Why Do You Charge So Much? Because I Can. Motivate With Value, Not Price

It’s axiomatic that every business, every consultant, every manager, every employee, every one of us is in sales, in one form or another. Of course, for professional services firms, we expect the "real selling" to be done by the rainmakers in the firm.

I’ll never forget the day I watched a secretary outsell a team of rainmaking veterans.

How A Secretary Outsold The Rainmakers

The firm sold consulting services. That morning I’d met with some of the service providers who were having less success in selling their services. Most of them knew exactly why they weren’t selling. "Our prices are just too damn high," they assured me repeatedly. I’d heard it before. As we all know, price is often the single biggest obstacle for acquiring new business. It’s also the number one excuse of unsuccessful marketing and selling professionals.

Now, I was riding with Helen Daniels, secretary to the boss and the person who’d handled new business inquiries before the pros had been hired: handled them, I’d been told, with great success. I wanted to see just how she’d done it.