Number nine: Value your time
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 nine: Value your time. So, what do I mean by that? What I mean is don't pick up the phone and talk to your potential new client or your existing client for 10 or 15 minutes and give them some free advice and help them solve a little problem without generating an invoice. In fact, what I like to do is have all of my clients on regular monthly retainers so that they have allocated times throughout the week where they can call me and speak to me on Skype or on the phone, because they've paid in advance for that time. If you don't value your time, your clients won't.
Another thing I like to do is when I have an initial client meeting with a potential new client, I like to set the tone right from the start and say, “Hey I'm so glad we can finally meet. It's great to meet you guys. I just want to let you know I've got to be out of here in 45 minutes, because I have another meeting across town, or down the road, with another client that I have to get to. So I just want to let you know that I've got to be out of here in 45 minutes.”
Set that tone right from the start. It does a couple of things. It means that you're going to get straight down to business, and it also tells them that you have an agenda, that you are busy, and that you are in demand. It sets a precedent right up front that your time is valuable, so they won't pick up the phone, ask you a question, and expect that they can just talk to you for half an hour without getting an invoice. So value your time right up front and train them to value your time as well.
In the next episode, I'm going to show you a plugin that I like to use. I don't even show the client that I'm using a plugin, but I like to use this particular plugin just to show them how easy their new website is going to be to use. It's probably not the plugin you think it might be.
So look forward to the next episode. Until then, go elevate.
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