Charging what you’re worth doesn’t always make sense? How can that be? Sandra Martini’s article on this really fails across the board because it doesn’t come from the right angle. In fact, it’s so wrong that it’s scary. Her message tells you to adjust your rate when a client complains, when it should be the service adjusted.
This article is not to attack anyone, but to address this problem from the correct angle.
Charge What You’re Worth And Deliver An Excellent Experience
If you are charging someone what your rate is, and they are complaining, are you paying attention to what your client is disgruntled about? It could be more along the lines that you failed to deliver a satisfactory service to your client.
If you deliver on what you said you would, then people will pay the price in order to get great service. Charge what you’re worth and deliver an excellent experience. If the client complains, address the situation and make it better, or refund them for what hasn’t been done.
Kimberly Castleberry, in referring to the same article linked earlier, also agrees, and says in a Facebook post:
The author begins the post stating that you have the skills and are billing at the rate you’re worth.
Then she goes on to say that you leave your client underwhelmed because the experience you delivered didn’t match the billing rate.
Guess what? If the experience you deliver doesn’t match the billing rate… YOU’RE NOT WORTH the billing rate UNTIL YOU IMPROVE the experience.
In this article, there isn’t anything wrong with the billing rate… but there’s obviously something wrong with the experience the individual is delivering.
Rather than coaching the business owner to improve the experience (which is what they SHOULD be doing), the author takes the angle that the billing rate is the problem.
And this is why so many business owners will stay broke.
Beware of bad advice.
The following is a simple example. It hasn’t happened to me, but it does illustrate the issue.
It’s like McDonalds having created a new hamburger meal that had some awesome secret sauce and a few more tasty ingredients, and was priced two dollars more than other combination meals. I go and buy it at the price they charge, but my meal was missing essential ingredients that had been originally advertised. Then, when I asked for a manager to make a complaint, the manager did not correct the problem.
Let’s also add in the fact that I’m also a loyal customer who usually buys other combination meals, and never had a problem. Of course, the other meals I’ve bought were cheaper, but I got what I paid for, and I was satisfied.
So, not only did I pay more for the meal, but I didn’t get what I paid for, and I got poor service.
Normally, McDonalds and other restaurants strive to correct the problem if the product is not as advertised or the service is poor. While McDonalds is a restaurant, and a big business, the same principles should be practiced on a small business basis too. It falls within the bounds of integrity.
When You’re New to Offering Services
If you’re new and just building your client portfolio, it’s understandable that your rates may be lower, and eventually you will increase with your experience. However, in order to increase that, you must be keeping your client experience more than satisfactory to justify such a change. It’s not necessary to offer more services. It’s necessary to office a solid and excellent experience, and then the client has nothing to complain about.
As a note, it’s probably ideal for you to follow-up with clients on occasion to ask for testimonials or ask them to do a survey on your services.
The Client’s Budget
Now, it’s different when there are people saying that you’re too expensive for them. It’s most likely because they don’t have the budget to afford you. It’s not because of your services, because really… they haven’t tried them yet. There will always be people looking to get a discount in any manner. If you lower your rate to meet their demand, someone is going to complain that “so- and- so got a discount, so why can’t I?” Also, you will get in the habit of continually lowering your rate.
It’s not your fault if they can’t afford you, and they will find someone who will meet their budgeting needs. You might feel bad when their project ends up looking like a badly done tattoo, but eventually they will get to a place in their own business to be able to afford better service, and consider you once again.
Side Note: I know, I’ve had this happen many times with clients over the years that couldn’t afford me in the beginning, but could later on.
As said earlier, charge what you’re worth and deliver an excellent experience. Don’t feel guilty about what you are charging. Just make sure you’re keeping the line of communication open with your client and keeping them happy.
Nice post! It is true that it’s hard, specially for a beginner, to know what you worth!
But those advice are nice, and I hope it will help a lot of people!
You can’t really put a price on your name. The term “paying you for what you are worth” is an understatement. You can never ever put up a price if you are not established. Your post pretty much sums up how I feel right now. Thanks for sharing.
Surely, this is the result of bullying clientele? Manage their expectations, and help them realize what your work is doing for their business. Does a leap of three places on Google have a good chance of resulting in their making more profits? tell them. if they talk money, it is the language they speak – talk to them the same way.
I’m sure this will help a lot of people – especially people that are just starting out!
Awesome info!!! I’m sure it will come in handy some day soon ;-),thanks for sharing!
I couldnt agree more charge what you are worth and deliver an excellent experience. As a beginner is hard to know what rates you should charge but once you become more experienced and deliver great service then you can increase your rates too. This is a wonderful post with wonderful advice, thank you
You make some great posts. If you are going to set a price make sure your work matches or exceeds it.
I love this post. If you do a great job for your clients, they’ll be happy to pay your fee. If you miss the boat on something, do what it takes to make it right. You’d be surprised how many people will give you another shot!
This is great information and I think it’s so important for people to charge what they’re worth. I think often people don’t know their worth and if that’s the case, they really need to step back and reevaluate.
I have been doing my job for what feels like forever. I still have a difficult time charging what I am worth. It comes with practice, though.
Great article, you must always be aware of the work produced and how much it is worth. Overcharging and never getting hired is worse that making decent money at a lower rate.
It’s not about over charging. It’s about giving the value for the money spent.
I am always nervous to over charge. It is good to see what others are charging for similar services.
This is great information especially for someone just starting out. I can imagine it would be hard to know what to charge.
Good article. It is always hard to determine our worth when it comes to business activites.
It is so hard to charge what you are worth. I tend to undercharge, but have been working on charging what I am worth and delivering a quality product
Charging what your worth can be tough task.
Yes! Yes! Yes! People need to stop under valuing themselves!!!
I love your title! It had me from the beginning.
“Expensive” is very relative to the budget of the client. If affordability is the problem but they really want it, I guess they will find ways to fit the budget need.
This is a great post and will help many indeed. It is something business owners should live by. Great advice. Thanks for sharing.
This is so true! I remember feeling a bit insecure and would undervalue myself when I first started to monetize my blogging! Great information!
Very good post. I think for myself I under value myself and do way more then I should for the payment or product received.
It’s tempting to post something for free sometimes, but with a few exceptions I won’t because that’s not fair to other bloggers. I like the list you’ve put here, it’s a good reference point.
When charging for something, there are certain expectations and if you cant live up to ’em, people get upset. I know I was upset when I bought a taco salad from el polo loco yesterday and it didn’t have any chips in it. Or guacamole. Or sour cream. Or beans. It was a mess! lol
This is such a great post. So many people are tempted to charge less just to get more business, but that only leads to the constant undervaluing of your services.
This is one reason I am not a real fan of people charging based on what their peers charge. Your service may far surpass or be far worse than the competition, lol.
This is a great article! One of my favorite favorite talks about self-worth is a video called “F*** You, Pay Me”. It really helped put things into perspective for me.
Love this! I have a DS company and many times I do bazaar shows. A lot of the people that come to these bazaars are looking to not pay full price. So i have to remind them about the quality of the products. Some will buy other won’t! Those that do buy will keep buying because they know the worth of the product.
I am the WORST when it comes to pricing my work…I wish I had a built-in monitor to pinpoint the potential clients who can pay what I am worth. My problem is thinking more about the clients than myself.
This will help a lot of beginner’s. This is sometime’s the hardest thing to do when starting out. I always try to charge what I would make if I go into the office for the day, because I know that I’ll be able to give more than what I charge. It’s great when your client’s feel that you are worth every penny.
I have to agree – a lot of people tend to not realized their own worst… they could be taken advantage at some point.
You can’t succeed without charging and showing the world what you are actually capable off.
Wonderful article and full of inspirations, thanks and keep writing wonderful 🙂
I couldn’t agree more! Charging what you’re worth allows you to make a profit, but it also helps you to afford the amount of time necessary to create a stellar product!
As somebody who works typically on an hourly basis I agree with all of this advice. This great post says in fewer words what many startup books fail to deliver across multiple chapters.
Solid advice Nile!
And it definitely helps to be as selective as you can with your
client selection.
Because typically (obviously not always) when working with the right clientele, no matter your particular price points happen to be, this situation that you wrote about, happens less often.
But still in all, you offer some very sound advice! No matter your particular rates happen to be.
Great post very informative and your advices motivates me. Thanks for sharing!