How to Work with Clients Who Need You but Can’t Afford You

This guide is inspired by my presentation at the SistaSense Power Circle Conference; “When Your Passion Becomes A Pain: How to Fall Back in Love With Your Business, Rediscover Your Passion and Tap into Your Hidden Profit Potential.”

To answer the questions above, I’m sure most of my male entrepreneurs out there would simply say, “Don’t work with people who can’t afford to pay you, period.” Of course as a woman that maternal ‘I want to help’ feeling kicks in and this makes it almost impossible to say no. Trust me I know how hard it is to turn away the people you feel most compelled to serve, but at the same time we all know giving it all away won’t pay the bills. So what do you do? How can this work?

Before we get to the answers, let me first begin with a quick story. A little over 5 years ago I decided to turn my web design business / side hustle into an official work at home business. Starting out on a shoe string budget, my goal has always been to provide women, moms and other minority startups with affordable resources without sacrificing quality for cost. At the same time, as a service professional it’s frustrating when customers want high quality for free or little to nothing. Sometimes that frustration turns into confusion leading us to either start looking for new ways to boost business or a new business to try.

Rule #1: Instead of trying to find a quick fix or a new business venture, consider changing your approach to dealing with potential customers.

In the pursuit of profit have you ever felt powerless to the demands of your customers? Have you ever found yourself in the middle of a consultation impulsively overriding your policies, revamping your packages and reducing your prices just to close the deal? If this scenario happens more times than you would like to admit, try something different next time. Instead of fearfully going into the conversation ready to take any offer, work on improving your position of power by preparing for the conversation.

Write down these rules and let’s talk more about about how you prepare to pitch to clients on small budgets…

[membership level=”0,3″] [/membership] [membership level=”1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9″] Rule #2: Never lose your power in pursuit of profit.
When your potential customers start telling you they can’t afford it, don’t start a back and forth price drop conversation in the hopes of meeting them ‘half way’. Even if you close the deal, you’ve probably lost all your power in the process by settling for a price point that devalues your original offer.

Rule #3: Always prepare your offer beforehand; be ready to address your potential customer’s financial concerns and present her with an offer she can’t refuse.

The best offers work for you and your customers. These kinds of offers require a great deal of thought to develop, so if you are making offers on the fly (during the conversation), you have to try a more strategic approach to sales. Generally speaking when you impulsively create an offer for someone, they walk away with a steal and you walk away feeling robbed because you probably promised to give them everything and anything to make the sale.

Rule #4: Every customer is different. Provide each one with a series of solutions and guide her towards the one solution that works best for her.

Here are 5 Offer and Sales Solutions that work for Clients on a Small Budget

Option #1: Promotional Codes and Discounts are used every day, everywhere. My rule of thumb when it comes to discounts, “Always have a good reason and make sure the discount is within reason.” It’s reasonable to provide a new client with a trial offer or an introductory rate. It is not reasonable to provide a new client with a 75% – 100% discount because they can’t afford you otherwise. In the wonderful world of discounts there is a thin line between presenting a great incentive deal and presenting a cheap offer.

Always explain the reason for promotions in your marketing, so that you maintain the value of your offer. Furthermore, always check yourself and make sure you aren’t sacrificing your time or value for price. If your proposed discount is too low for you to make a reasonable profit, go for a promotion that works better for business in combination with trying any of the other options listed below.

Option #2: In case they cannot afford your regular rate or even an introductory rate, consider developing “A La Carte” packages. In other words, break your services down into smaller projects with smaller price points. As a web designer I often divide $1500+ projects into $200 – $450 packages, so customers can select the plan that works best for them. This option works well for you too, because instead of doing the same amount of work for less money, you can do less work on smaller projects while providing customers with the same quality at lower rates.

Option #3: Layaways and Partial Payments are the ideal solution for customers who want everything and are willing to pay full price provided they have the option of making payments overtime. As a web designer I offer two part and three part payments depending on the price of the project. Again every great offer should work for you and your clients, so you don’t want to give away payment plans to anyone for any reason. You need to know what price points are too low for partial payments and which ones you feel comfortable dividing into parts. You also want to think about the desired time frame between payments and whether you will automatically deduct payments or do multiple transactions.

Option #4: Even with discounts, A La Carte selections and partial payment options there will always be a group of people who say they need you, but still can’t afford you. Some of them are honestly just looking for freebies and have no intention of paying no matter how good you make the offer, but there are others who honestly need something cheaper, so the best solution for them would be a DIY “Do It Yourself” product rather than a service. For example, for those clients who can’t afford my web design services I provide a number of other lower-priced offerings like consultations. During a one-on-one consultation I can tell them what to do vs. actually doing it for them. Either way I am still compensated for my time.

Option #5: Reference guides in the form of print or digital books are the lowest-price DIY Solution you can offer. For example I design custom social networks for those who can afford it, provide phone consultations for those who want to try doing it themselves and also sell offer a “Create Your Own Network” eCourse to everyone else. This way each potential client has the option of downloading the $49 eCourse, scheduling a $60 – $97 consultation or selecting a custom web design package from $200 – $1500+ based on their project needs and budget.

Rule #5: Never feel bad about discussing prices with clients on small budgets. Get into the habit of discussing their financial concerns and work on developing your own solutions, so you can work with them at any and every level.[/membership]

I hope the 5 Rules above have given you a great deal of food for thought. This is essentially the secret in my sales sauce (smile). Being a service professional is challenging, but not impossible. Even though my target audience is overflowing with people looking for free and low cost material, by using the solutions above I successfully broke $50K in annual revenue and have been turning tens into thousands ever since.

Related post: How to Get Rid of Broke Buyers and Freebie Seekers + Attract Serious Paying Customers to your Web Business (audio)

For even more insight on this topic schedule a one on one consultation with me and/or join us for the SistaSense Power Circle Conference; in particular for my session “When Your Passion Becomes A Pain: How to Fall Back in Love With Your Business, Rediscover Your Passion and Tap into Your Hidden Profit Potential.”