Did a strategy day with an old client on Monday. Haven’t worked with them since the end of 2004, but they asked us to come back as they’ve just merged with another organisation and needed some focus.
They have some major goals for 2010 and beyond and knew they needed help.
So why am I telling you this?
Working through the day, there were many ‘aha’ moments – and lessons that pertain to any business – dare I say it, even yours! *smile*
Here are some of them…
One of the biggest issues that we find clients struggle with is price. And by that I mean putting it up.
Working with them years ago, they charged $3,300 for a particular service. They wanted to make more profit, so I told them to double it to $6,600!
Easy to say, not so easy to do. Or is it? Let’s just say we met some resistance – it’s a money thermostat thing. “Do I deserve the money? Can I justify the price? Are my clients getting value”… the list goes on.
But it’s your issue, not your clients. It’s in your head not theirs.
So we worked through the issues and they decided to go with it. The very next day they told a new prospect the price was $6,600 and the prospect without blinking said, “Where do I sign?”
And they’ve kept that price ever since.
So it was somewhat ironic that they now wanted to raise the price of a new service but were meeting major resistance from the new business partner who just couldn’t see himself doing this.
Fast forward a couple of hours and the price went from $5,500 to $6,997 and everyone was happy.
Something to note here… There’s absolutely no difference in what’s being delivered.
And what’s more, they’re going to tell current prospects on their books that they’ll get the old price till the 31st March and after that will have to pay more. Creates urgency and will get people over the line.
While all this was going on, I noticed the new partner was taking some calls on his mobile and walking out of the room, or just generally fiddling with his phone.
Naturally I asked why this was happening. After all they were paying us a lot of money to sit in the room with them and dispense advice, so was this a good use of their money?
Turned out that he was answering questions for a client that were not urgent and could have been handled later.
And he had a habit of doing this.
Which led into another lesson. Making yourself too available.
If you do everything for people at the drop of a hat, you devalue what it is you do. And then they expect you to always do it.
Not a good position to be in. You’ll end up doing stuff you really don’t want to do for people who don’t want to do it for. And you’ll start to resent the whole thing.
And if you’re in the consulting game, you need to establish a position of authority or your clients will stop listening to you.
People want to be led and making yourself too available is going to cause you grief in the long run.
And the biggest lesson of all?
They were flying by the seat of their pants – and they knew it.
They needed a strategic plan to help them implement their goals. They didn’t have a marketing system, sales system and retention system that left nothing to chance.
What about you? Do you have a Marketing System for getting prospects in the door, where you then have a Sales Conversation to make them clients, and then a Retention System that has them coming back for more?
Getting and keeping clients is a choreographed dance. All the steps need to be in place to make it graceful and elegant.
Get it right and your clients will love you and you’ll never be hungry.
So wrapping up – what’s your strategy for 2010 and beyond?
If you feel you need some outside input (and frankly we all do – including us, to help us see the wood from the trees), I invite you to give me a call on (02) 9499-7958. We can have a no obligation chat and maybe I can help you double your prices too. *smile*.
Rashid.
P.S. At a couple of stages I asked the client whether anything we were covering was new – and it wasn’t. However they all still took pages of notes and had major aha moments. Repetition is often a good thing. You experience things differently depending on where you’re at.
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