Don’t Waste Your Time On Cheap People, Folk With Money Value Time

Recently I pitched a relatively well known restaurant brand in Quebec with my stock pitch.

They followed up wanting to take advantage of our 1 year offer, literally the most expensive option we’ve got. They had a few questions, I answered them and after a few emails followed by a quick phone call the invoice was sent. While it hasn’t officially closed yet, this company could afford what we offer, valued the offer and was ready to make a move. 

It got me thinking about how when people really want us to come create content for them, it is a quick and easy process, nearly every time.

This article is also largely inspired by the Futur Podcast with Chris Do, they often talk about how to approach sales and I’ve started to see examples of their commentary coming to life.

Sometimes the little sales are not actually worth it when all is said and done.

Discounted pricing leads to demands for immediate results

Now I work in the promo game, meaning that when people are willing to pay, they hope to see some results.

There have been a few moments where the company has clearly scraped together whatever it has to pay a heavily discounted rate. When I started selling I chased anything I could get, and made a few of these deals. Often it was a lot more work to convince them, I was sending Hail Mary offers and they almost begrudgingly paid us.

Or they were clearly putting too many eggs in this basket. 

There is a much higher likelihood of the people we work with being unsatisfied with the results when they put their last dollar into an ad. 

When a business is struggling, and looking for a way out, they almost expect more for their investment than a business that is flush and investing in itself healthily.

Sometimes the amount of work nurturing those sales ended up costing more than what we made.

It’s important to understand how much it costs to make a sale

One time I had to drive down to an in person meeting, pay for parking and then drive home.

I made the sale which means technically it was a good use of my time. The thing is this sale wasn’t a very high paying sale, especially on the commission end. While it’s nice to drive around for work, these meetings are more “expensive” than when I sell someone from home. 

I probably put about 3 hours into that meeting, including travel, and when I ran the numbers after it made me realize I more or less broke even on that one. By travelling to that meeting it changed the cost associated with that sale, meaning our profit margin was not nice.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but some sales, like the one I mentioned in the intro, are much lower effort, and thus considering all the revenue parts are higher, equal a much better situation. 

At least for my bottom line after commission, which my independent contractor self has to care about or my accountant will be mad at me. 

When you are thinking of discounts and lowering your prices, really think about the amount of work you’ll have to put in, with revisions and follow up meetings.

Assume the cheaper folk will definitely want more out of you. 

People who can afford your prices tend to have a much higher tolerance for real life

When people are willing to pay our prices without flinching, they tend to be much easier to work with.

You may need to prove you are a solid professional to make the bigger sale. 

In one case I had to go down and meet an owner in person, literally speaking through a translator, but once the sale was made it was smooth sailing. Everyone knew what the deal was and facilitated it. The company was going to be fine either way, so everyone had jobs to get back to.

In fact, the more funds the company has, the greater likelihood they will come with a plan, telling you what they want. You are always able to work with them to find the most realistic scenario in case their plan is a little out of scope, but you aren’t working with people who are trying to get the most for the least. They are people that understand your value and work, and want to create the best results possible in tandem with you.

If something goes wrong, it’s not a crisis, it’s just the cost of doing business.

As you approach your hustles, think about the fact that chances are the people who don’t question your prices will be the best ones to work with.

Live Long and Prosper Everyone