April 30, 2021
“I finally got the courage to raise my prices and now my client has said they can’t afford it. What do I do?”
It’s no secret we encourage graphic and brand designers to raise their prices. We’d love to see the overall standard of pricing increase in the visual communications industry.
After all, the professional services provided by brand and graphic designers brings businesses to life. The results can be game-changing and trajectory-altering for our clients, leading to better customer loyalty and increased revenue for their businesses (just to name a few).
We spend a lot of time encouraging and inspiring designers to raise their prices, and it can be incredibly disheartening when beautifully brave designers finally muster up the courage to do it, only to be told that the quote is too expensive.
First of all, we want you to know that you are worthy of being well renumerated for your creative gifts, intellectual property and expertise. You are worthy of a business that is profitable and sustainable.
The perception of your value isn’t there.
How are you communicating your value to your audience? Do they know about your systems and the unique way you do things?
Your branding and promotion is off-target.
Who are you targeting with your brand and marketing? Are you calling forth the right audience that has the budget for your services?
You aren’t promoting or ‘selling’ consistently.
How often do you talk about your process and peel back the curtain to give your existing and future clients a glimpse inside? Selling is not a dirty word, you are merely telling people the wonderful services you have that will help transform them. Swap out the word ‘sell’ with ‘serve’. Who will you be serving today and how will you be making their lives better?
You aren’t preparing potential clients about your price range in the early lead conversion stages
It’s a good idea to screen clients by giving an indication of your price range on your website, or in your initial intake form brief. We went into more detail about this in Podcast Episode 3, “High End Brand Designer: How to structure a discovery call”.
You don’t have consistent, scalable and achievable systems in place.
It might not be the case at all that you are too expensive, it’s just that the perception of value isn’t there in the eyes of your clients. They are not seeing your value and your service isn’t being seen as a priority. It’s up to YOU to make it clear for them.
If you are in the process of improving your business systems, processes, marketing and messaging, new clients coming on board will absolutely see the value you offer. However, some older clients may naturally fall away (as scary as this may feel!)
Keep the channels of communication open and friendly. Do not get defensive.
Be confident, it is absolutely okay to raise your prices if you are currently below industry rates. And, importantly—below the standard that you deliver.
Open up the conversation about their actual budget and what you could actually deliver for that price. There may be a modified offering you could propose to them.
Be sure to set boundaries but make sure you don’t come from a desperate space (people can sniff out desperation a mile away!)
Script #1
“You have a wonderful wish-list of items, however for your current budget I could deliver a beautifully resolved solution for stage 1, which is X, Y and Z.”
Script #2
“Hi Client,
Thank you so much for getting back to me.
I completely understand that a financial decision had to be taken into consideration and that you will need to stick to a budget.
I would love to work within your budget. If you could share your budget with me, I will provide a scope of works for what I can achieve for your budget and we can go from there. I’d love to continue creating beautiful solutions for you to help you achieve your goals.
I look forward to hearing from you.”
Another idea is to introduce design templates for clients with lower budgets (if this fits with your business model of course).
Script #3
“For your budget, my bespoke design services may not be the answer for you, however you may be interested in my design templates, which are beautifully resolved design solutions you can find here (direct them to your template shop link).
The bottom line is, have alternative solutions, ready to go.
If at the end of the day you truly believe you have resolved the issues above, it may be time to consider that perhaps this client just may not be a good fit for your business.
Perhaps you don’t want to offer a smaller package because that doesn’t fit with your business model.
Perhaps the level of service you offer and the quality of work you deliver may not be perceived as valuable in their eyes and that’s ok. You don’t have to be all things to all people.
Remember the different levels of products and services available for other industries. There are Kmart bags and there are Chanel bags—both companies are successfully selling products, both servicing people who want these products, both in very different price ranges.
If you feel that the client is just not going to be a good fit for your business, it’s always helpful to have an alternative solution, such as a recommended designer you can refer them to.
This happened with us for a print management project recently. We contacted a prestigious eco printer to produce a range of collateral for our client, however, the quantities were just too small for this printer. They kindly recommended a smaller eco printer who was the perfect fit for our solution. We have now formed a great relationship with the new printer but we will still keep in mind the larger printer for projects with larger budgets and larger quantities. It’s a win-win!
If you’re not sure where to find a pool of designers you can refer clients to, why not put the word out in facebook group and let other designers know you have a potential opportunity for them?
Hope that helps, beautiful designers.
To sign off, here is a powerful affirmation from Louise Hay that we have been using for many years:
“I release the need to be unworthy. I am worthy of the very best in life and I now lovingly allow myself to accept this.”
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