Here’s a little story to warm you up:
“There are two bums sitting on a park bench. They had just woken up from a long night’s winter sleep covered up with newspapers. And the one bum had found a butt of a cigar on the ground. As he was lighting it, he said, ‘You know Bill, one good thing they can say about us is we always have the lowest price in town.'”
This story comes from Jim Camp, one of the world’s most influential philosophers of negotiation.
So what’s Camp’s point?
Well, let me tell you using Camp’s own words. First, here’s Camp’s thinking when he’s on the buying side:
“If you want people to be responsible, all you have to do is pay their asking price. Once you begin to cut their price or drive their price down, if there’s any glitches of failures, it’s your fault. [The other side can just say,] “I’m finding out I can’t deliver what I thought I could.'”
Maybe you’re not impressed with Camp’s unwillingness to haggle. In that case, prepare to be shocked, because Camp is unwilling to haggle in either direction. Here are his thoughts when he’s on the selling side:
“I have a price when I’m selling, and my price is never compromised. […] Everything I deliver is personal service. And if I discount that, I don’t like myself. I don’t feel good about what I’m doing. If I don’t like myself and what I’m doing then I’m not going to perform to my highest level of capability.”
So is Jim Camp right? Or wrong?
I think it’s really a question of what kind of business you want to run, and what kinds of people you want to deal with.
I personally don’t like haggling, and I don’t like working with people who do.
That’s why my attitude from the start of my copywriting career has never been, “Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap.”
Instead, it’s been, “Dirty deeds, done at premium, non-negotiable rates.”
Of course, I’ve had to improve my skills along the way in order to justify my ever-increasing rates. The surprising thing is, the more I charge, the more value I wind up delivering to clients.
Just something to think about when you’re thinking of discounting your own prices.
And here’s something else to think about:
I’m generally fully booked up with client work these days, because I have 3 clients with ongoing projects and never-ending need for copy.
In other words, I’m not hungry for more client work.
But I also want to keep in touch with potential new clients. So I’ve set aside two one-hour slots each month to talk to clients, share whatever advice I can, and see if it makes sense for us to work together.
I haven’t yet automated this whole process, but if you’re interested in taking me up on one of these two slots for the month of April, you can get started by taking me up on the following offer: