Walk away from client?

How bad do you need the money?

If you're just starting out and you really can do what you say you can, I would think having a paying client at $2500 would be a good thing - especially if you have the time to do a great job for him!

His testimonial of your wonderful service could be worth some money in addition to the ability you'll have to show a project you recently completed successfully.

If you can't produce for $2500, then no, don't take the job. It's going to depend upon how well you can perform what you've been telling your client.

Steve

Then why are you asking?

show him the value you can bring and any testimonials from past clients

also breaking down the dollar amount to give him a visual representation of what he will get compared to the cost

Never purposely walk away from a perfectly good potential client, especially one with a budget, until you have exhausted the possibilities.

Instead of haggling over big numbers like $2500, break it down into each component so he can see what goes into a proposal like this.

Maybe there are some creative compromises you can make, maybe you can stretch out the ramp time to show some results along the way, maybe you can work out a payment plan, maybe maybe maybe.

The idea is to get a long-term happy client. Even if this project has a shelf life, there may be another one two-years down the road.

Figure out what he really wants, educate him on what it really costs, be transparent and find that magic sweet spot of compensation so that you can show him what you can do.

I am not in your line of work, but it seems to me this is exactly who you want as a client. Don't cut the line because he is concerned about the details. Engage him and sell the value you can bring to the table.

Well @moneymagneto, if this is your only client then in my opinion you should ask him what he can afford and if their bargain hits the triple digits then they are not worth your time. On the other hand if you have other clients that you are working with and you make a substantial monthly income then as long as his bargain isn't too low according to the standard of $2,500 then I think you should give them a break. Besides it wouldn't hurt your wallet too much if you already have a steady steam of income from your clientele.

Is $2500 the industry standard in what you do? If yes, be the first to walk away.

I've dealt with a lot of offline clients before (it still is my bread and butter) and from experience, if their haggling their way out of a price that they know is the industry standard just means they have no respect for you and your work.

And if you ever do another business with this guy, he's not going to pay up a lot more than that since you're the first one to gave in and you just basically lost your positioning.

Are you ok with him being your long time client even if he pays you lower than what you know you deserve on every transaction?

His big budget don't mean squat and will remain a budget unless you get him to spend.

What I could suggest is to honestly tell him that 'look, I want to ensure the quality of the job that I'm going to do for you hence the price. Anything lower and I'll be seriously be cutting corners on the task'. Quality work doesn't come cheap.

Another tactic that I find useful is asking questions.

Whenever someone asks me about my pricing, I ask them back -

Before we go into that, what are you expecting to receive or achieve with this campaign?

They're going to tell you their reason. Take note of their answers.

And then you ask, how important is it for you to achieve that? what's it gonna do for your business?

Believe me. They will tell you what they want and sometimes why they want it. And once they do use their answers to your advantage and phrase your question like:

If I can give you (their reason and wants here) and it's gonna do this (their other wants and what not here) for your business, it' would be something worth investing in. Right?

And when they say yes...(they'd be too ashamed to say no after all their reasons)whip out your price tag!

By doing so, they'd be basically be eating their words if they don't avail of your service. This usually works for business owners because they don't want to be seen as someone not serious with their business.

Hope that helps.

I wouldn't just walk away. The customer is already qualified, their budget says so. Now it's up to you to convince the customer. In order to do this, make their pain THROB. Ask a lot of implication and need payoff questions

- what would it mean if your competitors are using social media and you're not?
- what would happen if a customer can't find your business online?
- what happens if you don't have online marketing?
- I conservatively estimate that your R.O.I will be "x" over x amount of time, what could you do with this cash for your business?

Why not work an introductory rate for the first month, so he can see what type of results you produce? Provided the results are very good, I'm sure he would agree to sign a longer term commitment.

Win/win if you can produce results.

It really depends on the numbers - maybe charge him half your $2,500 for 10 months with bonuses to make up the other 1/2 if you hit pre agreed sales targets.

That's still a $12,500 risk to him though v a time risk to you, so it equalises a little.

But you get your $25,000 if you do what's agreed, and he gets x book sales, so everyone's happy.

Tony

Just imagine how many promotional gigs $25k can buy on fiverr ...

If you were charging hourly, what would your rate be? Just curious.

For instance, if you charge $100/hour and the client only wants to pay $1500/month then that = 15 hours/month. What amount of work can you deliver for 15 hours? Create a package that fits that time budget.

How many hours do you think realistically you would need to put in per month to do the job right? I'm guessing that initially there would be more time involved as you only need to create the website and graphics once as well as the promotional campaigns and strategy, etc. Thereafter it would be fewer hours in order to monitor and maintain social media, PPC campaigns, etc. So maybe over the course of X number of months, the hours average out to 15/month even if the first month is more like 30-40 hours.

Also since he would be paying a retainer, you might want to cut him a break and only charge $75/hour if he agrees to commit to say 3 or 6 or 12 months or whatever.

However, I would NOT recommend telling your client your hourly rate or get him in the mindset of thinking your value is only tied to your time. I only suggest figuring out an hourly rate to more easily measure "if it's worth your time."

Kim

don't lower your prices, you'll be miserable and underpaid.

Simply find someone willing to pay you what you are worth

I thank you all for the valuable input. I do agree with nicholasb that giving in is just plain weak. This particular client is also extremely successful and his personal project is very near & dear to him. Sticking to my guns.