I'm expensive. Raise your bar.

Trigger alert: what you are about to read may be counter-intuitive to a familiar narrative. But look closer, and you will find a deeper insight. Every leader, founder, company website, sales collateral, podcast, keynote, and orientation program has this tagline running endlessly: customer first. Yet nobody double-clicks to understand:

Why Customer First? Why not you first?

Somewhere hidden is the elephant in the text; those who pay money listen to them. Who cares what you have to say? Is it a cop-out to making money rather than proving what you believe? So why not align with customers, give them what they want, and make money? What's wrong with making money? Aren't we all, well, may not be all, but most of us, in the business of making more money?

If you don't care to make money, who's stopping you from running a non-profit? Society could do well with more people helping charitable institutions and doing well for humanity. Good karma, no?

Customer needs keep changing, so keep changing your company. Organizations hammer words like agility, flexibility, and adaptability as their core strategy and the cornerstone of company messaging. So as service providers, you sell what they want to buy. Why waste time developing your own thought process? It is long, hard, and is not conducive to quick revenue. They say quick money for a gasping enterprise is the need of the hour.

But why are you gasping in the first place?

Have you created something off-tangent? Have you not read the market correctly? Have you quantified the business problem accurately? How are you solving the situation smarter than existing players? Why would or should any customer pay you attention, let alone their money? If the answer is, where's the time? You may find yourself out of business in time.

So, some are in the business of solving business problems or providing services their way. Or the way they know best. It's what they are really good at. They are happy, excited, and driven to solve business problems to the best of their ability.

Customer see authenticity.

Customers love authentic people. They want to be the same as their customers. Being true. Being original. Being you. If it means customers need to change to suit your product fit, they will. They will realize the authenticity of your approach and adapt. It is a fallacy to believe that your customer is running the business optimally. So change is always on the cards, with or without your product, service, or solution.

The only ask is you need to be convinced that your product can solve their problem better than anyone on the planet. You can't be apologetic about it and expect your customer to be appreciative of it.

If you are not proud of your product, why will the customer be?

The counter-argument is that in an environment where extracting payments on time is a nightmare, how can you experiment? Call me rigid or even old school. Should I be very proud of my product and yet be lonely or indifferent and be popular? Customers can reject you and head to your competition. But remember, the secret sauce is that there is no such sauce. If your competitor offers a better product, service, or solution, it's time for you to raise the bar.

If your customer keeps signing off with those who offer the best price discounts, are you even required to sell anything else? Why are you in that business? How will you sustain? Scale? Are you spending the best years of your life being mediocre? Have you done enough to locate those customers who understand you? Do you have a sales team that is taking that message to the market? Or are they merely looking to close deals to get by the quarter incentive target?

The question is, who is your ideal customer? The one perpetually whipping you into discounts and freebies? Choke you on extra attention and support, more than what they pay for? Or those who value your partnership?

The experience you get, is the experience you give.

So will you be in denial? Rationalise and say, "this is how business happens," or create a market for you? Will you hide in the micro successes in the short run or go for the big game-changing macro impact? If you are unsure what you made solves a significant business problem for a large customer base, I hate to break it to you, it's not the unicorn you were hoping it to be!

Stop trying to be like another car stuck in traffic, hoping to squeeze ahead in the next available gap. The reality is it will co-exist in the traffic of life, sometimes getting ahead and sometimes stuck, but

getting to the freeway of success needs a different type of a driver.

The thing to think about is, in the age of being scrappy, have you become crappy? Why, then, do you expect high quality for a BMW vehicle? Would you pay the premium if they said, please make do with a sun-mica dashboard and a hard rubber seat?

Jugaad and the "please adjust" mindset have taken away the joy of perfection. It robs the customer of a superior experience. Is it possible to keep customizing for everyone? And if you did, what becomes of your originality? Where is your vision? Where is your conviction? Where is your thought clarity? And if you didn't have one, why are you in business?

Be original, be you, and back you.

So if you are a company selling expensive software, niche hardware, or an exclusive service, or even a job seeker - who commands a higher CTC, stop being defensive about it. Be proud of it, and give it the gravitas it deserves. People pay money for quality.

Let people know why it's best without adding "at this price point" and” Stop being apologetic about being expensive, original, different, a class apart. Stop being shy about being good. Sometimes it takes time to hit the jackpot, but unlike else, it lasts longer and is more profitable. Be proud to say

Yes, I'm expensive, raise your bar.

--

AB

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