What if you worked ALL DAY with clients who LOVE what you do, who are fully engaged in the process, and who want more from you in every meeting? What would that be like? There’s a secret formula to attracting those kinds of clients, Raise Your Prices! When you substantially raise your prices the only people…
Most people start their business with a broad target. We throw some things up against the wall to see what sticks. Our biggest fear is that no one will buy, and so we try to sell to everyone! By trying to be everything to everyone, we weren’t the perfect thing for any client! Plus, we…
We talked previously about the massive uncertainties that we’re facing in 2020 — unprecedented unemployment globally, a genuine public health threat, a presidential election year, and social change that we haven’t seen in a generation. My recommendation was to narrow your focus, to pick one thing that you could do consistently and focus on doing…
It’s only when the tide goes out that you learn who has been swimming naked. ~ Warren Buffett What’s going on right now is not a test, but it is showing you what’s not working. If you step back from the crisis a couple of paces and look at your business overall, the stress of…
Earlier this week, I talked about the pros and cons of retainer pricing, and some folks responded, asking, “So if I’m not doing retainers, how should I be pricing?” What is value pricing? When we solve a problem for a client, it creates value in their company. We either help them to sell more, spend…
In my last message, I talked about the problem of retainers, they seem like a great way to smooth out revenue and make delivery more predictable. Still, in reality, they may turn into a bog of over-servicing and under profitability. I asked you to tell me about your experiences, and you were very generous with…
Maximizing monthly recurring revenue (MMR) is a goal for most business owners. Knowing that we are going to have that retainer payment coming in each month makes it so much easier to plan our cash flow, our staffing and makes it easier to sleep at night. When I talk to agency owners they want as…
Getting retainer clients who pay you a fixed fee every month is one of the best ways to make your revenue more predictable. It’s incredible to know that you’ve got $45,000 from 5 clients coming in on the first of every month! But there’s a problem with fixed monthly fees — what are you delivering…
This week we talked about how the “market rate” for your services is irrelevant — your specific qualities and capabilities will attract different prospects than others in your market. Those qualities impact the price you can charge more than the market does. We also talked about we can identify ONE critical feature or benefit that…
In my recent survey of over 100 business owners, I asked them to agree or disagree with the following statement. We are priced significantly higher than our competitors. The results showed an almost perfect “bell curve,” with a slight tilt toward agreeing. Which brings up the question, “How do we know what our competitors are charging?…