Maybe you can relate. You’re at a business event, someone asks what you do and you tell them. Then comes, “Nice. How much does it cost?”
Or, you get a call or email from someone who found you online, and there it is, “How much does it cost?”
If your business has a set fee structure, then you can quickly and easily respond, if you choose. For other more service-type businesses (creative services, marketing, etc.) the answer isn’t so simple and often depends on project specifics.
For many smaller, creative service-type businesses it may also depend on the current workload and even the desirability of the client or project. Regardless, I will say that any price you give will be too much if the person asking doesn’t fully know, understand, and believe in the value of your product. This bares repeating. Any price you give will be too much if the person asking doesn’t fully know, understand, and believe in the value of your product.
I would even venture to guess that about 95% of the people asking the question don’t fully know, understand, and believe in the value of your product or service. That’s the problem and it often poses a major dilemma for business owners who provide custom, high-level, or creative services.
Do you sacrifice high, customized quality for a cookie-cutter approach that allows for a defined, but often more low end, fee structure? Or, do you stick to your guns and focus on the type of clients who value high, customized quality – and can afford it?
For those who choose the later it probably won’t matter how you answer the cost question coming from the type of person described earlier, because whatever you say will, most likely, be too much. So, rather than spending time and energy trying to convince those price shoppers that your product is worth it, you may want to focus that time and energy on getting more (qualified) prospects to know, understand, and believe in the value of your product.
How you do that could be the focus of an entirely new article. But, I’ll offer some parting thoughts for now.
Certainly, referrals from trusted sources are one of the best ways. Additionally, good press — if you’re lucky enough to get it, good marketplace exposure (if you do good work, and it’s visible, smart folks will always want to know who’s behind it.), talks and presentations (especially in front of the right audience), and lastly – great marketing including lots of smart, engaging, video.
Talking Photo via Shutterstock
