How to Increase Client Fee, Part 1
Ever had a client you onboarded awhile ago, but you needed or wanted to increase your fee?
Increasing your fee isn't a particularly hard thing to do, but it must be approached in the right way.
If you want to increase your fee, you MUST increase the value. Period.
It's very difficult to get someone to pay more money for the same service just because "my rates have increased"...
But it's easy if you show how it can be of benefit to them.
So how do you increase value?
Consider these questions...
Service. Are there additional services you have that they aren't yet using?
Strategy. What new skills or knowledge have you acquired that may be of benefit to your client that aren't currently in play?
Resources. Are there additional resources do you have that you haven't sold them yet that would create a long term benefit for them such as an online course/training program they could allow their team access to?
In one contract I signed awhile back, I didn't include the strategic planning exercises I've only recently developed.
I saw an opportunity to help my client MORE and brought this up on our call.
Rather than just "throwing it in", I chose to value myself and stand for what I had written in our agreement.
"Hey client.. I love doing this stuff (I demoed the exercises for them), but it's not part of our original agreement. I genuinely think these would really help you get to the next level, but I can't include them with our current arrangement. Would you be interested in talking about working together at a higher level where we can include this kind of strategic planning?"
That was basically the exact language I used.And sure enough they said yes!
It's very easy to, once you have someone on retainer, keep allowing them more access to your skills and knowledge.
And I've totally done it!
But at the end of the day it's a lose-lose.
No money + expanded volume of work = you can't deliver OR hire people to help you deliver!
Did doing that actually help you move the client closer to the result?