Am I charging too much? Or not enough??
mariagudelis | November 30, 2009
Internet Marketing Consultants sometimes struggle with how and what to charge clients for their services.
Although I have taught students in my past training programs how to gauge this, and warn to NOT under-charge, sometimes, it can still be a little brain numbing.
A friend of mine, Aliza, found a very interesting article that touched exactly on this subject, and I wanted to share it with you.
This article addresses questions such as:
- How much should you charge?
- How perceived value plays
- A major role in these services
- How to avoid cheap clients and cheap jobs
I’d love your thoughts on this…
Go Here to Read the Article
…then come back here and give me post your comments on the subject!
Interesting idea and i am interested. Nice tips for measuring services, in addition to what you say always remember that you always make a good service to a good customers thats all thanks.
Maria, also check out this later article I wrote: 8 Reasons to put your prices UP this recession…
http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/blog/8-reasons-to-put-your-prices-up.php
Generally, I’d advise anyone to aim to make their brand one that people describe by saying, “I know you pay a bit more, but…” If you can do that, you’ve cracked it.
Best wishes,
Ben
Hey Maria,
Thanks for sharing the article – it’s right on. The other articles on that site are also very informative and helpful.
I think part of the problem why people undervalue their services and then undercharge is that they don’t have a clear USP. I think your pricing is directly connected to your USP.
So, if you undervalue what it is you do, than your USP is likely to reflect that, by being weak or vague.
How can you then charge a premium for your services if you don’t even believe you’re “worth it” in the first place?…
Food for thought (and profit) indeed. Thanks,
Russ
Maria,
Thanks for the heads up on a very informative article worth its weight in gold. The part about not being the “CHEAP” web designer makes alot of sense, no matter what you specialize in I believe that being known as the “CHEAP” anything will have more disadvantages than advantages.
Thanks again for the insight
Maria,
This article reaffirms what I have been saying to others who have not experienced years of selling like I have. When a person sells themselves, or their services, on price alone they are destined to come up short in the end. If everyone would change their mindset to reinforce the quality and services they are providing will be worth more in the long run than the money a client would spend, they will always succeed. Besides, starting with a high number and working down is always better than starting with a low number and working up. For those who are new to selling, I suggest they invest some time into reading as many books on how to sell, as they can, to understand the psychology of peoples buying habits. One book that I have referred to for years is by Tom Hopkins, “How to Master the Art of Selling Anything to Anybody”. Remember, when we were in school, they taught us everything they thought we should know to be successful in the world, with one exception, how to sell ourselves to others. The KLT (Know, Like and Trust) factor is what many seem to be missing when engaging a client – most are concentrating way too hard on the sale and not the relationship. Hope this helps EVERYONE! Thanks for bringing this to everyone’s attention.
Twitter: jimbo3891
says:
Thanks Maria.
I appreciate encouraging articles like this – it reaffirms that what we’re charging is not out of line with what we should be charging. In fact, we should probably charge even more.
As for discounting, a strategy we’ve used is actually taking away services to reconcile the reduction in pricing. Drop service “A” and we reduce the monthly amount by $100. Drop service “B” and we reduce the initial cost by $500. Of course, this is done with the client understanding that they’re torpedoing their marketing efforts. AND, we never eliminate the core items because without them they client might as well do NOTHING differently from what they’re currently doing.
Thanks as always for the excellent information you provide.
I get this error when I click the link to read the article:
File not found
Firefox can’t find the file at jar:file:///C:/Program Files/Mozilla Firefox/chrome/en-US.jar!/locale/browser-region/region.propertieswww.webdesignfromscratch.com.
* Check the file name for capitalization or other typing errors.
* Check to see if the file was moved, renamed or deleted.
Twitter: jimbo3891
says:
Hey Jack.
I’ve seen this (not on this link, but other links). I don’t remember for certain, but I think I usually end up having to close Firefox and then reopen it. I’m not sure what the problem is, but it must be a “glitch” in FF. Good luck with that.
ayant d’enormes difficultés dans notre correspondance,je ne sais plus ce qui convient de faire car la suite du jeu dépend de la bonne compréhension que l’on a de la langue aussi bien anglaise que française.N’aurez-vous pas des sites francophones me permettant de jouer correctement?
Bonjour. Comment allez vous. Je suis americaine mais je parle français, vous avez besoin avec quelque chose?
Twitter: Plakaqueen
says:
Maria, another great big thank-you for bringing this to our attention! We can take out some of the points here and use them subtly in our presentations etc…. a really valuable article
Heya Maria
Good link. VERY good article. I know someone who REALLY needs to read this article; I’ll be forwarding a link asap.
Thank you! =)
I particularly liked the “Discount but don’t devalue” paragraph. Some very simple, but I would warrant highly effective tips right there.
Thanks again,
TheNightOwl