April 23, 2019
Nothing solid to support your price?
Sent by Jonathan Stark on April 24th, 2019
Have you ever gotten a lead on a project and dejectedly thought something like:
“There’s nothing solid to support my price :(”
This thought is a sign that you’re starting from your side of the table. I start from the other side (i.e., the client’s side).
Of course you can’t justify a price yet. It’s too soon. When it comes to a custom proposal for a project, there is no price before value is determined. And there’s no value determined until the client’s desired outcome is determined.
How do you determine the value of the client’s desired outcome?
Ask them things like:
- “Why do this at all?”
- “Why not NOT do this?”
- “Why invest a bunch of time and money into this?”
- “Why take this risk?”
- “Wouldn’t this just feel like an insurance policy?”
- “How would you even justify this to your CFO?”
- “Why wouldn’t your CFO just nix this whole thing?”
- “Why do this now?”
- “Why not put this off until next year?”
- “Why hire an expensive professional like me?”
- “Why don’t you just do this in-house?”
- “What about outsourcing this to someone cheaper?”
This is what I mean in The Why Conversation when I say “try to talk the client out of hiring you”. By doing so, they are forced to articulate the importance of (and to an extent, the value) of the outcome they desire.
If you CAN talk them out of it, there was no real money in it anyway.
If you CAN’T talk them out of it, you’ll have a good idea how to best serve them, what language to use in your proposal, and how to set your prices.
Yours,
—J