I got a doozy of a story for you today:
Last week, I had a meeting with one of my newer clients. The first trial month we did together went well. In fact, I exceeded her wildest expectations.
So we jumped on a call to discuss this month’s project. The call went well. I upsold her on a welcome series, plus a few targeted campaigns across the course of the month. This package cost a lot more than the trial package, but it’s also what her account needed most.
She agreed, and I got to work planning.
Then, less than an hour later, I checked my email.
And this is where things went off the rails…
One of the emails from this client was one where she tried to backtrack on our agreed contract.
Ooof.
I got angry. Not only did I exceed her expectations from our trial month, but I also spent an hour on Zoom with her persuading her that this was the best plan of action.
(I won’t get into all the deets here, but I planned to resend the welcome to older leads as a way to “re-engage” them. And it’s paramount I write the entire welcome in one month, so we can trickle it out to less engaged audiences as quickly as possible.)
Well, after the call, she decided that she wanted to make a smaller investment.
My response?
I told her the truth, which was:
I highly recommended sticking to the agreed upon rates that we just spent an hour discussing on Zoom. I told her this is the fastest way to re-engage her audience (she has 20,000+ Klaviyo contacts that haven’t been emailed since opening Klaviyo, and while I don’t expect them all to re-engage, we won’t know until we try). Then, I told her that if we went to a lower level of service, we’d not only delay the welcome series being built, but we’d also delay how quickly this can go out to the massive amount of leads who haven’t engaged recently, and it would delay my entire plan by months.
In other words, I clapped back at her.
Her response?
She agreed to our original rates.
But here’s the thing…
About an hour later, I got a call from my buddy. We rapped for a few minutes about bidness—he started his stock broker career around the same time I started my bidness.
And we discussed being anti-needy in bidness:
He’s been in the process of firing some of his worst clients. The ones who complain. The ones who want endless calls and meetings. And most importantly, the ones who pay him least.
I’ve gone through a similar transition in my business:
Weeding out the lowest paying clients for the highest paying ones. Raising my prices. And not being afraid to lose a client.
And you know what?
That’s how I had the confidence to snap back at this client, and get her to agree (again) to our agreed-upon rates. If I was more of a newbie in this business, I probably wouldn’t have clapped back. Keeping a client, even one that paid me less than we agreed on, would’ve been more important than getting paid a few extra shekels.
But today?
I don’t need any one client.
As such, I have all the power when it comes to negotiations. And if this client tried to pay me less than I’m owed again, then, well, I’ll wish her best of luck and ban her from working with me.
My buddy’s done a similar thing with his business too.
Best part?
This applies to all types of businesses, including ecom ones.
Worst part?
Even the most successful businesses can suffer from Neediness-itis. And if they do? It can sabotage their entire business. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But neediness is a plague that always gets its dues eventually.
Anywho:
If you need someone who understands the importance of anti-neediness as much as using email to skyrocket revenue and unlock a deeper bond with your audience, then grab a time here set up a call.
John
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