I've been warned about giving actual pricing info, so let me talk in some general terms...
Our "high" pricing on most programming and database projects primarily has to do with "weeding out" problem clients.
When we first started out, we had fairly low pricing on programming contracts, but the majority of contracts we got were from what I would class as "troublemakers". Clients who questioned every nickle on every invoice and who expected all kinds of extras at no additional charge for our time.
I finally got to the point that I was sick and tired of programming and we doubled our prices just so that things would slow down and I could figure out what we were gonna do.
Surprise of surprises, doubling our prices didn't visibly reduce the number of clients we were seeing. Rather, the "class" of client just got better. We found that by charging more for our services we were dealing with clients who didn't argue about paying 50% of the project up front and who quibbled less about overages when the project scope changed. By going just a little farther with our pricing, we weeded out the last of the problem clients and now we only get one every once in a "great while".
I attribute our ability to get those prices to three primary reasons...
** Confidence ** If you met me on the street you'd probably not give me a second glance and your first impression would probably be that of a "typical geek". Poorly shaven, always wearing shorts and a t-shirt and semi-thick glasses. But if you took a minute or two to talk with me, I believe that I would captivate you with my knowledge and my confidence in my abilities. I tell people that I am the ABSOLUTE BEST as what I do and I truly believe it.
At a Microsoft Seminar (of all places), the speaker once asked a question that kept me up several nights before I finally came up with an answer... "If you were in an elevator with someone and they asked you what you did, and you had only 30 seconds to give them an answer that would make them interested in you and your business, what would you say?" I'll let you come up with your own answer, but the answer I came up with for myself has worked. We picked up our biggest client to date, Cisco Systems, because of an elevator ride at an XML conference in New York where I boldly introduced myself to an Exec from Cisco.
I just got back from a job in Miami where we were the highest bidder for a contract. In fact, we were the ONLY bidder in 5 figures for the project. My wife called them on friday to follow up on the project and one of the questions she asked was why they chose our company. Their answer was that we were the only company that didn't budge on our bid when they tried to negotiate a lower price, we were the only company that guaranteed our price, and when I interviewed with them, I was the only person they met who had confidence that I could get the job done. The others had eagerly lowered their bids when pushed, warned that there might be cost overruns, and sweated in the meeting when asked a lot of technical questions.
Even when I don't know the answer to a question, I still show confidence to the client. I don't make stuff up. I'm totally straight with them and make sure they know that no matter WHAT the problem is, I either HAVE the solution or I will FIND the solution.
** Communication ** Over 60% of our web contracts come from customers who were not satisfied with one of our rivals. And 90% of them came to us because of a lack of communication. We keep in touch with our customers constantly. Even after the project is done, we communicate with them regularly. Any employee that does not return a customer's call within 1 business day is warned. And if it happens again, their let go. By communicating with each and every one of our customers in a timely manner, we make them feel like their the most important clients on the planet to us.
The funny thing is that probably half of the clients who come to us from our rivals have been to see us previously and went to our rival based on price alone. Because our prices are so high, they went elsewhere. We don't hold any grudges. If they come back to us, we accept them gladly. Of course, we don't give them any kind of a price break either.
** Punctuality ** Be on time. Make absolutely certain that your schedule is realistic. Our worst fiasco ever was a project that was supposed to take a few months and ended up taking over a year. It was one of our first big projects and I completely underestimated everything. Now we give ourselves plenty of time to finish a project and typically finish "ahead of schedule" on most projects.
Even more impressive... On many (but not all) projects, we include "penalties" in our contracts for not meeting deadlines. On several occasions, we've refunded money to clients because the project took too long. And every single one of those clients has used us again for other projects.
Our company is not some big company with hundreds of employees. We have two full time employees (not including myself and my wife) and 2 part-time employees. We use a lot of subcontractors for projects when necessary. But the most important thing is that we ACT like a big company with hundreds of employees. With the exception of the way I personally dress when I'm not at a sales meeting, we present a professional look (I get away with it because programmers are supposed to be eccentric).
I am a workaholic -- I spend at least 80 hours a week in my office. When I'm not working on a project for a client, I am working on improving the business itself by writing new marketing material and finding additional revenue streams.
And of course, it helps greatly that my wife has written 6 books on Web Design (with some input from yours truly). <grin>
--Dave
At 8/30/2003, you wrote:
Forget off list, why not share with us all. My database skills are functional. My partners are exceptional and even he doesn't bill out at $200.
Cheryl D. Wise Microsoft MVP WiserWays, LLC 713 353-0139 www.wiserways.com mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----Original Message----- From: rudy
> We actually do very well with anything that requires programming (my > personal forte). We can get away with charging the client $150 to > $200/hour for database work.
holy $deity
i don't charge anywhere near that, and i think i'm pretty good at databases
i'd be interested in hearing offlist from you, dave, how you go about marketing those hours
i'm obviously doing something *way* wrong if you can get that
i'm not saying you aren't worth it, just that i probably am too
____ � The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM � ____
To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Send Your Posts To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To set a personal password send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the words: "set WDVLTALK pw=yourpassword" in the body of the email.
To change subscription settings to the wdvltalk digest version:
http://wdvl.internet.com/WDVL/Forum/#sub
________________ http://www.wdvl.com _______________________
You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to %%email.unsub%%
____ � The WDVL Discussion List from WDVL.COM � ____ To Join wdvltalk, Send An Email To: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Send Your Posts To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To set a personal password send an email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the words: "set WDVLTALK pw=yourpassword" in the body of the email. To change subscription settings to the wdvltalk digest version: http://wdvl.internet.com/WDVL/Forum/#sub
________________ http://www.wdvl.com _______________________
You are currently subscribed to wdvltalk as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
