When you accept any and every opportunity that comes your way, clients will see you as a desperate generalist who's not worth premium fees.
When you sell your services before diagnosing what's causing your prospects' problems, clients will get angry and frustrated once they see you tackled side effects but failed to solve the root cause.
When you over-service and undercharge for your work to win a project, clients will give you a hard time about your fees and treat you as a commodity.
When you offer discounts, clients will build this into your existing price and lower the perception of value.
When you sell your time instead of value, clients will increase your workload with scoping and time-tracking tasks since there's no guarantee of completion and how much the final cost of the project will be.
When you accept to be managed by lower-level executives, your client's leadership team won't be able to see or understand the value you are creating, and at some point will treat you like a regular employer.
As Seth Godin said:
"Sometimes, things work the way they are supposed to, even if it’s not what we might want in the moment."
By Danilo Kreimer
January 27, 2022