Ed Gandia explains why business writers price too low: they're selling based on their own budget, not their client's. Charge what the work is worth to the buyer, not what you'd pay for it.
Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia.
Hey there. Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast. I am your host, Ed Gandia and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to earn more and less time doing work they love or or better Client this episode is a little different and much shorter than usual rather than my typical 45 minute format. Today I'm sharing a quick tip with you and this is part of the regular audio insights that I publish for my private coaching clients. I just thought you'd find it helpful. So here we go. I hope you enjoy it.
In a recent coaching call, a client of mine was discussing how she recently quoted a brochure project for a client. This wasn't your typical brochure. It was a very specialized story based piece on a $25 million ranch and her client, a realtor of high end properties, was marketing. So she proposed that they take a different, more compelling approach to the copy in the presentation of the ranch than most realtors take when marketing such a property. That was my coaching client's suggestion to her client. To the realtor. The realtor loved her idea and they got to the money discussion. So my client, when she was thinking through the project and the discovery call, had a figure in mind of about $2,000. But she stuck to the process that I taught her using the wishbone screening technique and she asked the client for his budget. He immediately replied that he could pay her up to $3,000 for that piece. She was floored.
Now this is not a lesson about.
Asking the client about their budget, although the story proves that some clients will flat out just tell you or at least give you a range. This is a lesson about not selling with your wallet. So this writer was pricing the project in her head based on preconceived notions about what she felt was reasonable, what she's gotten for this kind of work in the past, what she felt the client might be able to pay, how long she was thinking it was going to take. And she admitted that was a big factor in coming up with a $2,000 and what of course she would feel comfortable quoting.
So that's how she arrived at that.
Figure in her head. But that's her wallet. So in other words, she was selling with her own thoughts, ideas, feelings and hang ups. She was selling as if she were on the other side, as if she were the buyer. But she's not the buyer. She's not the client. The client obviously was thinking bigger. The client lives in a different world. A world where he's marketing multimillion dollar properties and having a marketing piece that would increase the chances that the right buyer would come to him faster and more willing to pay asking price.
What's that worth to him?
Think about that. Do you think an extra thousand dollars on the right copy and approach for that brochure would be a good investment if he believed or could be persuaded to believe that it would make a real difference in his results? You bet. In fact, I'm willing to bet here that you could convince them that forget 3004 or $5000 would be a bargain. Better yet, with the right approach and confidence, I bet you can convince them to bring you in on a retainer basis to do more than just write these brochures. Maybe not as the first engagement, maybe not right off the bat, but once you prove to him what you can do and what your value is. And I'm thinking web copy opportunities, content marketing strategy, directing a content plan for him, helping him with that, you name it. My point is this. Look, don't sell with your wallet. The way you view the world, your business, your work and your value is not the way that everyone views it. You're living in one world. Your clients are living in another world. And when you come across a client or prospect who's thinking bigger, a very low fee can have the opposite effect. It will make them wonder, hmm, why is she so cheap? And it could make them look elsewhere.
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