A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how Greg wanted to give away his personalised calligraphy bookmarks at a local fair. And how his kids “forced” him to charge for the wonderful work he did.
You can read the whole article here.
This got me thinking about all the other times we’ve worked with business owners who’ve struggled with pricing and frankly not charging properly for the service they provided.
So the obvious question was what caused the struggle and why didn’t they feel they could charge?
The short answer is it comes down to their perception of the value they bring to the table.
Let me explain…
Most business owners are technically highly proficient. They’ve spent years working on their craft and are unconsciously competent. In other words they just do things without realising the day to day complexity. And as such they often don’t value the depth of their expertise.
Which leads to them thinking, “What we do is just normal – and isn’t worth mentioning.”
Which is a big mistake.
Why? Because it undervalues what you do in your own mind. And then you feel you shouldn’t be charging for it. And effectively you sabotage your own success.
So what’s the solution?
Recognise it is education (both initial and ongoing) as well as practice and experience that leads to mastery. You’ve likely spent years getting to where you’re at with your knowledge and experience. Which gives you a great ability to solve problems your clients face.
And if you need convincing, the best way is to go back through your client files and look at the results you’ve achieved for them.
Treat each client as a case study. Look at the initial situation they came to you with, look at what you did (the process, the knowledge and experience involved) and the results you got them.
And then ask yourself if they’d been able to achieve these results without your help. Usually not, or it would have taken a lot longer.
Yes, it’s a mind game – but it’s a very important one. Because if you truly don’t believe you’re worth the money you charge and don’t believe you get results, you’ll sabotage your ability to close more business. And frankly you’re not doing yourself or your potential clients any favours as you and they miss out. You with growing your business. They with getting great results in whatever area you can help them with.
Once you’ve been through this process, create actual case studies detailing the before and after. And don’t stop there. Interview your clients and find out from them exactly what they think about what you did and the results.
Most of the time you’ll be very pleasantly surprised at the extra benefits they mention – stuff you’d never have thought of. In fact, what you thought of as the main benefits could be quite different from what they took away.
Which feeds back into your marketing material and sales process. (If you see a consistent pattern in benefits you hadn’t thought of – you now incorporate these into your marketing material as other prospects are likely to want the same things – leading to a completely new USP which you’d never have thought of.)
You just have to go and do it.
But I know most of you won’t. And it’s not for lack of intention.
Being in small business ourselves and having worked with business owners in over 25 different industries, I know the day to day issues which subsume everything, forcing you to put these business building activities on the back burner – where they generally never get done.
So engage us to do this for you.
We’ll help you create case studies which act as convincers for your own worth. We’ll also interview your clients, look for additional benefits and generate a case study and testimonial.
And we’ll shine a spotlight on your expertise so you realise its importance and enhance your ability to close more deals.
Remember, this material isn’t just good for helping you realise your own value, but provides tangible proof that you can deliver. Proof that you can put on your website, newsletters, and prospect information packs. All of which will help you close more business.
Take action! Give me a call on (02) 9499-7958 or reply to this email and we’ll get the ball rolling.
Rashid.
