I had a conversation with a client this week about renegotiating my fee. I had gotten so busy that I didn’t have much time to service this client, so I had the difficult task of telling him I had to double my rates and do less work for him. He said that he’d rather not pay more, but that he will anyway.
So, how can you double your prices, cut your work in half, and have the client be okay with it?
Make yourself valuable. If you are priced at the bottom of the market, established business owners are going to think that you’re not going to have enough time to service them because you have too many other clients. It also shows that you don’t have enough confidence in yourself. You’re going to attract budget-conscious shoppers instead of results-oriented buyers.
The first step to positioning yourself this way is to become the very best in the world at what you do. That sounds hard, and yes, it is really hard to be the best in the world at one thing. If you want to be the best in the world at digital marketing, that will be extremely difficult. However, it’s not so hard to be the best at the intersection of two things. What about digital marketing for dog trainers? You’re going to have to work hard, but if you hustle and you’re committed, you can absolutely master a niche in a year or two.
Step two is to charge higher prices by price anchoring your services. When you’re talking to those dog trainers, don’t talk about all the steps that you’re going to do for them. Talk about the return on investment. Don’t show them costs, show them what your services will do for their business.
The third step is what my friend calls “positive indifference.” This means that when you are talking to a client, you are unattached to whether or not they decide to go with you. You act as their adviser, tell them what you think the best solution is, and act indifferent towards them working with you. The easiest way to do this is to have so much demand for your services that you can’t possibly take on all clients.
To learn more about becoming the best in the world in a niche, visit https://www.christianmartin.org/podcast