101 Ways to Elevate – #1 Say No

Number one, say no to initial client meetings.

Good day, I'm Troy Dean from Video User Manuals and Agency Mavericks, and this is the 101 Ways to Elevate Yourself and Demand Higher Fees, a practical guide for WordPress consultants to start attracting better quality clients, work on better, more interesting projects, and get paid better fees. Now, let's go elevate.

Number one, say no to initial client meetings. Now I know this might be counter-intuitive and might sound counterproductive to everything you've ever learned about basic sales and client relationship management stuff, but I want to talk a little bit about positioning here and why saying no is important. First of all, if you're a WordPress consultant or a web designer and you're building websites for clients using WordPress as your chosen solution, then chances are you are busy and in demand. Or, at least, you should be, because WordPress is very popular and a very fast- growing CMS solution. More and more people are becoming aware of it. If you are not busy and you are not in demand, then at least you want to send that signal to your client that you are busy and you are in demand.

So, by saying no to an initial client meeting, it does a couple of things. It positions you as someone who is busy and it also says to the client, ‘Hey, I do business on my terms. I can't just run along and meet you whenever you click your fingers.' Because if you do run along and meet this potential new client whenever they click their fingers, you're going to set a dangerous precedent and every time they want to have a meeting or they're confused about their website or they're confused about the project, they're going to demand a meeting and they're going to expect that you turn up. And believe me, I have spent too long in client meetings that add no value to the project to know that they are a waste of time. Most client meetings, your involvement is to be a mediator or an arbitrator, so that they can work out their internal politics and their internal arguments and doesn't actually require you to be there. I have been in so many client meetings where we basically just mediated an internal fight between departments at the client level, and it's got nothing to do with the project and there's really no point in us being there at all.

So, by saying no to an initial client meeting, it says, ‘Look, I'll get to you when and if I can. If we're a good fit and if we're going to work together, I will come and have a meeting with you, but not right now.' There's a couple of things I need you to do first and in the next episode of this podcast, I'll tell you what those things are. Until then, go elevate.

Make sure you subscribe to the 101 Ways podcast in the iTunes store. Just search for 101 Ways to Elevate or visit us at WP101Ways.com and download the free 101 Ways e-book.

Share this post on Social

Troy Dean

Troy Dean

I am the Founder of Agency Mavericks. The reason I get out of bed every day is because I love helping people to grow their web design or digital marketing businesses. I do this through coaching, creating courses, speaking, consulting and heading up our awesome community.

Tell us where to send your Prospectus

Now is the time to double down on growing your digital agency.

A Free Training Series For Web Designers and Digital Marketers

Learn how to get clients.
Deliver amazing projects.
Create recurring revenues.

Download our Proposal Template Package

Start winning better projects with bigger budgets now.

Presents

High Ticket Sales Funnels

FREE TRAINING
Three things you need to know before you can start scaling your business with automated high ticket sales funnels

Join the discussion!

The Agency Hour Podcast: Guest Application