Organizations pay headhunters more money to place one senior executive than they would pay all the coaches, trainers and people managers, combined, to develop that executive over their entire lifetime.
This is the Architect vs. Agent dilemma: of a 100 buildings in a colony, an architect was paid to design maybe only 5 of them, while the agents who sold the buildings would have made orders of magnitude more.
Its understandable that Architects feel that the market is lopsided as value is being created by them but captured by Agents.
While there is some truth in this, Architects need to realize and accept that Agents create value differently. They own the customers. That means that they operate in a world where the customer is always right, where they are not wedded to a product, where the only thing they care about is the customer’s satisfaction. And customers love that.
Architects, however, operate in a world where they are always right and where they are deeply in love with their own product. I would too, for anything I’ve labored to make.
Customers hate that.
If you’re a content creator, product manufacturer, artist or a coach:
- Add agency to your work. Own a few, good customers. Get them to see different products. Bite your ego when they trash your work and learn what they are willing to pay for
- Build a brand where the best customers ask for you by name
- Up your fee. BIG time.
If you’re willing to bite your ego and deliver what your best customers are asking for, you will be surprised by what they are willing to pay you.
Photo by Daniel McCullough on Unsplash