January 14, 2017

“He costs twice what my other designer did. And I am so very happy to pay it!”

In one of my recent emails (subject: “Back to basics -> clients don’t want your time” on Jan 12) I said:

> Clients DO NOT WANT your hours. What they DO WANT is a business outcome. How much time it takes you to deliver a business outcome is irrelevant to your client. In fact, the faster you can do it, the more it’s worth to them!

A coaching program alum and list member wrote in with a fabulous anecdote that perfectly illustrates this truth (shared with permission, edited slightly for clarity, bold is mine):

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Haha - boom! Nice writing J.

You know it’s funny how real this is too. I have a good recent eye-opening example.

My old graphic/web designer (who INSISTED on billing me hourly) used to have this incredibly laborious and time consuming “process” for designing websites. It would take weeks and weeks if not months and months. Way too much back and forth. And every month I would get a bill that listed every cotton picking minute that she worked on any little thing. It was annoying truthfully - even though it’s just the cost of doing business, it bothered me that she was sitting there calculating every little thing and charging me, It felt like she was nickel and diming me.

So enter the promised land of my new web designer. His process is brilliantly simple and streamlined. He has one price that is broken up into two automated payments and most incredibly - he designs your website in ONE DAY. You start a Friday morning with no website, by the end of the day you have a brilliantly designed website. He built my business site, the entire thing, in one business day. There were a few 1 hour meetings and homework things I had to do prior, but the whole thing was like breathing fresh air for the first time.

And he costs twice what my other designer did. And I am so very happy to pay it. So happy that I hired him instantly to do all of our client squarespace sites.

I would never go back to paying someone hourly audible shudder

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ASIDE: You might argue that the hourly designer in this examply had a bad process or whatever, and that that is what lead to the poor client experience. No. That misses the big picture. No matter how good the seller is at their work, being billed by the hour for a non-trivial project can be a terrifying experience for the buyer. During the project, the client feels like they are strapped to the front of a bus that the seller is driving. Sure, everyone might make it to the destination safely, but the trip was a lot less pleasant for one of the parties.

Here’s my quote again:

Internalizing this truth and incorporating it into your business is a proven path to scaling your profits and improving ROI for your clients.

Win win.

Yours,

—J