Professionals don’t discount. Period. Your lawyer doesn’t. Neither does your doctor. A set rate is a set rate. At least for them.
But what about you? Having a sale on products you sell to generate interest or say ‘thanks’ is fine, once in a while. It even makes people excited to test out your stuff. But have you ever felt the temptation to discount your services to sign on more clients? Come on, be honest.
Worse, you may be someone who has a “sliding scale,” meaning you determine what to charge once you get that prospective client in front of you. You’ve got to stop doing that! It’s about the worse thing you can do for your reputation, Client Attraction, and practice building.
Now, many people feel the pull to offer discounts to friends and people who can’t seem to afford their services. Here’s my thought about that: it devalues your services dramatically and shows others you’ve given them permission (as well as yourself) to think your services are not worth what you charge for them.
While you’re at it, you’re also giving them a signal to keep taking advantage of you over and over again. I remember when I was doing nutrition counseling, back many years ago, I was “pressured” by a client to give a discount. I was in a place where I “needed” clients, so I gave in, thinking that this person would not have signed up if I hadn’t knocked off those last $200 or $300.
I found I resented that client the entire time we worked together. Somehow, I was a little angry that I was forced into this and I found myself giving less of myself in our sessions. I didn’t like what I was doing. I just felt used. (Has that ever happened to you?)
It became clear that when someone takes an inch (asking for a discount and getting it), they’ll then try to take a mile (not believing the policies and procedures apply to them). I had to set up a whole bunch of boundaries in the relationship. Needless to say, the whole thing was a disaster and if I’d stuck to my original rate the first time (my boundaries around my rates) I wouldn’t have had this problem throughout.
Discounting is not necessarily good news for you and your reputation. Here’s what you can do instead. Offer different options, and different programs to fit all different budget levels. Let there be something for everyone’s budget, that way, you don’t HAVE to discount.
Your assignment:
Make a pact with yourself now that you will never discount. Yes, right now. Trust me on this one.
If the person still cannot afford your services, that’s OK. Avoid the temptation to reduce your rates, even “just this one time, because I like you.” (This is especially important for those who don’t have a full practice and really NEED the money.)
Let them know you’ll be here to help them whenever they’re able to. Most times, people come back to sign up for one of your programs when they can afford it a few weeks later. It’s worth the wait.
Instead, create different offerings at different price points to have something there for different types of clients and different budget levels. Wanna see how I set up different packages and programs with different price points, so there’s something for everyone? It’s easy and it’s all in the Client Attraction Home Study System™, the “bible” for attracting all the clients you need with proven, systematic processes that will help you fill your practice quickly and consistently, guaranteed. Here’s where you can get a copy: TheClientAttractionSystem.com.
© 2010 Client Attraction LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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Want to use this article on your website or your own ezine?
No problem! But here’s what you MUST include:
Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System , the proven step-by-step program that shows you exactly how to attract more clients, in record time…guaranteed. To get your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her weekly marketing & success mindset articles on attracting more high-paying clients and dramatically increasing your income, visit www.ClientAttraction.com .
I’m known in the marketplace as someone who takes a no-nonsense, no-excuses approach to marketing and getting clients, meaning, I do what it takes, and create systems for everything so that I’m always marketing. (By the way, my clients now do the same.) In turn, I always have a full roster of clients. That’s what I teach in my private coaching, in my Boot Camps, and in my Client Attraction Home Study System.
One thing though, which only my private clients know about me, is I also throw in a healthy dose of Manifestation, which means focusing on what you want in your life, in such a way that you start attracting what you want quickly. Some might call it “positive thinking,” but I believe it goes WAY beyond just thinking positively about something. It also takes action.
I use “manifesting” for just about everything I want to attract in my life (a certain amount of money, my boat, a new home, etc.); however, for the purposes of this article, let’s focus on attracting clients, lots of them, who happily pay your full fee.
As for just about everything in my Client Attraction System™, I’ve even come up with a formula or system for manifesting clients. Here it is:
- Figure out EXACTLY what you want in great detail (how many clients, paying you how much, with the best of circumstances).
- Come up with your BIG GOAL (“My practice is bursting at the seams with 15 clients happily paying my full fee of $_____.”)
- Each day, write it down several times (I do this at least 9 times), each time imagining how great it will FEEL to sign on these new clients.
- Go back and read the big goal OUT LOUD (this ‘locks’ it in place).
- Spend several minutes, eyes closed, imagining your full practice in all its details and glory.
- Write down one BIG action step you’ll take that day to make this happen.
- Notice the synchronistic, happy “coincidences” you experience during the day that seem like a sign from the Universe, as they relate to your big goal.
- Each day, spend a couple minutes writing down how very fortunate you are, what you are grateful for today, and what you would like to attract more of.
- While you’re at it, write a letter to whatever you call your Higher Power (I call mine “Universe”) and go into greater detail about what you want, asking for it to be done by a certain date.
- Have faith in the process. Don’t cancel out all your “manifesting” with negative comments or thoughts such as “why am I doing this anyway, it won’t happen, it never does.” If you start thinking that way, you can stop yourself right away and revert back to the big goal, and how it will feel to achieve it. Faith in this process is 80% of the game.
Granted, there’s a lot here and I do just about all of it each day, but you don’t have to. Even if you do only ONE of these things, consistently, you’ll start noticing opportunities coming out of the woodwork, happy coincidences pointing you in the right direction. Take action on these, they are divinely sent! As a result, you’ll start attracting lots more clients. I promise.
YOUR ASSIGNMENT:
It’s a new unusual way of attracting more clients, one that we’ve never talked about here and one that you might not be familiar with. However, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Even if you are familiar with it, perhaps you’ve not taken the time and effort to apply it consistently. Make some time for in your day for this, each and every day, and you’ll start seeing results quickly.
If you like the idea of this and want to try it in addition to the more pragmatic marketing stuff we regularly talk about, you’ll probably enjoy the book “Excuse me, your life is waiting” by Lynn Grabhorn. I did.
Back to “regular” marketing techniques next time. If you can’t wait until then, check out the Client Attraction Home Study System™ for attracting all the clients you need with proven, systematic processes that will help you fill your practice quickly and consistently, guaranteed! Here’s where you can get your own copy: www.TheClientAttractionSystem.com.
Want to use this article on your website or your own ezine?
No problem! But here’s what you MUST include:
Fabienne Fredrickson, The Client Attraction Mentor, is founder of the Client Attraction System , the proven step-by-step program that shows you exactly how to attract more clients, in record time…guaranteed. To get your F.R.E.E. Audio CD by mail and receive her weekly marketing & success mindset articles on attracting more high-paying clients and dramatically increasing your income, visit www.ClientAttraction.com.
Your capability of achieving really big things is WAY beyond your capacity to imagine them. That being said, you need to do a series of things to set yourself up for something BIG in your life:
1. Prepare – set yourself up, do what it takes to prepare for a miracle
2. Make your wishes known – be super clear about what you want and know that things are being rearranged for you behind the scenes, without you even knowing it
3. Believe – realize that Spirit, the Universe, God (whatever you call it) will always dream a bigger dream for you than you can dream for yourself
4. Surrender – release control. When an opportunity that is so out of the ordinary falls in your lap, surrender the control and say YES
5. Follow the next right thing – Just take action on the next opportunity that feels right when it shows up. Put the fear aside and just do it, with courage.
“Everyone you know knows at least ONE person who is your ideal client. That means it’s YOUR job to continuously educate your environment on what you’re up to and who you work with.”
In sifting through emails from a R&D survey I launched a couple of years ago, I read the responses, and honestly, I wanted to cry. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I haven’t been aware that most solopreneurs have very low expectations of what could be made in self-employment (I’ve been at this for almost 10 years after all!), but I just didn’t know how LOW. Until I got the responses to the following question: “What is the most amount of mo-ney you see yourself making as a self-employed person?” Not just this year, but EVER.
Close to 200 solopreneurs (mostly female) wrote in and shared with me their “Most-I’ll-ever-make-in-a-year” numbers. What shocked me was that the number itself was really LOW and the majority of people wrote in numbers within a short range: between $50,000 and $75,000. Sure, a couple of them wrote in $150,000, but even THAT seemed like a far cry from what I *know* is possible, when you shift the way you work, get good marketing in place, create systems for everything, outsource, and set up leveraged and passive streams of in-come.
“What holds many solo-entrepreneurs back from playing really BIG is the deeply ingrained fear that the bigger you and your business get, the more you will make yourself a target for criticism. I’ve noticed this too, and at first, I took it personally.
But then my friend Valerie Hayes shared with me that she coaches her pageant contestant clients that, as they become more of a celebrity, they’re now a target for gossip and to just “deal with it”. As she says, it’s just a part of human conditioning and you can’t do anything about it. It almost means you’ve “arrived”, a signal of success. That said, when you can just accept that this is part of playing really big, and that it’s a sign that you’re making more of an impact on people, it just means you can go ahead and take your business even bigger.
It’s not about you, it’s about them, so don’t let it stop you…”
Client Attraction Marketing & Mindset Breakthroughs Workshop. Shifting the way you work, manage your time and priorities
For more information, please visit www.ClientAttractionWorkshopInABox.com
“To reach that next bigger level of greatness (and professional success), you MUST be willing to step outside of your comfort zone and be willing to make the changes that seem to threaten your ‘safe’ way of being, knowing that you are always safe anyway. There is no other way.”
“There’s definitely a fine line between authentic self-promotion and being pushy. To make people aware of your problem-solving resources, without becoming ‘Client Repulsive’, GIVE GENEROUSLY. It’s easier to promote when you are GIVING something of high-value to a prospect. It’s an approach of SERVICE rather than ‘selling something’ or trying to ‘get something’ from your prospect. GIVING is much more Client Attractive and takes the pressure off of the person (and yourself). Let’s face it; people love to buy, but they don’t like to be sold.”
If marketing is one slice of the pie, Manifesting is another. And by manifesting, I mean the Law of Attraction, what you focus on with great feeling, you attract into your existence. At its most basic, here’s how it can be described: If you’re continually focusing on having a full practice of yummy clients who pay you what you’re worth, then you will start to attract that. If you’re focusing rather on the LACK of clients and you’re ticked off that people aren’t paying you what you’re worth, then you will attract that also (meaning, not having those clients or not making enough money). Simple, yet very powerful.
