Thursday, November 05, 2026
Revenue's climbing and the bank balance still isn't. The real fix usually isn't your price — it's that your marketing never said who you're actually for.
Most SME sales conversations lose money in the first sixty seconds — not because the price is wrong, but because of the order it gets said in. Lead with your price before the customer understands what they're actually buying, and you have just handed them the only number they'll remember, no matter how good the pitch that follows is. This is the price anchor mistake, and it is quietly costing SME owners margin on deals they should be winning at full price.
Behavioural economists have shown for decades that the first number mentioned in a negotiation — the anchor — disproportionately shapes everything that follows, even when both sides know the anchor is somewhat arbitrary. The original research on anchoring and adjustment found people's final judgments stay tethered to whatever number they heard first, even absurdly unrelated ones. In a sales conversation, that means whoever states a number first controls the emotional reference point for the rest of the conversation — and most SME salespeople hand that control to the customer, or burn it too early themselves, by quoting price before value.
The enemy is not your price. It is sequencing: quoting before the customer has built enough perceived value to receive the number without flinching.
This is the three-step order Kevin coaches sales teams to follow, every time, no exceptions.
1. Confirm the cost of the problem first — get the customer to say, in their own words, what the problem is currently costing them in time, money, or missed opportunity. This becomes your real anchor, and it is usually far higher than your price.
2. Present the solution before the number — walk through exactly what they get and why it solves the cost they just named. Price introduced here lands against their own stated cost, not in a vacuum.
3. State the price once, then stop talking — the most common self-inflicted wound in SME sales is filling the silence after the price with a justification or a discount nobody asked for yet.
"Kevin has some amazing ideas around marketing, things we would have never thought of ourselves. He also helped us through the process of getting into supermarkets. He has gone above and beyond what he needed to!"
— Amy Nixon, Icehouse Coaching Programme
Most SME sales training covers the words to say. Very few cover the order to say them in, so salespeople default to whatever order feels least awkward — which is usually price early, to "get it out of the way." That instinct is the exact opposite of what wins the deal at full margin. It takes deliberate practice and, frankly, someone listening to your calls to catch the pattern, because it is nearly invisible to the person doing it.
This is a five-minute fix once someone points it out — and a fix most SME owners never make on their own, because nobody is reviewing their sales calls for sequencing, only for outcome.
If your sales team is quoting price before the customer has said what the problem is costing them, that's the first thing Kevin helps you fix.
...and you become the owner who wins deals at full price because the customer sees the value first.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Confidence up a quarter, down the next, tariffs easing then tightening — waiting for certainty is its own decision, and usually the wrong one. Here's a simple way to keep deciding well when the ground keeps moving.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
There's one role almost every SME owner has avoided filling for a year or more — while quietly doing it themselves instead. Here's the Who Not How framework, and the three-step test that makes the hire obvious.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
They nodded, asked great questions, said it's exactly what they need — then disappeared. Here's why warmth isn't a buying signal, and the three-message sequence that gets stalled deals talking again.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Most SME marketing describes the product and targets a demographic — and both miss why people actually buy. Here's the Jobs To Be Done framework, and how to find the job your business is really being hired to do.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Nearly half of businesses miss the target they set for themselves — and it's rarely because the team didn't try hard enough. Here's the three-number check that builds a 2027 target you can actually hit.
Monday, October 26, 2026
ActionCOACH, an EOS Implementer or an independent coach? A fair, source-linked guide for US owners, with a six-question test to match the help to your biggest constraint.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Gallup's 2026 global workplace data shows manager engagement is collapsing faster than everyone else's. Here's the research-backed 3-step fix for SME owners wearing the manager hat too.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Only about a third of seasonal businesses hold enough cash to cover their leanest months before the slow season hits. Here's the ten-minute reserve check before this year's peak trade.
Monday, October 26, 2026
A well-known coaching ROI study found a $7.90 return per $1 spent. Here's an honest look at where that number comes from, and what actually transfers to an SME owner.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Only around 20% of companies complete 80% of their strategic goals, and fewer than half of employees know what's expected of them. Here's how OKRs fix that at SME scale.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Bain research shows winning a new customer can cost up to 25 times more than keeping one you already have. Here's the CLV/CAC discipline that flips where your sales effort goes.
Monday, October 26, 2026
A 2026 Gartner survey found SMEs put just 12% of marketing spend into brand-building, against the 60% long-term research recommends. Here's what that costs you eighteen months from now.
Monday, October 26, 2026
Fewer than 5% of employees understand their company's strategy well enough to act on it. Here's the one-page scorecard that fixes it, reviewed in 15 minutes a week.
Sunday, October 25, 2026
Help to Grow: Management, a peer group like Vistage, or a business coach? An honest UK comparison, with best for and not ideal if for every option.
Sunday, October 25, 2026
Free and low-cost mentoring suits some NZ owners; paid coaching suits others. Here is how to tell which fits your stage, your problem and your budget.