Meeting and wooing new clients carries the same pitfalls (and then some!) as meeting a new boyfriend or girlfriend. A dating wingman is a common method or tool used in today’s dating scene – or so I’m told by my footloose and fancy free acquaintances.
Afflicted with a strange fascination I’ve studied this behavior, much as a biologist might study the mating dynamics of platypuses. In the best sense of the word, a wingman is there to boost your confidence, provide feedback, and help you achieve your goal. When we meet and woo business prospects there is the temptation to undervalue ourselves, becoming our own worst enemy as we seek to win new clients and grow our business.
Failing to Value Yourself, Your Products, and Your Services Will CRUSH Your Profit
This post is part of the monthly Word Carnival where a group of entertaining #smallbiz experts blog with a storytelling twist. This month we’re tackling Valuing and Charging What Your Work is Worth.
Now let’s talk turkey bacon. Here are the top three ways a Profit Wingman can boost your bottom line.
Profit Wingman Benefit #1 – Won’t Let You Forget Your Value
You’ve managed to connect with a great prospect. Now the moment you dread and desire has arrived. The prospect asks
“What do you charge?”
Your mouth goes dry. You heart beats faster. This is it. The moment you’ve been waiting for. You really want this client, what better way to seal the deal than offering them an amazing price?
You know what you should charge. You know what you need to charge to make your profit goals. But you still want to lowball the offer. As you open your mouth to offer a deal so low the prospect will question your sanity your Profit Wingman bursts into subtle action. Yes, if you’re wondering, you can burst into subtle action. Work with me here.
Where was I? Your Profit Wingman takes action. It might be a subtle cue the two of you agreed upon, a cue reminding you to stay strong. It might be a broad statement around the value of services, or your Wingman may even offer up a price point before you can gut your own company’s profits.
Their mission is clear. A Profit Wingman ensures everyone, including you, appreciates your value.
Profit Wingman Benefit #2 – Coaches You On Techniques
How do athletes improve and gain confidence? Practice and coaching.
A Profit Wingman can observe you in action and provide feedback. Let’s take the scenario pictured above with Fluffy the Finance Feline and Maxine the Math Mutt. While talking with her first connection of the event Maxine keeps leading the discussion back to the competitiveness of her price and the (standard!) features she offers. Maxine is turning her service into a commodity, and commodities are a race to the bottom.
Being on the spot Fluffy can ask a leading question such as,”What is the usual impact on the profit of your clients?” or “What can a new client expect to see in increased sales?” Fluffy (the Profit Wingman here), can also give Maxine the feedback as soon as the discussion ends to focus on the top or bottom line impact the client can expect. After the event Maxine and Fluffy can even role play a few scenarios, raising her confidence and perfecting her technique for the next event.
Profit Wingman Benefit #3 – Sings Your Praises to Prospects
No one likes to listen to someone rave about themselves. And most people are uncomfortable shilling their latest accomplishments like a late night infomercial.
A Profit Wingman can share your success stories to save you the appearance of an oversized ego. Your prospect hears a third party endorsement, which is far more believable. Even though it’s your buddy talking, when you hear them talk you up it will boost your confidence too.
Be sure your wingman knows your most relevant successes to the those at the event.
Final Thoughts
Are you ready to charge what you’re worth? If you need help knowing what the right price is, or what price will earn you the income you deserve, check out my Rock Your Profits eCourse.
Fun Fact: male platypuses have venom in their ankle spurs. I haven’t decided yet how that relates. Sound off below on getting your Profit Wingman, venomous creatures, or your biggest hurdle to self-confidence in your prices.
Great tips! Now, where do I find a profit wingman? (I mean, I know YOU would make an awesome one. But you live on the other side of the country from me.) And how do I get this person to come with me to networking events?
Ooh! Super questions from Tea!
I LOVE the concept of a wingman – a cheer leader, a supporter, a beloved ambassador. Someone who toots your horn for you. I’m in!
Small biz owners have to ask the hard questions and darn it! They have to answer the hard ones, too. (You know, that “how much is it going to cost” question.) Having a wingman to tout your value is priceless.
Great story, Niole – very enjoyable read! 🙂
My apologies. I hit the submit button way too quickly. Forgot to type the “c” in your name. Shame on me. I need to slow down a bit. LOL!
First allow we to say you tell a heck of a story without even knowing it! Profit wingmans and mutts and such… what better way to make the idea of value so personal?
Also I got a chuckle out of the turkey bacon part. 🙂
I always look forward to your perspective because I know it will come down to the bottom line and I love to see how you bring that perspective to the topic. And that’s sometimes the hardest part of running a business! We may nail our processes and calls to action and have killer branding and add amazing value… but the “How much?” question comes up and it’s worse than being asked out by the cute boy who’s been staring at you at the dance all night. I always feel a little apologetic inside, like oooooohhhhh, sorry, I have to actually CHARGE you for this!
I think we can all invent our own imaginary profit wingman friend, that little voice that knows the “stop” word and reminds us that we are worth paying for.
Ooh, I want a profit wingman! Since you’re in a completely different country, Nicole, I guess I’ll have to channel Fluffy the next time I’m having that conversation. 🙂
Oh, this was fun! Except for the part like I felt like you have been inside my head, hearing me take a reasonable price and low-ball until I felt comfortable cheating myself! 🙂
Seriously, can you come with me to all my sales meetings?
Can we just fly you around the world, Nicole, and you can be our profit wingman? Haha. Great advice here: I am sometimes tempted to lowball my estimates to certain customers, like students and teachers. And that’s after I give them my standard student/educator discount! I think it’s because I’m very empathetic and I know they don’t have very much money to spend, but luckily I usually talk myself out of it, charge my normal rates, and most of them keep coming back.
I love your point that lowering your prices depending on the customer turns your service into a commodity (no good!).
Great post!
OK, so I love the idea of a profit wingman. It looks like it requires a few incremental steps to get there, right?
1) Be able to articulate what your work does for the bottom line of a client (and this might be obfuscated several levels from the actual money. Unless the client is really paying attention, can they tie sales to updated copy on a website? )
2) Train your existing clients how to take a baseline of the metrics you think you’re going to be able to move.
3) Train yourself how to take those metrics when you START a client project.
4) Follow-up at the mid-way point to course correct, and
5) Follow-up at the end of the contract to gather those metrics again. Get quotes as to how you specifically moved those levers. Point out which efforts you think moved them and ask the client to articulate it in their own words.
Does that all sound right? Or am I missing something?
I always have a hard time with the question “How Much?” I tend to sympathize a lot with my clients and love my job so I just want to go above and beyond and help them (since many of them are small or just starting out). Unfortunately, that gets me in trouble sometimes.
I am very blessed to have a profit wingman though. Yaritza is great at boosting my confidence, getting on my tail when I am charging too low and is great at staying on top of whether we are making profit or not. And I am blessed to work with you Nicole because I get to learn from you too. 🙂