Don't Beg For Work.

Early on in running my last company we did what many people do; we begged for work. 

Not actually begging - well, not using those words - but in the signals we sent and in our behaviours, we were begging for work. 

We had great meetings and conversations with prospective clients. Full of life, energy, connection and potential.

And then we’d talk about money. “How much do you charge?”.

We thought it better to charge a little, to open the door and get the relationship going. We weren’t asking for much; maybe a couple of thousand to show what we can do. Time after time it came to nothing. 

It felt like pushing water up hill. 

Until one day, I said something else. 

Same kind of meeting. Lots of potential, and then the money question. Rather than peddling the old “it’ll cost a few thousand to show you what we can do”, without planning or insight I said “it costs £45,000”. We in effect increased our price by 20x. That’s quite a hike. And you know what? They said yes. Straight away. No conversation. No chat. Just a “Great, let’s do this”. (Thanks Marko!).

Two things happened as a result of this:

1

In every subsequent conversation I priced ever more confidently. Not beholden to ideas of what it should cost. We went from winning a few, to winning most. And we did so with more and more money in the bank, feeling better and more confident in what we did. That one slip of the pricing tongue changed almost everything; how prospects felt about us, how we felt about our work, how we were perceived, our financial wellbeing, our market positioning and our marketing. 

Putting our prices up changed everything. 

2

It sparked a curiosity to understand what happened, which has taken me on a journey of behavioural science and decision making, of pricing and buying and why we make the decisions we do. Or, more specifically, why our clients do. Clue? Yep, the crazy, lazy needy mind! We’re irrational maniacs, subject to behavioural quirks of which we remain quite blind. A lot changed that day. We went from struggling, hopeful, friendly (if a little stupid) to a buzzing, bubbling, confident, creative machine, from pushing water up hill to, ultimately, a $multi million sale of the business two years ago.

And how is this relevant to you?

If you’re struggling for work, wanting / needing to change clients, in survival mode, hanging on by the skin of your teeth margins, put your prices up. Yep, you heard me right. Prices. Up.

And if you’d like to know how, without losing clients or scaring your grandma, I can help you.