No Joke, the strangest thing just happened in my "Offline Marketing World"

That is awesome -

I got my first call back on a mailing I sent out to 3 Doctors. I am in the middle of phone tag right now, but it is exciting that the method I learned worked.

2K for a fan page!? REALLY!?


Greed is not good, but you still (in my mind) do not want to sell your self short. Get what you know you are worth.

Where did you learn how to make awesome fb pages ?!

$2,000 for a fanpage?!? not even fully custom websites with flash will cost that much. Jesus Christ.

$2,000 cracks me up. Does that guy really think he will close people on that price? He is wasting his time and theirs doing that.

Wouldn't be surprised is that guy in on here. I see numbers tossed out like that all the time and never get how they close people on it. You have to be targeting the right customers and offer one hell of a product to get that.

And to land that kind of customer you would never meet in a coffee shop to land them. Hell you better have an office to have a chance of landing a guy at $2,000 for a fan page.

As for the free lancer it all depends on what she was selling and how. But I don't think I would use that term either. Even if the business is on the side of your main job it is still a business. Some clients may like the fact you are bootstrapping it to get going. But they have to respect you as a business to give your their business.

The price is whatever you and your prospect agree upon is fair value. I have no problem with a $2000 website--if it solves an $80,000 or larger problem.

The reason you are more successful at getting clients isn't your price. You should probably bill more. It's because you're clear about WHY you are doing what you do and how it solves a real problem for your client...and they aren't.

Jason,

I agree but in what world is a fan page on facebook a $80,000 problem? Sure you can sell a $2,000 fan page to the right customer and I am sure places like McD's have a lot of money tied up into theirs.

But this is a guy pitching in a coffee shop to a small business. His price doesn't match the client or his approach. He looks over priced because he is.

Also what I always like to point out is that very successful companies normally got that way by handling their budgets in a smart way. Which means even if $2,000 is nothing to them if the price seems over priced they won't pay it.

You can land $2,000 clients on fan pages but I don't think it will be often and personally myself i wouldn't pitch that kind of product because the closing ratio would be too low and it would be too much time both on doing the project and on prospecting.

I think on here too many people seem to support these n00bs and their pricing. You need to know your market and price it right or you are wasting your time and the potential client's time. Sure you may hit a home run here and there but I'd rather hit base hit after base hit and vs waiting for a home run. Base hits can score runs and in this case make you money and get you clients and referrals.

Should you be chasing $2,000 clients or should you be selling $500 clients and when you get a $2,000 client upsell them to $2,000 or more based on their needs? Doing it my way scores you more clients while never losing a potential big client.

Because you should be doing more for a $2,000 client vs. a $500 client. If you are not remember that business owners talk. And a lot of people you talk to do not need the $2,000 package but if you are asking the right questions you can be ready to sell them on it based on their needs.

Land more clients.
Upsell more clients.
Get more referrals.
That is how you grow your business.

But if your original pitch is overpriced you have lost a potential customer plus a chance at the referrals he would have given you. Thinking about today's paycheck is the best way to fail as a business. It's not about maximizing profit now but gaining the relationships that will bring you profit 5, 10, or 20 years from now.

Well, I personally have no idea how much a fan page or website should cost. So it comes down to "How much revenue will this bring in?"

My rule of thumb is, whatever my client tells me the revenue they expect to be brought in over the next year from my solution will be, I bill about 3% of that figure. So if it's a referral system, and they expect an additional $100,000 in business, I charge about $3,000. That's where I get my $80K number from.

I'm not trying to sell to everyone: just those people who are a fit for "pain", budgetary and personality reasons. For one small example, while other article writers are busy killing themselves chasing $10 or $20 articles, I earn 5X the money pleasing one client.

If a prospect has educated themselves on what they can get from other people and for how much, then the budget and pain fit are important. If I can't do my job and help them realize why my solution makes them much more revenue, then I don't deserve to have them as a customer. If they can't afford what I do, then they can't become a client. May not be an approach that works for everyone, but it allows me to work with like-minded people, and make good money focusing on them. Make sense?

PS the poster behind me raises an excellent point: Fulfillment. If you or I as contractors don't provide the value for the investment, then we've failed and the customer has a right to be POed.

2 Grand for a fan page. Good Lord! Although I've seen a lot of people charging way over 2 Grand for a website and i've also seen that same website being built for 500 dollars.

Yeah $2,000 is a little much when it comes to a fanpage. Then again, I guess that guy will only need to sell one client compared to you selling four to make the same amount. :/

Of course $2,000 is mostly ripping the potential client off or they are just so convinced that their services are worth that that they will ask for 2gs with confidence. Do you know if that was for them fully managing the fanpage as well? Was there anything else included in that $2,000? I would be interested to know what exactly the client was getting for that price.

Glad to hear you closed your sale! Keep up the good work!

Sean

So much confusion and misunderstandings here...

People get paid (or they ask) what they think it's their value. For some of you guys a website equals 500€ cause you deliver a nonsense WP site with a free theme, with no customization whatsoever, no sales funnel in place beside a damn foink "Newsletter optin" or some crap like that cause you read somewhere "money is in the list", nor a powerful SEO system in place (and NO, I ain't talking about plugins) or any other goodies to help your client to really make serious money online and offline. A site like that can shoot for 5K/10K/25K or more plus all the monthly/annual fees (goals included).

And you know why? Cause thats the difference between a Ferrari and a Fiat 500. The difference between a company that knows what they're doing, and vast majority of freelancers hitting "offline". The difference between guys that DELIVER more then expected bringing in huge amounts of money into their clients pockets, and guys that sell a lousy service and get all excited about it.

Like the company that sells state of the art computer chips - developed by a team of experts for months, and the other guy that sells a Made In China chip for 5$ around the corner.

Most people here have a dead clue about MARKETING and they think "well, I can buy a 300$ website at Elance from a guy in India, so I'll sell it for 400$ and get all happy). Thats called short selling your services and killing the entire market along the way. What about MARKETING? Sales funnel? Bring back a lot of money to your clients? Expertise? Experience? Maturity to handle large contracts, big companies?

Selling offline should be selling POWERFUL and EFFECTIVE marketing systems - not fanpages, websites, autoresponders... and thats exactly here most people get all dumb and don't see what they're doing wrong.

There is life outside WF and all this "offline gold" discussions: it's called bringing back huge amounts of money to your offline clients. And for that you'll need a lot more then a molecular budget and a one time deal.

I'm out of here.

Sgcattent that's a funny story. I remember when i first got started, i was in the Krystal's fast food restaurant trying to find clients. But when i got in there, there was this girl talking to 2 people about marketing strategies that they should use in their business. She was so professional and seemed like she had expertise, so i ran out the door convinced that i couldn't compete with her. And for a whole year, i abandoned the field altogether. But now that i know what i'm doin, i stand confident that i could go toe-to-toe with anyone trying to be a competitor with me. I just wanted to mention this cause it immediately reminded me of when i was a novice lol.

Nice work! You walked out with the check. End of story!

As for anyone who may be wondering, I didn't pick into her brain, yes her by the way, Lol. About her pricing model, or what it included, remember, I didn't feel it necessary at that point in time to tell her that I was BIG into it, I more just leaned toward being interested in offering offline to online marketing services. Why? Because under which pre-tense do you think she would be more open to discussing such details with? Someone who came up and said bluntly "I am an aggressive off-line marketing consultant looking to run you out of town" Or, "I am kinda curious about it, trying to gauge it for my-self, ya know" She had to run, and so did I, but I am sure we will meet again. Muahahahaha. Lol. :-) Maybe she will become my Number 1. Affiliate! Lol.