You are the best at what you do. No other freelancer can do what you do as well as you do it.
The problem, however, lies in getting clients to understand this. This is particularly hard if you’re still in the start-up stage, where you’re having to find the clients, instead of them coming to you.
In certain industries, like design, it’s easier to get the client to understand the difference in quality and rates (although designers still get rate-comparing clients), but if you’re a developer or writer, it’s tougher to get the client to understand the difference.
So how do you convince the client that your $100 an hour services are better than the other guy’s $30 an hour services?
We are all consumers of products. A client-freelancer relationship is much the same as a consumer-product relationship.
When the consumer (the client) shops around for a product (the freelancer), several factors are taken into account before the consumer purchases anything. What are these factors?
Let’s pretend our consumer is shopping for a car. All cars are essentially the same in that they have four wheels, some seats, a radio and a windshield. They all get your from Point A to Point B in the same amount of time. So what makes a consumer pay $60,000 for a BMW when they can get a Yaris for $8,000? Perception.
So how does this apply to a freelancer? You must make a client believe they are going to get a lot more with your services (the BMW) than the other guy’s (the Yaris).
Of course, perception is nothing without reality. If consumers found out that the BMW breaks down every week, uses cheap materials and was missing seat warmers, a premium stereo and other gadgets we’ve come to expect from luxury cars, the BMW would quickly lose its “luxury” perception.
Make sure you, as a freelancer, really are providing your clients with “BMW” services before you start charging that premium price.
The best way to get clients to stop rate-comparing is to get them to come to you. This can be done several different ways.
Hourly versus set rates have been debated plenty of times before, but if you want to set yourself above other freelancers, you need to stop using hourly rates. This is important for several reasons:
Don’t just offer your clients a design, development or writing service. Give them more and don’t charge for it. For example:
Make sure you’re giving them those luxury features to remind them of why they’re paying you more.
A client once told me that although I charge a lot more than other developers, I was worth it because my work was great and I was easy to work with. This is the kind of response you want from all your clients.
Unfortunately, you’ll always have those low, or no, budget clients that always choose the cheapest freelancer, irregardless of the quality of services you provide. But, the great clients that you really want will recognize the quality you provide and are willing to pay more for it.
Don’t be sneaky about your prices, but try not to focus on it. State your price, but then talk about the benefits and ROI you can give that client. Why should he hire you and not the other guy?
How did you get your clients to pay your higher rates? Are you still stuck trying to accomplish this?
My original post was published on FreelanceFolder. Image by refractedmoments
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Copyright © 2010 Amber Weinberg. All rights Reserved. Please don't steal, it's really not cool! But if you'd love to work with me (you do don't you?), please contact me :)
nice read… particularly liked the BMW example
Haha thanks! I thought that would get some of you guys’s attentions
I think you hit the key with perceived value. Perception is reality.
i liked the part where you compared hourly Vs set price…
In hourly projects judgement is the key and if newbies underestimate the time they end up slogging cost-to-cost. If the client insists us to go hourly we can quote an hourly otherwise go by set price…
nice one amber…
thanks a lot.
very nice post. I think you got marketing guts. I would like if you write more about how to do this on start-up stage.
Regards
Amber, this article is pretty timely since a handful of blogs have recently published posts with opinions on working for free/trade/discount. I published a rather lengthly comment (http://bit.ly/bzDdSa) where I made the same argument you did. Instead of spending time haggling when it comes to price we should instead be focusing on educating the consumer on the differences in quality/service we provide. If the customer still balks at the price it might not be a good fit to begin with. Maybe this is a generalization but in my experience the clients who want the most for the least often turn out to be difficult in other ways as well.
Wow great reply to that article, I can’t believe that was written. Why should we work for free? Do lawyers work for free? Will a doctor do open heart surgery for free? While I don’t mind donating some time to my dad’s business site for free or build the local animal shelter’s site for free…it’s my choice and I approached them…
What is a Yaris? I have never heard of that car before.
I drive one. It’s from Toyota. It’s the most underrated car ever. It’s nice looking, starts around $9k and gets almost 40 mpg…but you never hear about it