I Learned My Company’s Worth By Remembering This

One of the very first projects that I proposed to a prospective client was for an antiques store. The way I got the project was over a weekend, I was at this store and I was dropping my business cards on all their tables, just thinking somebody might pick it up and call me about it.

Well, Monday morning the antique store calls me and I immediately thought, “Oh no. They're thinking I just littered their store with my business cards and they're calling to yell at me!” But I was pleasantly surprised. They were like, “Hey, we found your business card and we want you to come in and talk to us about how you can help us build a website to sell online.”

So I was really excited, went over there, had a discussion with them, came back and gave them a whole proposal. Well, when I got to the page where I shared with them the price of the project, their faces changed. It wasn't disinterested, it was almost anger that I saw. It was really awkward and moments later, they're like, “I can't believe you want to charge us that much money for this. I can get this way cheaper.”

And just so you know, this was not a big bid. This was less than $1,000 I was charging for a major eCommerce project with lots of moving parts. I way underbid this project. Plus, this was back in a time where there wasn't all these really easy plug-and-play tools you could use. So there's a lot of manual stuff.

I knew that what I was charging was a really awesome deal. In fact, I felt a little bit like I was UNDERCHARGING, and I kind of backpedaled for a minute and I was feeling really bad about it. I was questioning whether or not should I do this, do I want to be in this business, who am I to charge this amount of money? It was a really awful, just disgusting experience.

There’s no cookie-cutter design to clients

Fast forward to a couple weeks later. I had a friend refer me to a concrete company. They wanted a website, and I gave them a proposal. A couple days later I got a call from my friend who had referred me, and said, “Hey Mike, great news! The concrete company's going to hire you, but I had to talk them into it.” I said, “Really, why is that?”

They said, “Well, you were the cheapest bid they got, and they thought maybe they weren't going to get everything they requested. Like maybe you would somehow miss something? The only thing was the price. Everything looked good, but they were going to hire somebody more expensive because they thought that maybe you were not going to do the job the right way.”

So this friend assured the concrete company that I was going to do a great job and I ended up getting it. And I just thought for a moment on these two very different experiences. One where this person's telling me, “You guys are too expensive!” and the other saying, “I'm not going to hire you because you're not expensive enough.” Crazy, right?

What you have to understand is there are different clients with different perspectives. The biggest mistake that I made in that scenario was taking the thought that I wasn't worth it, that I couldn't charge enough, into that next proposal – and it showed. The only reason I got the job was because somebody else vouched for me.

Where are your missed opportunities?

If that voucher wasn't there I totally wouldn't have gotten the job. So, where in your business are you proposing something that's not expensive enough? What’s causing your client to think, “You know what, these people don't seem like they know what they're talking about, because I know it should be more expensive than that.” Or, “This just seems too cheap.”

There are those businesses out there, not looking for the lowest dollar, but for the highest quality for the best price. And if you give them the perspective that what you're offering is not high quality because of your price, that's a big issue. That was a HUGE lesson for me.

From that point on, I realized that by charging more I'm giving more value and that it allows me to spend the time on a project that I need to actually deliver that value.

So look at your proposals. Are you charging enough? Where can you charge more? Because I know there's more money out there for you with the people that you're already talking to!

If you want to get access to the very own proposals we have used for years, you should check out our Digital Agency Momentum Kit. The momentum kit gives you the boost you need to step up, lead, and believe in what you do. This kit will help you grow your business and increase sales — no matter what’s going on in the rest of the world. And, it’ll help you inspire others to do the same.

Check out our Digital Agency Momentum Kit here!

Also, join my Facebook group and connect with other entrepreneurs like yourself looking for ways to up their worth. Network with one of the largest Facebook communities dedicated to web designers and digital marketers looking to get an edge on the competition!

I can’t wait to see what you’re working on!

Mike Schmidt
Founder
AgencyCoach