Number thirty-three: Do not discount
Good day. I'm Troy Dean from Video User Manuals and Agency Mavericks and this is the 101 Ways to Elevate Yourself and Demand Higher Fees. A practical guide for WordPress consultants to start attracting better quality clients, work on better, more interesting projects, and get paid better fees. Now, let's go elevate.
Number 33, do not discount. Now what I mean when I say discount is this. You put in a proposal for a website and let's just say you quote five thousand dollars to design and develop a website for a small business client. And the client comes back and says, “Look, we really like your proposal. We had a great meeting. We really want to work with you, but we've only got a budget of three and half thousand dollars.” And what I see happens so many times is, WordPress consultants say, “Okay, well, look I'll do it this time because frankly I need the business.” Without saying that, that's what happens in the WordPress consultants head. I really need this job. I'll do it for three and a half. I won't make as much profit out of it, but I really need the work.
Two things happen there. First of all, you've just told them that you were ripping them off in the first place by agreeing to do the job for three and a half thousand dollars. So you send a really bad message. So you were just sort of adding $1500worth of fat, were you? And we've just shaved that off. So how accurate and authentic was your initial quote in the first place. So there's a huge amount of mistrust that just gets added to the relationship straight away. And that kind of happens on a subconscious level.
But second of all, you set a very dangerous precedent. That client now owns you. If that client rings you up and says, “Hey, come across town for a meeting because we want to add a whole bunch of features.” You're going to do it. You're basically now bowing to the client and you've given them all the power. So do not discount.
If a client comes back and says, “I've only got three and a half thousand dollars.” Say, “Okay, let's look at the scope of this project. You tell me what is absolutely imperative for this project to go live and what we can take out. Because if you've only got a budget of three and a half thousand dollars, we're going to need to take some things out of the scope because I just cannot deliver what you've asked for that money.” And sometimes you might have to be prepared to walk away from a job, but I promise you this. If a client asks for a discount, if they negotiate on the price, and you drop your price, that client is going to be difficult. They are going to be hard to manage. Their expectations are going to be unrealistic. They're probably going to drag their feet with content. They're always going to ask for a discount because you've set a dangerous precedent.
And if they say things like, “This might lead to more work if you give us a good price now.” The question I would ask is, “Do I want more work if I have to discount it?” I don't want more work if it's not profitable. I want more work if it is profitable. So if a client's asking for a discount on a promise that they're going to refer more work to me or give me more work in the future, my initial feeling is, “Well, I don't want more work from you because you're just going to keep asking for a discount and that's not sustainable.” So do not discount.
In the next video, I'm going to talk about how you can keep your client informed and why that's important. Until then, go elevate. Make sure you subscribe to the 101 Ways podcast in the iTunes store. Just search for 101 Ways to Elevate. Or visit up at wp101ways.com and download the free 101 Ways eBook.
