What hourly rate should you charge for your expertise?

Do you charge an hourly rate, !FIRSTNAME!? If you do, this might be like rolling the proverbial grenade at you. But before we do that, have you heard the one about...

The Repair Job with an Added Kicker?

As the story goes, a repairman was called in to fix a washing machine. The lady of the house led him to the laundry, and showed him the faulty machine.

The repairman inspected it for a few moments, stood back, and gave it a solid KICK! To the home owner's astonishment, the machine began to work perfectly again. And without any further comment, he wrote a bill for $120 and handed it to the owner of the home.

At seeing the bill, she was indignant. "How can you charge me $120? You've been here less than two minutes! And all you did was kick the washing machine!"

The repairman replied: "Well, that’s $40 call out fee ... and then there's $80 for knowing where to kick."

Chuckle we may at that little anecdote, but there's actually a key distinction in this story for YOU. It is...

The VALUE of knowing where to kick

Think about it. How many years has it taken you to know ‘where to kick’ to solve problems and achieve results? That knowledge has a 'marketable' value.

Think of the number of times you’ve been confronted with a specific problem or challenge that needed a creative solution. How many mistakes did you make over the years to be able to get that solution?

How many tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in mistakes, delays, making good and lost productivity has it cost you? Sure now, you can fix the problem and fast. But surely that doesn’t DEVALUE the results you achieve, does it?

Look at the OUTCOMES, not the inputs

Really, it doesn’t matter if you create the solution in a week, an hour or a minute, if your expertise delivers what the client needs, what is that worth to your client?

It’s for that very reason that charging by the hour or day is crazy. Once you and your client have agreed on the value of the result, that should be the basis of your fee.

Of course, that opens up a whole new topic of HOW to ‘position’ yourself ethically yet assertively on the value of your outcomes, and get agreement on the fee up front. But from that point on, there should be no time clock, no accounting for your hours, and no apologies if you come up with the solution while playing golf.

When you begin to focus on the VALUE you bring to the client, you will not only ethically make more money each job (by charging the actual value of your service), you’ll win more jobs. Why? Because while everybody else is probably toting up their hourly rates and … all looking the same ... YOU will be the standout.

So then... what is your hourly rate again?

Chris Newton

P.S. In the past, this topic has created some really valuable discussion.  If you'd like to share your thoughts, please leave a comment.

Could this get you a truckload of quality leads?

Would you like to know about just one idea for your business that has delivered a truckload of qualified leads for our clients, and for our own business? 

Well, over the coming blog articles, I'm going to let you in on just such a powerful strategy.  Especially as it can deliver those leads for less than two dollars a lead.

If executed correctly, this strategy will almost certainly deliver you a stream of high-quality pre-educated prospects - no matter what industry you apply it to.  In fact, it could be the most powerful lead-generating strategy you ever implement.

Best of all, it dovetails nicely into the promotional channels you are already using, online and offline.

What is this strategy?  Well, you may have heard me refer to this before.  It is called 'packaged information'.  More specifically, a 'special report' or 'white paper' that you promote out in the marketplace. 

By the way, don’t be put off by the term ‘white paper’.  It sounds a bit pretentious but it is a pretty good description of the function for this document, so let’s go with that.

What a white paper is, and what is it NOT...

Essentially, your white paper will be a document that presents valuable information that you’ve created and collated.  It ‘educates’ your prospective client or customer on how to address and solve a problem or series of problems they are facing.  Often though, it must start with educating the prospect that they even HAVE a problem.

(That’s why there’s such a huge untapped potential here!  Most businesses fail to tap into the market of individuals who could and would use their product or service.  But don’t because they don’t yet KNOW they need it.)

The next logical step for the white paper is then to demonstrate the solutions you can bring to the table, with subtle proof statements and case studies woven throughout. 

Bear in mind the caveat here.  The white paper must not try to directly 'sell'.   A white paper is not an ‘ad’ for you.  It is not a thinly veiled ‘spiel’ about your services. It is NOT a company brochure or a trumpet-blowing exercise.  Again, this is where most business fail in their marketing.  They try to SELL more than educate.


Specifically, the white paper’s objective is to:

• get qualified prospects to put up their hand, flagging their interest in finding out more about the ‘problem’ they may have.  
• educate your prospect through examples, case studies and logical argument to the solutions.
• through those case studies and examples, to subtly position you as an 'authority' in your field with the track record to deliver the solutions.
• and MOST importantly for your marketing success, it opens up a dialogue with the prospect.  And in doing so, gives you permission to talk with them in a collaborative way.  That permission, as opposed to trying to SELL to them, is priceless as you’ll discover. 

If this sounds a bit ‘theoretical’ so far, then hang in there for the next blog entry.   Next time we'll look at some real life examples of white papers, including our own that has generated 371 qualified lead enquiries for Results Corporation.  In short, we’ll start unpacking the secrets to how you can harness the huge lead pulling power of a white paper in your business.

Make sure you sign up to Chris Newton's Strategy Brief Marketing Course (in the top right), to receive the complete series on white papers.

For two great examples of white papers click here.

Bouncing back to even greater profits.

When you have just delivered a product or service to a client, this is the best time to invite them to buy again. For example, someone who has just had a great time at a resort is hot to re-book. Someone who has just bought landscaping supplies is hot to build a barbecue or a pergola.

People are BEGGING to be led, to have someone show they CARE. And inviting them to again enjoy a purchase is a great way to show you care. It can be as simple as a brochure for your next product inserted with the purchase they’ve just made, or a follow up letter or courtesy phone call.

Hard as it is to accept, the most RECENT purchaser is the most likely to buy again.

Sign up to free Marketing Strategy Briefs like this one, or check out my sample Marketing Articles.

The hidden profits in a Multiple Contact Strategy

At one of our ‘boot camp’ workshops, presenter US marketing guru Jay Abraham had the entire audience stand up. Then he said, “Please sit down if you responded to Results Corporation’s FIRST letter inviting you to be here”. Some 15% of the audience sat down. “If you responded to the SECOND communication, please sit”. Another 10% or so sat.

After he’d repeated this several more times, there was still some 35% of the people standing! What he had so graphically demonstrated was that unless you have a MULTIPLE CONTACT STRATEGY, you are going to MISS OUT on a massive amount of sales. Especially if yours is a high ticket item purchase. (Our boot camps were $4,500+)

Also, vary your communications. One might be a letter … another a letter and CD, another an email … You might include a series of testimonials, samples of your product or special report, an ‘act now’ offer … and so on. You can have a lot of fun with this and you’ll boost your campaign results!

For more great gems like this one, sign up to my free bi-monthly strategy briefs at: http://www.marketinghelponline.com.au/enterprise/3-membership-sign-up-options.html

You can also find some great 'sample' articles on my website: www.marketinghelponline.com.au

Improve your business' conversion rates

This riveting interview reveals how one business owner improved his company’s sales conversion rate from 1 in 19 … to 1 in 4 …

The interview is just over 12 mins in duration, and chock full of profit making insights to have you challenging YOUR sales processes.

Click here to hear it now: www.marketinghelponline.com.au/1.mp3 (12 mins 18 secs)

For more great ideas, sign up to my free small business marketing strategy brief emails.

Also check out the great sample articles at my website: www.marketinghelponline.com

What ONE element in your marketing has the potential to multiply your results 300%?

What ONE element in your marketing has the potential to multiply your results 300%? In a word, your OFFER. But what constitutes an offer?

It can be a myriad of things… a price reduction, a free trial, a discount coupon, a free information kit, an extra strong guarantee, a free survey or consultation, free seminar, easy payment, small gift, creative ‘value add’ …

One swimming pool company once offered ‘An extra 5ft of pool if you buy in the off season’ …

You need to test different offers for different markets. But they are an easy and simple way to get up to 300% more of your prospects to ACT NOW.

Compare ‘50% discount’ with ‘Buy one, get one free’. Same intrinsic value, but the ‘Buy one get one free’ proposition has performed better time after time. Yes, by up to 300%.

But there’s a catch. Even with a seemingly good offer, all too often the initiative underperforms. Why might that be?

Typically, it’s because the value of the offer is not developed correctly. Or more accurately, the perception of value isn’t fully ‘dimensionalised’. If the promotion simply states: ‘Send now for a free information kit’ … there’s no perceived value. However, if the promotion explains that this free information kit has 14 little known ‘trade secrets’ revealed by leading experts, or that it reveals the 8 most vital questions you must to ask before making a buying decision … or whatever … THEN it becomes more desirable.

By painting the picture of its usefulness and value, it’ll have highly qualified prospects beating the door down… eagerly giving their name and a whole lot of other vital information to get hold of the offer. Which means you’ve now got a database to nurture into customers.

In summary, what separates a ‘good’ offer from a poor offer has a great deal to do with PERCEIVED VALUE you build around it. In some instances, I advocate devoting almost as much space to describing the benefits of the free information kit as to the product or service itself. One ad we ran for a client was all about the information kit offer, and boosted responses 3,000%.

You can check out my website for some great sample articles at: www.marketinghelponline.com

For more great ideas, sign up to my free small business marketing strategy brief.