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Getting What You're Worth

Written by: James Chan

Article Overview: To get what you feel you deserve, it is important to muster up courage to be emotionally truthful to a potential client. By speaking frankly about how you feel, your potential client may respect you even more. And more importantly, he or she will pay your fee.

Getting What You're Worth

When I first started as an independent, I wasn~{!/~}t merely happy when I got new business. I was amazed! I remember literally jumping up and down with joy when people decided they needed me, or, more accurately, my services. I was also relieved because I needed the income.

It~{!/~}s probably not surprising, given my state of mind, that I was undercharging. I had no experience running my own business. And although I was living in a fairly impressive apartment, my needs were modest. I based my rates on my immediate needs. I didn~{!/~}t dare think that my charges should reflect the full value I brought to the company that needed my services, probably because I feared that there wasn~{!/~}t any.

In the years since then, I have found that the key issue in whether you will get the job is not the fee, but rather your ability to outline a convincing course of action that promises a good outcome. In most projects, the difference between success and failure is going to be much larger than your fee.

You get business because others come to you with a need to be addressed. If you can meet the need, they will pay. If they don~{!/~}t want what you can do, you can cut your fees to nothing and still never get work.
In the years I have been in business, I have come in contact with many companies that I firmly believe need my services. Nevertheless, my belief doesn~{!/~}t count. A barber can stand on the street and look at all the people passing by who need haircuts. If he cuts the price to try to make them walk in the door, passersby might think ~{!0~}What a cheap barber~{!1!*~}but they won~{!/~}t walk in the door if they don~{!/~}t think they need a haircut.

Likewise, I have had clients who have come out of the blue and used my services. I have learned, very slowly, that I can~{!/~}t predict who will decide to need me, or when. All I can do is make sure I charge fairly~{!*~}both for my client and myself~{!*~}when they do. This is easier to do, of course, when you have enough business coming in so that no particular job seems a matter of life or death.

Still, standing by your price is good discipline, in good times or bad. Most of the time it works, but it takes courage.

Not long ago, I did a small amount of work for one of those companies I previously decided should be using my services. The results were excellent, and I was pleased to receive a call asking me to discuss a much larger project. It would require many months of hard work, and involve a trip to China with a top executive.

I was able to put together a sound proposal very quickly, then I began to agonize over the price. I hoped that my work for this client would go beyond this project, substantial as it was. It would be valuable to have so much time with the executive who would decide whether to use my services in the future. These are all things I have used in the past as excuses to undercharge. This time was different.

I quoted a price that was, I think, reasonable, but somewhat more than I have charged long-standing clients. Two weeks later, the phone rang, and it was the executive with whom I would be traveling.

~{!0~}We would like to go ahead with this proposal,~{!1~} she said. ~{!0~}But is your fee rigid?~{!1~} In the past, I had rarely come to this point. I had undercharged from the start. But I summoned my courage.

~{!0~}Please don~{!/~}t take this the wrong way,~{!1~} I replied. ~{!0~}I don~{!/~}t want to be rigid. If you were to insist that I take 10 percent off my fee, I might consider going ahead with the project anyway. On the other hand, I don~{!/~}t want to feel resentful when I do the work.~{!1~}

~{!0~}OK,~{!1~} she replied. ~{!0~}Let~{!/~}s just get started.~{!1~} A few minutes later she faxed me the contract, and the first payment arrived the next day.

This conversation took less than a minute. During that time I told someone whose work I deeply wanted to win that I wanted to be paid fairly, if she didn~{!/~}t mind. She didn~{!/~}t mind at all! We had a wonderful trip to China. She was extremely happy with the results of my work.

I~{!/~}d like to tell you that her company is an ongoing client, though at the moment, at least, that is not the case. Shortly after we returned, the company went through a corporate merger, and the executive with whom I traveled is no longer responsible for Asia. Perhaps I~{!/~}ll get the client back some day, but it is not a sure thing.

Even so, this less than perfect ending makes my point even stronger. If I had undercharged to get the client, I would still have been out of luck when the shakeup came. As it was, I did a good job for the company when it felt it needed me. I was paid well for it. And I have nothing to regret.

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Article Tags: apartment, belief, haircut, haircuts, job, new business, out of the blue, own business, passersby, success and failure



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