If you’re focused on delivering value, competition becomes an old acquaintance whose face you recognize but whose name you can’t remember.
Whatever mix of these traits a DIYer might have, it all adds up to one thing: they don’t see a return in value which exceeds the price they are paying.
When you offer options and price them appropriately, you make it easy for your prospective client to go through the mental math of comparing their perception of the value of extra benefits received in the enhanced option vs. the added price paid.
As you think about soliciting testimonials from your best clients, think resumes. When your client mentions the measurable outcomes they’ve experienced from your work, ask if they will write a testimonial based on that statement. Tell them you’re happy to get them started with a draft to edit freely if they wish.
The benefits of offering options include giving choices, which most people prefer, and better matching different clients, who value your service offerings differently, with your service offerings they most value.
If you’re solo or small professional services business issuing proposals to prospective clients, those proposals should always have a “good until” date.
Your practice is like that razor blade. Discounting your services may seem harmless in the very short run, but it injures in ways you can’t detect. It damages your brand, as your price is a marketing signal. Based on how you set your pricing, the signal it sends can be one of inferiority. (It works the other way, too: your pricing can exude signals of quality.)
Sure, maybe it’s faster and cheaper to act on the “I can do that” impulse, but only in the very short run.
A better way to frame these conversations is to start out with something like “let’s see if we’re a good fit, and to do that, I need to ask some questions.”
LinkedIn For Professional Services Providers: An Interview with Gregg Burkhalter, The “LinkedIn Guy”
On this episode of “The Price and Value Journey,” Gregg Burkhalter, dubbed “The LinkedIn Guy” by his clients, joined host John Ray to share his advice about effective relationship building and personal branding on LinkedIn.
© 2018 Ray Business Advisors, LLC.