How to control your luck?

Why the survivor's mistake (survivorship bias) isn’t a mistake at all. And how I sold a product with 10 times more price than a competitive one.

It happened a few years ago. My dream came true, and I was assigned to develop a new business division in an international B2B company. Finally, I had an opportunity to launch innovative products on the market.

My task was to sell healthy ingredients for food and biologically active additives manufacture. I was working with the leading world producers which develop the ingredients for the health, beauty, and youth industry.

The dream had another flip side. I needed to sell pricey ingredients that were virtually unknown to the Ukrainian producers. In particular, I had in my portfolio a product of an advanced European laboratory that nobody in our office could sell for 11 years.

Why?

First, one really didn't know about it in Ukraine. Secondly, one kilogram of this product did cost as much as 2.5 tons of buckwheat. Third, they had cheap (though not as high quality) analogs on the market.

My sales colleagues thought my case had been lost already. The clients have convinced me that I was crazy. There's no reason to enter the market with such prices.

Thought I was in love with this product. I clearly understood its value and potential relevance. Because young and toned skin without any injections is a shift in human consciousness! It seemed to me that I had found a true treasure as a “philosopher's stone”. I was urgently thinking it needs to hand this to the people. It pushed me to learn more about all its technological intricacies.

I shoveled a lot of the scientific literature and also clinical studies in order to understand all the advantages over other cheaper alternatives. But the cost of this product outweighs the potential human consciousness shift. The customers sweep away all their concepts of beauty because the products' cost was so high. The argument “this is a high-quality product of EU” wasn't an argument for them at all.

Frankly, after the N-failures, I felt like a stupid person.

Especially when I was offering the client a little-known product. And this product was 10 times more expensive than its Chinese counterpart. And before the call to the client, I have already felt rejected. I didn't believe that he would agree. And he really said that's not relevant for him at the moment. After all, the producer stopped the new product developments.

And the client kept on telling me those excuses during the 4 months.

“Stop”, - I thought to myself. Well, well, what am I dealing with now? This is an obvious internal conflict. I believe that the ingredient is potentially in demand and I do not believe it at the same time.

By this time, I was already on the subject of neuroplasticity and I learned the RPT method (Rapid Personal Transformation). The technique allows us to use such conflicts as an entry point for defining the past negative experiences sabotaging actions in the present.

So, I started to "dig":

- What feeling do I have when I offer an expensive product, even if I know that it’s super cool?

- Nobody needs what I propose.

The further chain has led me to the feeling that nobody needs me. So, I came back to my past and to the beginning of this point. I came back to the moment when I felt like this for the first time. I found it. Likewise, I remembered a situation in my childhood. I discovered some wonderful things, and I ran to show my mom. She was busy and she brushed me off. And I suddenly felt rejected. The roots of this went even deeper. I found the reference point where this scenario was laid and transformed it.

Next week I called the customer:

- Well, did you decide something about the launch of the product?

The answer was like a bolt from the blue:

- Yes, we are launching, I'm just making an order for an analog from your competitors.

I breathed in and couldn't breathe out.

After all, I told him about this ingredient and about conceptually cool innovative products we can launch with it. And now he is ordering cheap stuff from the competitors.

And here instantly, without having any thinking, I asked him a question:

- What is the dosage of this analog?

He answered.

All of a sudden, the clinical research data came to my mind and I told him with lightning speed:

- Our product has 100 times less dosage because it’s much more effective.

The most mysterious thing here is that earlier I had already compared the dosages of my ingredient with the analogs. Completely different numbers were in the public domain. Since these data were not in our favor, I discarded this loophole with the dosage. Yet, it turned out that my "philosopher's stone" was 10 times more expensive in nominal terms. Though in fact, it turned out to be 10 times more profitable for the manufacturer due to its purity and uniqueness.

Outwardly, it looked like I was just lucky. I randomly found myself in the right place at the right time and asked the right question. If I had called, for example, 15 minutes later, the deal would have been completely missed.

A bit of luck? Not at all.

I trained my "radar" by constantly practicing the RPT technique with myself, my relatives, and my friends. It was helpful in recognizing these subtle, invisible obstacles. I was able to succeed in this case with the help of this controlled “luck”. I was able to succeed in a business in which only I saw the prospect.

Afterward, my partners and I together managed to launch 11 new products on the Ukrainian market in less than a year. Another 12 were preparing for market launch by the time when I left the company. All it has happened became possible because I combined work with my subconscious and real actions.

This is how the children's conflicts are reflected in the results of business projects in the most unexpected way. When only we manage our states, we can achieve great results.

(C) Lena Markaryan,

Business Development Coach | Mentor | RPT-therapist