I was with a friend the other day when I answered a call from a potential customer, this customer was linked by a friend who profusely begged me to help this customer and I couldn’t refuse. I charged this customer a ridiculously low price and my friend in the room with me had his mouth wide open. Yes, it’s true we quickly closed the deal and the customer paid in minutes, but not without bargaining, I, further reducing the price, and doubts from her.
Immediately I dropped the call, my friend exclaimed: no wonder you’re always broke! And this hit me hard.
This customer bargained because the initial price was already unbelievably low. If you want to be in business as a coach or a writer, I want you to know that ‘you shouldn’t exist for everyone and can’t save everyone’.
Before paying, this customer told me that she couldn’t pay beyond half upfront, I politely informed her that the procedure in my business holds full one-time payments, no installments are allowed, and she’s certain of a seamless and confidential transaction. After passing this information, I left her with her thoughts and continued with other jobs. The next credit alert my phone received less than ten minutes after I held my ground was from her.
What is the point?
If your services are cheaper than expected, your coaching or writing business will be looked down upon.
Yes, people tell you to keep competitive prices and all that in order to have more jobs and stuff, but lady, man, whoever is reading this right now, I want you to know that this will only get you the lowest quality jobs, the lowest quality clients who’ll bargain, lack appreciation for your services, etc. You’re not selling bananas or candy, because you know bananas are bananas and candy is candy, so you have to sell what others are selling except your products are some special breed or type and some other circumstances that’ll help inflate your price which we’ll talk about in another post to avoid digressing too far from the main topic (except you’re a banana coach or a candy coach, then that’s a different ballgame and you shouldn’t undervalue yourself), therefore, competition isn’t your business, the only barrier and challenge you’ll ever have is the quality of your services.
In January, a non academic staff from the university I attended suddenly called me on phone requesting that I teach her the business I do, I accepted, but she thought I’d do it for free, even I thought I’d do it for free until someone asked me if I was smoking demons… Why would I teach this type of shit for free?
After this, I resolved to collect payment, yet was worried about charging her the normal price.
When she came for a free consultation, I gave her a very low price, yet she reduced it further by 230% and told me that her husband already told her to ignore any coaching because he landed a very cheap source of information which he’ll share with her later, I was bewildered, yet accepted because I truly wanted to help her. She promised to pay in the first week of February, yet emphasized that all the money may not be paid at once. I was very uncomfortable with that, but I was scared of losing a customer since I urgently needed money.
February came and went, yet no callback or payment from her.
What’s the point? If my mindset were what it is now, I’d have politely told her to go wait for her husband’s cheap source. Also, I’d have told her the real price, no reduction and no bargaining. Yes, she wouldn’t have been able to afford it, but that’s the point! I’m not here for everyone, I’m not here for those who can’t afford my services, only for those who can, and only a limited number of high ticket clients per specific amount of time, this way I can ensure focus and more productivity. I’d rather train just one person who’ll value and appreciate what they’ve learned and actually use it to better their life, than to hold tons of clients at a time, get burnout, yet end up with clients who’ll never want to implement anything they’ve learned because they did not make enough investment. The amount of investment a client makes can be the best wake-up call they’ll need to listen to you carefully and apply what they learn, because they wouldn’t want all that investment to go to bunkers.
For example, this non academic staff I mentioned admitted that she’s frustrated by her current coach who keeps juggling between her 9-5 job and their one-on-one coaching, which leaves them no time to interact. She said and I quote “if I didn’t pay her, had it been for free, I’d have left long before now. I just didn’t know how to leave all that money to waste”. This confirms that a client’s investment can influence their dedication and willingness to learn and use the new knowledge.
Another example is “me”. I almost dropped out of the university for reasons I may get to tell you guys about someday, but each time I remember how much my parents had invested in my education and how hard it was for them to come up with the money in the first place, I was deterred because I couldn’t let their struggles and investment go to shatters.
People make the mistake of thinking that if they charge their true value, clients will lose interest. Well, those are not your clients. You only want clients who value what you offer so much that they’re willing to invest anything necessary to receive training from you or have you do a job for them.
If you want to maximize your income, then you must reduce the number of clients and increase the quality of clients and the quality of your services, that way, you work less and earn more. But you won’t be able to achieve this if you’re here for everybody.
