“I don’t need a salary.. but the commission has to be 80%…”
I looked him in the eye as I said this.
And I was 100% confident that the projections I made in the spreadsheet with 80% commissions would become reality much sooner than later.
Especially as the company promised they already had the infrastructure in place and so I would get up and running from day 1.
Easy…right?
Wrong.
When I showed up the infrastructure was not in place for the products I needed to sell.
The clients I counted on… were let go or promoted away from the trading desks and so I needed to “open lines” with strangers.
To make a long story short…. It was a disaster.
And a very healthy dose of humility for me.
But something else happened which is directly relevant to how you price your business.
I was priced CHEAP!
By taking a zero salary, I was labeled as the SAP who would work for free.
Not the guy with the ‘you know what’ who took the risk of no salary for the commission.
So when people who knew me in that role offered me something (like a new job or to hire me as a consultant), they would low ball me on the pay.
Why? Because I anchored myself in that position.
It’s the same with your business.
If you provide a clear impact and value for your clients, don’t price it cheap.
You don’t gain a real advantage by charging the cheapest. In fact, you may well end up with the clients you don’t want.
And here’s the thing about underpricing.
It affects everything you do in your business, including how much you can invest in marketing and service to make your business stand out.
It determines whether or not you can effectively scale and grow.
As for me, I got myself out of that awful judgement call and now I can price my services and choose my clients with quality and high value in mind.
How about you?
Does your pricing empower you to drive your business higher or does it keep you stuck in the mud with discount zombies?
Let’s chat about it.
Join our next Owner’s Roundtable to chat with other entrepreneurs about pricing, growth, and other key factors.
You can grab your invite to sit at the table here