In all the agencies I talk to and work with one question keeps coming up:
“Am I charging enough?”
Like many agency challenges, the answer is less important than the “how” and there is no shortage of chickens and eggs that play into the notion of successful pricing models.
But there’s one thing for certain: Higher-value service requires a certain level of investment. You can’t build deep client relationships and deliver exceptional work if your pricing doesn’t reflect that.
After a thorough discussion on the topic in a recent client conversation, Daniel Weinbach with The Weinbach Group eloquently stated the conclusion we were able to come to:
“And you know what’s interesting about this is that in order to achieve what we’re describing here, there’s an investment, a required investment from my company to make it happen.
And it inherently takes more time than if we weren’t focusing on these things. When you invest more time, you are essentially saying this is more expensive in our world because our inventory is our time.
And so, all of these things are also inextricably tied to budget and fees. You cannot deliver this level of service and relationship-building without ensuring that what you’re getting paid reflects that value.
That’s not a sustainable situation. And I think that’s also part of the calculus we have to figure out when bringing on new clients.
Are we charging them enough to deliver a relationship that is truly sustainable?”
This is the kind of clarity that changes how you approach pricing and client relationships.
Furthermore, I don’t see my job as giving agency owners profound wisdom.
My job is to help them uncover what they already know, just waiting to be said out loud.
So…are you charging enough?
Sincerely,
Russel
“The Backboard”
