditized freelancer, but he made the transition to high-value business consulting. He has a background in developing business software. He enjoyed working with people and was the guy who spoke with clients to find out what they wanted in their software products.

Eric’s current consulting work is understanding what clients actually want with their software. He wants to meet them in the right place and discover what the solution for their problems are. He likes the job of figuring out what is motivating each side and what they need to make the project happen. His specialty is the higher-level people portion of managing software projects.

Today’s topics include:

Playing in the problem space can be more valuable than playing in the solution space
Being able to articulate and understand problems is a skill that adds a lot of value
Eric was going through his own business struggle when he came across Double Your Freelancing Rate
Brennan showed him how as a consultant he can increase his value 10X
People want more premium clients and to have more time to spend with family and work on goals, they want what making more offers as opposed to just doubling their rates
It’s not what you actually do, it’s the value that it offers
If you only look at the specification, you are not connecting in the most impactful way, looking at the means to the end that you provide will better able you to provide what they need
Understanding what motivates the customer makes things much easier
Think about where you have been extremely satisfied with service and try to emulate that, perfect service solutions are smart and really resonate

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