Everybody loves sales? We should all bargain for what we want to buy? How about waiting for next season’s sale? All of us love such things, or so we are told, or so we have been trained. Of course, no one wants to pay too much for anything. After all, it’s our hard-earned money, isn’t it? Hmmm…. is that what you think? Do your co-workers think so too? Does your employer look forward to paying you more because he loves the value you bring to his company?

One reason why we look forward to sales so much is because we think that the work we do, the value we create, the services we offer, the goods we sell, aren’t really worth the money we want our customers to pay. If you’re honest, you would agree with me. Then again, all of us yearn for significance in our lives. We want to deliver genuine value and get paid value-for-value. And many of us feel trapped in a system that doesn’t allow us to do that.

So what can we do? Well, three simple things. Get competent, help your co-workers get competent, and always make your customer’s customer successful.

Get Competent

Do your co-workers and your boss constantly need to check on you? Are your customers always happy with your goods and services? Can your boss, and your co-workers trust you to take a month’s vacation because things will not fall apart when you’re away? Are they confident that, when you return, you will bring operations back up to even greater speed and effectiveness? If so, then you’re competent!

Help Your Co-workers Get Competent

Do you get irritated when people come to you and ask you for help, especially when you’re head-down in deep thought doing some heavy-juice work? Well, don’t! You can of course get them to come back at a time you specify, but don’t just brush them off or ignore them. Even more, don’t say no just because you don’t want them to take advantage of your goodness. If they are, pull them aside and speak privately to them about how they can and should become more and more competent. Gently and firmly. Bring them to your Boss if you need to, but do not simply bounce them off your back like the proverbial water and duck. Help others. Even if you know they’ll become more competent than you are at the moment.

Make Your Customer’s Customer Successful

Your real customer isn’t your customer. It’s your customer’s customer. That’s not just in a buy-and-sell scenario. It applies no matter what the framework is. Do you have that mindset? If you are, you will constantly be engaging with your customers on how they can make THEIR customers more successful! Get started now! It’s a simple decision!

Once you have all that, well, at least for a start, you can then start to discount discounts. Ask for better prices, by all means. Increase your value so much that you don’t have to.