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Picture this: you’re on a sales call with a potential client. You’ve got great chemistry and they’re looking for a big transformation that’s right up your alley.
But they start dropping a few hints that they might be price buyers.
You’re a pro, so you focus them on outcomes—working through the value conversation, helping them to assign a number to the potential worth of your work together.
By the end of the call, you’ve framed your work around the value you’re delivering, not the price conversation they seemed to be expecting.
But you know there are plenty of consultants who will follow the client’s lead and price the job at far less.
Do you stand by your process and price the work as it relates to the value you’re delivering? Or “compete” by pricing the job more conventionally?
“Sarah” was put to the test.
The client was a referral from one of her best clients and right in her sweet-spot.
They also had an unusually challenging issue that would take both great finesse and a corresponding amount of time to solve.
Her value-based proposal was to dramatically overhaul their functional area over several months. To dig them out of the deep hole they’d found themselves in.
So even her lowest priced option required a significant investment of the client’s time, emotional energy and money.
Sarah knew this was a gamble, because the lead client clearly agonized over every dime despite having a healthy budget inside a successful Fortune 1000.
She knew a competitor was likely to come along, promising less upheaval and a lower upfront cost, which would be catnip to a client who was all about saving money.
But she stuck to her guns.
Because she knew what the promised transformation would require AND wanted to ensure that taking it on would also serve her business.
Yep, you guessed it: Sarah won her client over, despite being the most expensive choice by far.
Turns out, after talking to a few alternatives, they realized that no one else had thought through the challenges they were facing in the same way.
No one else instilled the same level of confidence.
Because in the end, it wasn’t about the price tag.
It was about how confident they felt in their choice.
Related: How To Adjust Your Mental Model of What Is Achievable