‘Tis the season for candidate debates.
Lately, we’ve been working with a number of business owners caught in a vicious debate with themselves.
Hourly versus fixed fee. Which way should they charge??
The generally correct answer is counterintuitive. So, too many people lose the debate and don’t even know it. Here’s the clue…
…clients are not interested in paying you for your time!
They don’t care about your time, and frankly, they shouldn’t.
Here’s where this train starts its journey off the track; too many people ask “what’s my time worth.” You’ll see articles written, too, talking about “what your time is worth” as if figuring out your billing rate provides valuable data to your business.
Understand this…because it is critical…nobody cares what you think your time is worth. And they don’t care how many hours it will take you to complete a project.
If you complete a project in two weeks, is it worth less than a project that takes you 4? If you spend 6 hours or pull an all-nighter, whose issue is that?
Nobody cares. It’s your issue.
What they care about is the result…the outcome of working with you.
“I care” an elder care manager keeps my parents healthy and safe, and I am not accumulating more worry lines. “I don’t care” they spent 3 hours with my parents this week.
“I care” my new website attracts new prospects. “I don’t care” it took him 20 hours to build it.
The only thing relevant to your customers is the result. Yet, when I ask our prospects and customers “what are the results of your customers working with you” I am all too often greeted with thoughtful silence.
I appreciate the thoughtfulness. You should have the answer on the tip of your tongue. Well-worn from sharing often.
Now there’s one more trap we can all fall into.
What you must see, what you must be sharing, is not the results as you see them, rather the results the clients see!