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Reasons You Don't Talk Money

Lesson 27 from: Command the Fees You Deserve

Ilise Benun

Reasons You Don't Talk Money

Lesson 27 from: Command the Fees You Deserve

Ilise Benun

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Lesson Info

27. Reasons You Don't Talk Money

Lessons

Class Trailer

Day 1

1

Class Introduction

14:12
2

The Big Ideas: Your Mindset

17:20
3

Deciding Your Goals

20:17
4

Do You Have What It Takes?

12:40
5

Overview of the Top 5 Marketing Tools

21:43
6

Tool #1: Your Elevator Pitch

21:00
7

Tool #2: Effective Networking

22:29

Lesson Info

Reasons You Don't Talk Money

Listen, twenty five, three reasons you don't like to talk money, and I've put this in the frame of a myth and reality, so the myth, I believe, is that if I asked for the budget, they won't tell me, and the reality is that they'll often will tell you, but only if you ask sometimes they won't tell you, sometimes they'll say we have no budget. And earlier today, in part of session to we talked a lot about what those people who say they have no budget might actually be meaning, but here, sometimes they may not tell you what the budget is, and then you have to make a decision about whether or not to continue the conversation, all right, but it is all about talking money, another myth if the number I quote is too high, they'll vanish there's a little bit of magical thinking there, perhaps, and I think also the fear of putting a number on the table first, because there are some negotiating consultants and coaches who say you should never put the number out first. I don't necessarily believe i...

n that as a rule, and I'll talk about some ways around that, but I think one of the fears when it comes to talking money, is if I do put a number out, how do I know if it's the right number? How do I know if it's too high, maybe it's too low, but whatever's gonna happen? If it's not the right number, they will disappear? The reality is more that. Ah, hi, quote is a good starting point for negotiation because you can't go up if you started low, but you can go down if you've started high and you really want to give yourself some cushion when you're negotiating on. We will talk a lot more about that with katie lane of work made for hire dot net who's going to be doing a skype chat with us in session three. But the idea of a high quote being a good starting point for a negotiation really means that you have to know already have to have your pricing work, doubts or some approximate prices so that you can off the top of your head, perhaps be putting some numbers on the table. Another myth. I can't believe I could be paid well for something I love to dio. Ah lot of people believe this sometimes, whether they know it or not, in fact, the woman. The young woman this morning who did my makeup jocelyn we were talking about money and she's a freelance makeup artist and I said to her I'm going to be talking about why people don't like to talk money and she said, oh, I don't like to talk money and I said jocelyn, why not? And she said, because my work doesn't feel like work as if if it doesn't feel to you like work you shouldn't be paid for it and there I said to her jocelyn honey it's not about you it's not about what you think it's not about what it feels like to you you have to be much more objective about it and say this has value to someone else it has value to me and his value to creative live and therefore you should be paid for it. So the reality is that you can be paid well if you choose clients who value your services and can pay for them and that's what this whole session has been about today step two seek and ye shall find the clients who can pay the fees that you deserve all right so now I have a money talk quiz so I want to do this money talk quiz with the studio audience and with the online chat room audience so this is also in the workbook this is the exercise that goes along with this lesson so the first question in the money talk quiz is I don't bring it up until the client asks yes or no. How many people on lee bring up money when the client asks justin no good raina no, zane, no, yeah, don't bring it up in a conversation like it's, always online that's a very interesting question that's not the question, but that actually makes me think of a very interesting, important point, which is that often the money talk should actually happen in real time, right? So you can have the back and forth so that you can I think part of the reason people don't want to talk money is because they put a number out by email, and then they may never hear back, right and that's part of they'll vanish if my quote is too high, but if you are in real time in a conversation and you put a number out, they're much less likely to vanish because they're on the phone with you or they're in a real conversation with you, okay, but the point here in this quiz is if I don't, I don't bring it up. Unless the client asks it is your responsibility to bring up the topic of money, you should not wait for the client to ask. Right? That shows that your professional that shows that you know what you're doing, that shows that you put your cards on the table and makes you much more trustworthy. I have clients actually, who, before working with me would just never talk about money. There are people who never bring it up, and then they don't know what to charge or how to invoice. There are actual situations where people just never talked about money, and then that just creates a lot of anxiety, and we really need to live with this little anxiety as possible, especially self inflicted anxiety. So question number two, I feel nervous saying what I charge raise your hand let's do a raise of hands, how many people feel nervous when they say what they charge? Nobody is raising their hand. Ok, good. So nobody feels nervous when they say I charge extra dollars for that type of project. Good, good, I believe it. Um, but I have no nervous about saying it that's true, but I think what often happens is people feel nervous because they're not sure if the number is right, right? And so they're not sure if they're saying the right number and again. I'll talk a little bit about how to get into those conversations, but this is one of the things that stops people from saying what they charged because they feel nervous about saying that they charge it seems the majority online is saying yes actually they do feel nervous that that seems to be the majority. Okay, good uh question number three when a client asked for a price I feel I have to answer immediately raise your hand if you feel you have to answer or immediately when a client's says how much like I was telling the story earlier about the prospect who called me and said how much would it cost to do some consulting with you it's like I don't know anything but sometimes people feel pressured that they have to answer right then there right? And the right answer to this question is no right when a client asked for a price you do not have to answer immediately. In fact I highly recommend that you never answer immediately right and there's a very thin line between talking money and quoting prices and I will talk about that in session three in much more depth but here were just talking about talking about your prices which you do not have to talk about immediately you need to think about it, you need to get information, you need to go through a process because it's through that process that you're going to learn whether or not that's a good prospect for you in the first place remember, we're talking about qualifying prospects here before you actually make a commitment to them all right? Number four I blurt out numbers without thinking raise your hand if you blurt out numbers without thinking good, nobody in the audience and I'll say a little something about blurting out numbers like this is the opposite of when a client ask for a price I feel I have to answer immediately not the opposite it is what happens when you answer immediately you blurt out numbers without thinking and again this what this really requires is you stop and you you restrained yourself essentially because you know that with time you will more likely say the right thing three only person who says they've done it everybody else one hundred percent there's no absolutely no good excellent then we can move on. This was referred to also earlier when the scope of the project changes I don't know what to say so I eat it basically there are a lot of people out there who when we have this thing we were calling earlier scope creep when the scope of the project starts to change or grow especially you have to in the moment stop and say something which is this is not what we agreed to right and we're going to have to re negotiate or there's going to be an extra charge for that and if you miss that little window if you don't leave the door open for that conversation than it sometimes feels like it's too late to go back and say oh well you know that thing we're already doing we didn't happen to mention that it's actually gonna cost more money that's a very challenging thing so the idea is that you be prepared with what you're going to say when the scope starts to creep because you know it will it usually does especially with web projects and interactive everything is constantly changing so you'd be prepared to look for the moment and you say something all right and the last question in this quiz is when a client is nice I do more and I don't charge them I think that happens a lot this was an actual quote from someone and not that there's anything wrong with this but that is really not what you should be basing your fees on whether or not someone is nice right so if you don't want to charge them that's fine but you have to tell them that you're not charging them otherwise it doesn't do you any good right? You're not generating any goodwill if you're doing more and they have no idea all right any comments in the chat room before we move on to the next lesson well, susie, cases I usually do over deliver esso. I give away more hours, and I build for christian. W calls it her nice person discount. And, again, it's. Not like there's anything wrong with it. But do it because you've strategically decided that this is the right thing to do for a particular client, not because you're afraid to speak up.

Class Materials

bonus material

Ilise Benun -- Command Your Fees Workbook.pdf

bonus material

Ilise Benun - Chapter 1 - Creative Professionals Guide to Money.pdf
Ilise Benun - Do You Have What it Takes Quiz.pdf
Ilise Benun - Jill A Case-Study.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

Rashida B.
 

I wasn't able to catch this during the day, but I stayed up literally all night for three nights watching the replays. AMAZING. This definitely goes up there with the best of the best and most useful Creativelive courses ever. Pricing isn't the most exciting topic in the world. However, Ilise was passionate about the subject and her enthusiasm made this not only interesting but fun. I loved how she infused it with her vast knowledge and real world examples. Her guests were just as interesting. This was all around GREAT!

Steve-O
 

Helping others help themselves. Ilise Benun is clear and well-organized. The methods she shares are easy to understand while honest and straightforward in approach, stating from the git-go that work on my part is required. Ilise draws on her own experience as well as the methods and experience of other professionals in this course. She welcomes us into a proven plan for successful growth embracing an attitude of progress rather than perfection and attraction rather than promotion. This is my kind of mentor!

TxWhimsyArtist
 

Oh wow! My favorite course to date! Ilise's expertise was tremendously helpful. Thanks to Ilise, I'm not "stuck" any longer and I'm so excited to implement the wealth of knowledge I've gained from this master Marketing Mentor. This course is well worth the cost at any price!! Thank you so much Ilise!! Tammy@GammysHouse.com

Student Work

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