Pricing your service adequately takes a healthy self-image

Salespeople. When you’re confident about your worth, the need to align your pricing to the market simply doesn’t come into play. FILE 

By Seraphine Ruligirwa-Kamara

In Summary

• Clients don’t do us any favours by working with us so it’s unnecessary to behave like an underdog.

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An interview about my entrepreneurial journey the other day took me back in time when I’d just started - the last quarter of 2002.

It was a trying time financially and the tendency to negotiate with prospective clients and allowing them to mark down my charges seemed to be the only way to close in on a project.

You see; I was just breaking into the market. Some of my prospects knew me but no one had ever heard of my company, let alone pronounce it’s name.

Do you remember the first job interview you went to and they touched on your lack of experience in a way that insinuated that you couldn’t do the job simply because you hadn’t done it anywhere else?

Yes, and I’ll bet you had to suppress the urge to ask where on earth you were expected to acquire the experience if they didn’t offer you an opportunity to gain some.

It’s the very same thing when starting an enterprise. You have a brilliant idea for a product or service you know the market needs but they think it should cost less, not because they don’t value it or wouldn’t pay more for it from more established providers, because they think you’re in a weak position owing to your company’s nascent stage.

It’s a catch-22 really and most of us whether hoping to get a job or clinch that ground-breaking project that puts our business on the map will normally buckle under such pressure if only to get a foot in the door so that future employers or clients have a reference point and you have more bargaining power to command your ideal pay.

As you gain more experience, you inevitably reach your “mark-down” breaking point.

This is the point at which you are comfortable enough with your delivery to not have prospective employers and clients toss you around about the fees you charge.

In fact by this time you’re usually quite engaged in a job you enjoy or serving a steady stream of clients in your portfolio. You’re not necessarily looking. You’re busy serving. And because your hands are full, you’re not on search-mode.

This marks the tipping point of the value of the service you provide. At this point, taking on a new job opportunity or client project ceases to be about what someone wants to pay and becomes about whether or not the project is worth your time and effort.

You see; when your value addition is not debatable you take your place in the driver’s seat of your finances, perks and privileges.

This is the point at which when asked what your charge is, you don’t smile coyly before mumbling it. You don’t tilt your head to one side, you don’t clear your throat with an unnecessary “Ahem” and you certainly do not adjust your seating position.

All these are tale-tell signs that you don’t believe your service is worth what you’re charging or that you not only expect but also accept that the prospective buy will want to mark down your fee.

Those signs inform your buyer that taking a southward direction with your quoted fee is welcome. And boy, do they just love that! It’s at this point where the fees you charge take on a very different character inside your mind.