A good friend of Ripple (and a client, natch!) wrote a post about asking for the best price. That’s always a good idea, of course, but I think there’s a question to be asked prior to that question: “How do I get the awesome version?” Not for everything, mind you, but for the stuff you care about, the stuff that matters, searching for the lowest price first almost guarantees that you will get what you paid for.
Asking “how do I get the awesome version,” even if it’s only rhetorical, helps you and anyone you talk to establish the starting point, and you are far more likely to get to awesome if you start looking for it than if you start by shopping on price. Looking for awesome beer selection? You probably won’t start at Wal-Mart. Looking for an awesome sports car? You probably won’t start at the Land Rover dealership.
On the contrary, starting with cheap almost always results in the same sentiment over and over: “It’s fine. Not awesome, but can’t beat the price!” Usually said with a shrug, a subconscious affirmation that you don’t really care about whatever it is.
A funny thing about looking for awesome is that you often get it at no additional charge. People can sense your enthusiasm, your passion, and often rise to the occasion, stretching to deliver the awesome they always wanted to deliver. They just needed someone to appreciate it. Once you’ve established awesome, you’re free to ask for the best price, especially if there are multiple people all offering similar awesomes. But don’t start there, because Mr. Discount rarely knows how to be Mr. Awesome.
Now of course this is not a new concept. Most folks do this already, maybe without noticing. For the stuff we don’t care too much about, we start with price, because the implications seem trivial. Janitorial service. Hard drives. Gasoline. But what might happen if we started by looking for awesome first, in everything?
On the flip side of the coin, how do you communicate awesome to a potential customer?