Fees: How You Discuss Them is Key
How you present your fees can be as important to clients as what you charge.
Stumble and bumble when you present those fees, and you may well run into price resistance. Communicate with confidence, and you probably won’t.
Present your prices with polish is by sharing reasons why you’re worth your design or consultation fee, margin, mark up, etc.
Fee “justifiers” can include things like your…
+ Experience
+ Design specialties and expertise
+ Awards and other recognition
+ Clients: who you serve, and how
+ Educational background
You can also justify your fee by explaining how you save your clients time, money and headaches, how you manage the entire project, etc.
Another way to avoid price hassles: present your prospects with personal marketing materials that educate them as to your value. Examples: bio sheets, testimonial letters and lists of your products and services.
Luckily, I have not had to justify my fees as yet. I do try to come across, when asked my fees, as confident in what I charge, and not giving a “well, if it’s alright” type of response.
I also use my website to give a lot of information about me, my services and my fees. This way I know, that the vast majority of calls I get from people who have been to my site, they are already informed as to my fees. There is no justifying it - these are the fees.
I look forward to reading your further postings. Thank you.
Comment by Kathy — February 6, 2007 @ 9:35 am