A Word On Pricing Your Offline Consulting Services!

Hi Guys,

It’s Sunday night here in the UK as I update my blog with a new post and I for one am looking forward to next week. I have a big week ahead and want to get stuck in. Both offline and online are going to be getting hit at all angles next week so let’s rock and roll!

The reason for the update was to just throw a few words out there for you guys on pricing your offline consulting services, probably one of the most asked questions I get from subscribers and blog readers. I also see loads of forum posts regarding this as well. So I thought I woudl throw my experience out there to help.

Ok, first things first, never give a price when you first consult a business!

Always go away and put a proposal/price together otherwise I guarantee you will most probably undercut yourself and in some cases by a lot. Trust me, I know, I have slipped up a few times with this. If a biz owner asks for a price right there and then. What I usually say is something along the lines of:

“I can’t give you a price, I need to go away and have a deeper look at the project, this way I can give you the best price possible as I know exactly what needs doing!”

This will work and you will be able to go away and think this through!

You then need to go away and look at the project more deeply. Look at what needs doing, how you are going to do it and of course how much work you are going to put in. Do this and work out a fee you would be happy with.

Then,

Add more on! ; )

Ok, here is a little tip. Always hit a business owner with a price higher than you want as in some cases you will get a YES anyway and get paid more for doing the same job. But the main reason for this is so you can move on price if initially the business owner is hesitant. If you price at a fee you want and the business owner is hesitant, you will then dip into your profit. The fact is, this is business and in the business world business owners negotiate. So with pricing a little higher you can negotiate without worrying about losing money.

Don’t worry about price as this should be the fun bit. Be flexible and go from there!

Now I know alot of you may be thinking, ok, that’s all well and good but what prices should I quote, what is a good price for our work?

The million dollar question!!!!

Ok, I cannot tell you what to price, it is impossible for me or anyone to do that but I have got tips on how to work this out and how I did.

Firstly, call up competitors everywhere and price up a job for an imaginery business. Whether it be SEO for a new site or an AR campaign. Pose as a business owner over the phone and find out what you will be paying elsewhere. This will give you a ball park figure of the going rate. However, you are not going to just use this as each business is different and you need to be flexible.

To find out what to price each job you need to ask questions, and lots of them!

YOU NEED TO CONSULT! After all, we are consultants right?

Questions such as:

How much do you spend on advertising the business now? Online and Off?

What budget are you working with?

How much do you profit per job on avg?

How much do you profit per sale on avg?

Dig deep! In some cases I have found out how much they turnover per year and this type of info allows you to work out who you are dealing with and what you are dealing with. Finding the above out will allow you to work out what you can charge to get a YES. Obviously the higher the figure the above questions bring will allow you to command higher. A little digging goes a long way and that is how you can price jobs effectively without guessing!

This however is not concrete and you will see many variations but allowing yourself to be flexible is crucial and askiwng questions will aloow you to price each job with confidence and conviction!

So, your job this week is to get out there, take my advice and put it into action!

As always guys, comment and let me know your thoughts! ; )

GoGetta