Fees Are Never Too High

Fees Are Never Too High

Everyone reading this who is trying to be successful in professional (and personal) services has heard the buyer’s rejection: “This is more than we anticipated spending.” “This is not something we’ve budgeted for.” “This is an amount which we never spend on such projects.”

All of these are lies. Here is what these and similar protests actually mean:

1. They don’t see the value. The return on investment is either too low OR they don’t believe it can be achieved.

2. They don’t believe YOU are the person to achieve the ROI.

These actual, underlying resistance factors are in turn caused by the following:

You didn’t establish your credibility. You didn’t establish a trusting relationship (rapport).

It’s easy to use money as an excuse for not proceeding. But money is a priority, NOT a resource and, assuming you’re talking to a real economic buyer (or else all bets are off), that person can find and move money. But he or she is not going to take that kind of action if it isn’t believed that you have the ability to assist in generating a substantial return on that investment (and that personal risk for the buyer).

People often try to reduce price, but they hate to reduce value. It’s up to you to demonstrate the scope of the value and the huge ROI involved, NOT to reduce prices or “come back in six months when the timing is better.”

You need to walk in the door with credibility and to immediately begin to create a trusting relationship. If you can’t do that now, then get the help you need to build your abilities because without those two elements, 2014 will be a slow crawl through enemy territory instead of a sprint among eager prospects.

© Alan Weiss 2013