I love a website that opens with the phrase, “Why did the clam strip?”
(I’ll give you a link to find out at the bottom.)
Here’s some more from that website:
“For 5 years, we have always said that when we reach 11,109 requests for Fried Whole Belly Clams, we would start selling them. We reached that number last week, so Wilmington, here we go!
Let’s start with the small print”
The website continues:
“THESE ARE GOING TO BE WICKED EXPENSIVE!!
In Maine terms “these ain’t cheap” They are expensive in Maine, they are expensive in all of New England. Have we mentioned how expensive these are?
Clams, especially the quality we use, are at a near all-time high price right now. We will use market pricing, but that day’s price will always be posted on this site.”
The first question here is: WHY DO 11,109 PEOPLE IN WILMINGTON, NC WANT WHOLE BELLY CLAMS?
The second question is: IF WHOLE BELLY CLAMS ARE SO EXPENSIVE, WILL PEOPLE IN WILMINGTON, NC BUY THEM IF THEY ARE AVAILABLE?
The third question (for me) is: HOW DOES THE RESTAURANT MANAGE CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS ABOUT AVAILABILITY AND PRICE WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY WHIPPING UP DEMAND FOR SAID CLAMS?
Let’s find some answers.
Starting with #3.
This is the closing argument on their website:
“They’re here! Unless they’re not.”
Call us to find out.
“Tell your friends! Or don’t.”
And enjoy the clams yourself.
That’s pretty clear, eh?
And a picture of what look like FRANKLY VERY DELICIOUS FRIED CLAMS. (Which more or less answers #1: Why do people want whole belly clams?
Sooooooo, a few weeks after introduction, what’s the verdict? Well, there’s this:
And here are the responses to that post:
And then HERE is the facebook post that somehow meshed with my day yesterday and my need for a newsletter topic and my fondness for the Maine Lobster Roll Company and somehow birthed the fastest newsletter I’ve ever written:
Here’s a pull quote from that customer’s post:
“I didn’t get a pic of the whole belly clam roll bc i devoured it! Let me just say that it was LOVE AT FIRST BITE!!! I can only describe that bite with a few words: Crispy, Creamy and Briny DELICIOUSNESS!!! I am officially “hooked” on whole belly clams! It was so delicious that I initially wanted to have them for myself, but they were SO tasty that I want EVERYONE to experience them!”
(To find this again I had to search “whole belly clams” on Facebook and I guarantee you my website is going to rank highly for “Whole Belly Clams” once Lovelyn posts this on the blog. (Last time I wrote about the Maine Lobster Company, I ranked highly for “hot lobster” for a year. I’ll link that newsletter below, too.”)
So, what’s the verdict?
How do you introduce a shockingly expensive (to the uninitiated) product to a new market without revolt?
How do you get your customers to go to bat for you?
You share the ingredients to the secret sauce.
You show how the sausage is made.
You pull back the curtain.
Have you heard the phrase, “Sunlight is the best disinfectant?”
It’s a paraphrase of this quote
“If the broad light of day could be let in upon men’s actions, it would purify them as the sun disinfects.”
which written by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in his 1913 article for Harper’s Weekly.
I posit that this saying has endured because it is true.
You could apply this to a lot of things going on in the world right now, but here’s the one I’m writing about since this is a business newsletter:
We’re talking about how to make your customers gleefully pay whatever (or just about whatever) price you put on something.
$20 Orange Juice
When I visited Ft. Myers, Florida frequently (above pic is me and my buddy Maria Zampini!) I would go to the Sun Harvest Citrus packing facility and store.
Where I would buy a $20 gallon of orange juice.
I dunno. Maybe it wasn’t actually $20 but it was close.
I got to watch the oranges being squeezed! I got to sample it straight from the source! I got to watch them pack the oranges!
I could SEE how fresh it was and I could watch the orange juice pipe FROM WHERE IT WAS BEING SQUEEZED to the drink dispenser before it HIT MY MOUTH.
Maybe it tasted better because of everything I just described. I was SET UP TO LOVE IT from first sniff of fresh oranges.
Glow-in-the-Dark Petunias
These have been on my mind lately.
I got to see them glow at the NNBA meeting in Idaho a couple of weeks ago.
I wrote about them at the very end of my guest piece for the buZZ newsletter last week. (I’ll link it below.)
And then Time magazine put them on the cover this week.
According to the LightBio website, you can pre order a set of 3, 2-inch plants for $39.99. So maybe the equivalent of 1 6-inch pot that looks like a basic white petunia, except it’s not.
It glows in the dark.
But you don’t know that unless you KNOW THAT.
And you don’t know what it took to make that plant grow in the dark unless someone SHOWS you or TELLS you.
Online, that isn’t a heavy lift. You can have a whole website about it with pictures and videos and everything.
At the garden center? Unless there’s some amazing packaging, stellar POP, maybe a “viewing hut” etc. etc. it’s gonna look like a $4 petunia.
Except it’s $40.
HOW DO YOU SELL THAT?
(I have some ideas. Email me.)
You’re EITHER gonna have to show how the sausage is made OR you’re gonna have to develop some really great programming around it. (I have some ideas. Email me.)
____Your Expectations
LOL except not.
I say “Loweryourexpectations.gifffffff” all the time, but I hate doing so.
What we really need to do is manage expectations — not just about what somebody is going to get, but how it gets to them.
It is exhausting. I’m not gonna lie.
And, if we, as an industry, we want to have a shred of a chance of appropriately pricing our products and services, we have to show and share more info about what goes into what we produce.
Luckily, we have all kinds of cool information, photos, and behind-the-scenes videos to share.
When you see what goes into getting a piece of a stick (a cutting) to turn into a gorgeous 3 gallon shrub, it’s easier to justify and/or understand why you have to pay $50 or $75 for it.
Now, the conversation about the economy and who can afford to pay for what is an entirely different one-on-one conversation that I’ll have with you over a new 7uP Shirley Temple.
When more people did the same things or led a similar life to their neighbors, you didn’t have to explain how you grew the flax, and harvested it, and dried it, and threshed it, and carded it, and spun it, and wove it into fabric, because your neighbor did it too.
Today, our lives and our occupations are so siloed that we have PowerPoint parties to explain to our friends what we do.
You can’t get mad at someone for not understanding how much value you put into a product or a service you sold to them if you don’t help them understand it.
It’s why I make so many explanatory Looms for our clients. I walk them through the process of how we made something. So they can understand the value.
Or at least see what went into making it. Value is a judgement and the perception of value varies widely.
If you go above and beyond for someone, you need to tell them. You don’t have to be nasty about it. They’re just facts.
I had this convo the other day:
“For new consulting clients I charge $200/hour. For retainer clients for other work, I charge $150/hour. For our web maintenance clients I charge $125-$150 an hour. The lowest hourly price I have is $100/hour and that is for a handful of people I’ve worked for for 10 years or more. Your price per hour is ______.”
You can’t be mad at someone to whom you’re giving a good value if they have nothing to anchor it against.
One time someone said to me, “Well KATIE. I did all of this work for FREE and you’re MAD at me? How did you THINK this all got done?”
So, um, that person was a contractor of mine that I DID pay.
I had no idea what she was doing was out of scope.
I PAID HER TO BE THE EXPERT. It wasn’t my job to know she gave me 2x work for the price of 1. It was her job to tell me that.
Your Challenge: share the recipe
Want people to be so hyped when they come in to buy the new petunias or your full priced holiday wreaths or this or that?
Want them to be banging down your door to get you to do their pots for them?
Want them to tell all your friends about how great of a landscaper you are?
Start showing them what goes into what you do.
Not only will you manage their expectations. . .
You’ll manage your own.
Wow, even though the first 3 minutes are a little rough every time, we are still podcasting and winning new fans! Episode 29 dropped this week.
You can find the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and more!
There is a fair amount of swearing, so not a good “kids in the car” listen. You’ve been warned!
THANK YOU to everyone who has sent us nice notes!
PLEASE Y’ALL: if you like the podcast, rate us 5 stars! All you have to do is click on your app and tap the stars!
Imma just tell you: I foot the bill for this podcast. It is sponsored by The Garden of Words and all of my gray hairs. I do it out of love and self preservation AND it helps us greatly if you subscribe, like, share, and rate it.
Thank you!
Handy Links
Each newsletter always has a mix of fun and functional links. Here they are! Have a link to share? Send it to me!
Here is the original hot lobster article.
My guest buZZ newsletter: Future Nostalgia
My favorite new free tool
This product makes it super duper easy for me to document how I do certain processes and procedures on the computer. If you need to train office staff, online customer service staff, or document how to correctly fill out a spreadsheet, this is what you need. They do have a free version. It records and annotates your clicks.
Best new book I’ve read in AGES
November Tech Connection column: What got you here won’t get you there.
HOUSEKEEPING
How in the sam hill are we almost at the end of the year? Whelp! We are.
GOW is closed Wednesday-Friday over Thanksgiving and most of us are gone between at least December 24-January 1. That means if you want to START HERE with GOW and explore having us help you with anything in 2025, we need to talk with you NOW. Please take a look at this page and grab a discovery call slot.
I’ll see you back in the box at least one more time before the end of the year. Between now and then I’ll be in Death Valley.
Like for reals.
Have a great weekend, and United States people: GO VOTE!
ART PS! Some arts from here and there. The top bouquet is ALL from my garden!!
