Episode 009: AMA About Estimating Vs Pricing and Team Involvement
Nov 8, 2023
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Joe discusses different pricing approaches, emphasizing profitability and efficiency. He suggests celebrating profitability with bonuses, creating project manifestos, and setting personal goals within projects. Sales should focus on creating high-value opportunities with partners.
Pricing strategies should prioritize profitability and efficiency, with options for budgeting up or pricing down based on project constraints.
Creating clear project manifestos and allowing personal goal-setting within projects can align teams and foster motivation.
Deep dives
Determining pricing and managing team involvement
The podcast episode discusses the challenge of determining pricing and managing team involvement in creating estimates and proposals. It highlights the tension between the team wanting to deliver high-quality work and the sales side being aware of budget constraints. The host shares their own experience of initially relying heavily on estimating to determine pricing, which resulted in high prices. Over time, they learned to base pricing on past projects and have fewer lengthy estimating meetings, ultimately aiming for efficiency and profitability.
Different approaches to pricing
The episode explores two primary approaches to pricing: budgeting up and pricing down. Budgeting up involves allowing the team to determine the cost of a project and then conducting pricing calculations on top of that. Pricing down, on the other hand, entails working within the budget provided by the client and finding creative ways to deliver the project within those constraints. The host emphasizes the importance of understanding the reality of each situation and adapting pricing strategies based on factors such as leverage, client relationships, and financial needs.
Creating a culture of profitability and efficiency
The host suggests two strategies to foster a culture of profitability and efficiency within the team. First, they advocate for making profitability and efficiency key focus areas, celebrating achievements in these areas, and aligning motivations towards working smarter, not harder. Second, they recommend creating clear project manifestos that define the team's purpose and goals, helping align everyone towards achieving success within the given constraints. Additionally, allowing team members to set personal goals within each project can further fuel their motivation and ambition, even when working with budget limitations.
In this week's AMA Joe discussed different approaches to pricing and emphasized the importance of making profitability and efficiency a priority for the team. He suggested celebrating profitability through bonuses and recognition and creating clear project manifestos to align goals. He also recommended focusing on creating high-value opportunities with partners rather than just closing deals within client budgets.
Key Points
• Joe shares his experience with estimating and pricing at Happy Cog, where he used to convene department heads to estimate projects in detail, resulting in high prices and expensive meetings (0:27)
• Joe discusses different approaches to pricing, including budgeting up (letting the team figure out what something costs and building a price) and pricing down (working within the client's stated budget), and emphasizes the importance of making profitability and efficiency a priority for the team (4:03)
• Joe suggests making profitability the team's "love language" and celebrating it through bonuses and recognition, as well as redefining success for the team when operating within constraints. (6:07)
• Joe recommends creating clear project manifestos to align goals and create a rallying cry for the team (8:27)
• Joe suggests having team members create personal goals within the project to challenge themselves and define their own version of success (10:27)
• Joe believes that sales should focus on creating opportunities with partners where their value is so high that they can dictate their own price, rather than just closing deals within client budgets (11:55)
• Joe emphasizes the importance of operating within existing constraints while also working towards building more freedom in the future. (13:53)
Next Steps
• Joe recommends creating clear project manifestos with the project manager, sales, and team leads to define the manifesto of the project. (8:37)
• Joe recommends having team members create personal goals within the project to challenge themselves and find ways to improve their skills. (10:27)
• Joe suggests that the sales team should focus on creating opportunities with partners where their value in you is so high that you are naming your price and telling people what things cost. (12:16)
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