Number thirteen:Â Tight schedule
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 13, keep a tight schedule. So I did mention this in a previous episode briefly, but I want to talk about this again, the importance of having a tight schedule. It's a positioning exercise that tells your clients that you are busy and in demand. So, here's the way I roll this out. When I have got a website worksheet from a client and I realize that they are a serious client and I've thought about their project and I can answer the questions about the problems they're trying to solve and I can answer questions about what success looks like and I have a realistic budget, then I'll send my client an e-mail that says, “Hey, I'd love to meet with you and talk more about this project.”
I do most of my meetings online these days, just because I travel a fair bit, so I do most of them on Skype, but if I do happen to be in Melvin and my client happens to be in Melvin and I do have the time, then I might go and meet them physically. And what I say is, “Hey, I'd love to meet with you about your new project. These are the times I have for next week,” and I give them three options. I say, “I've got Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. or I've got Thursday at 11:00 a.m. or I've got Thursday at 4:00 p.m. There are the three times I've got next week for a meeting, which one is good for you? And, by the way, you know I've got, I can do 45 minutes at either of those times,” Now they're just times I've pulled out of the air by the way. You work out whatever your schedule is. But what I would suggest is that you don't say, “Hey, I'm free all next week, when can you meet?” or, “Yeah, I'm free all day Wednesday and Thursday, when can you meet?”
There's two reasons. First of all, there's a lot of back and forth about agreeing on a time. If you just put it on the table and say, “These are the three times I've got,” it forces them to look at their schedule and it forces them to make a decision and it also says to them, “Hey this guy is really busy,” or “This gal is really busy, they're in demand, these are the only three times I've got to meet.” They'll go back to their, you know, team and say, you know, “When can we meet with the new web guy?”
So, keep a tight schedule. When you turn up to the meeting, also say to them, “Look, you know, I'm glad that we could meet. I've got to be out of here in 45 minutes, because I do have another meeting to get to, but I'm really looking forward to learning all about this project, so let's get stuck into it.” In the next episode, I'm going to talk to you about why small talk is a bad idea. 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.
