Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Abhishek Sinha on May 15, 2012 at 6:46pm

Well they were doing the same kind of work, it wasn't a problem. They said no because they stick to their own price.

But I understand its tough to decide sometimes :)

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Permalink Reply by Arindam Mukherjee on May 15, 2012 at 6:46pm

Classic question..I've been in this situation before with my own start-up venture too. A problem solving tool that has proved helpful to me is the Why-Why tree-helps you to address the real root cause behind this phenomenon which you're experiencing. Try to look beyond just the pricing issue and dig deeper into what is ACTUALLY causing it(by asking WHY to each of your hypotheses)-factors within your control and factors not under your control. You'll perhaps be amazed to find that the underlying issue is something else(like delivery times, etc.) and you can manipulate those attributes to differentiate yourself in the marketplace and improve your price-point!

Cheers!

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Permalink Reply by Anamika Joshi on May 15, 2012 at 8:03pm

to differentiate services based on factors like delivery or you can say turn-around-time is great! the challenge lies in fulfilling your differentiating factor every time for every project.

But yes, a solution lies in there in your lines. :) thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Pranesh Sharma on May 15, 2012 at 7:05pm

I would ask you to look into the Cost -- Time -- Effort factor. 

1. Generally, do consider the cost in completing the project. This would include both the fixed cost and operational cost. Once you consider this u will be in a better position to decide on the minimum price that you will charge to any client after giving due consideration for your profit. 

2. If there are other projects that are in the pipeline, tell the client about the priority that you are giving and the time by which you will deliver the project. If the client expects a faster turnaround then you can surely charge more.

3. What is the time that it will take to complete the given project. Normally if it is an older client, then the time taken even at a creative agency would come down by atleast 20 % since u already know their tastes and what will pass and what won't. Also, consider the effort put in developing new clients, understanding their processes and running around for payments .

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Permalink Reply by Anamika Joshi on May 15, 2012 at 8:20pm

the second point..ofcourse, we have tried that. The result varied with various clients. Usually our turn around time has been fairly good. But what it lead to is a disaster. 

Most of our old clients now want work to be done in a jiffy. So when we were asked to deliver few significant projects in no time at all, we decided to charge a bit more. Our purpose was to make client clear that 'time is money'. These are the varied reactions below from same client - 

- We asked for a day's time instead of few hours - he said, ok leave it, don't do.

- We said we would charge extra for the urgency - he said, ok take your time, but I won't pay extra.

- We said we won't do it - he said, ok don't do it.

In nutshell, nothing worked. It's a learning process, but the cost of learning it is way to high.

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Permalink Reply by Pranesh Sharma on May 15, 2012 at 8:25pm

You can use the second point only if you have other work in hand. Else it is not worth taking the risk. 

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Permalink Reply by Anamika Joshi on May 16, 2012 at 6:29pm

hmmm...point!

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Permalink Reply by Nimit Panpalia on May 16, 2012 at 12:03pm

Hi Anamika,

Couple of points which comes to my mind:

• Good old Clients value the work that you have delivered in the past and if you have really done an extraordinary work, they for sure know that you have been underpaid. I personally dont think clients decide on their partners/vendors based only on pricing and it has lot more to do with the value that you are giving back to the client.
• Do you think you can make your services available in a Menu card option for clients. This approach will help you position your various services at different prices and will in turn increase the Average Revenue per client
• One of the most important fact which gets overlooked is that "There are far more clients available to do business than the handful that are our existing clients". If you can increase new acquisitions at your price, you can afford to miss out on old valuable clients, which i am sure will come back to you in the future if you have worked with them for many years.

I wish i knew more about your business as the above points are generic and maybe needs to be customized for your business. Happy to help :-)

Regards,

Nimit

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Permalink Reply by Anamika Joshi on May 16, 2012 at 6:33pm

this makes me point out yet another issue - you are so badly stuck in fulfilling the requirements of your existing/old ever-demanding clients at low price, that you are unable to move forward and grab some new ones ...mainly due to "small team" issue, where a single person is handling multiple positions. 

So, yes, new ones are the answers to the primary issue, but then you find yourself hovering around the initial admirers of your ideas :)

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Permalink Reply by Nimit Panpalia on May 17, 2012 at 11:35am

My understanding is that you are emotionally attached to your old clients, which is nice to feel, but there are times in business where you have to take tough decision against your emotions. At the end of the day, you really need to be convinced that you are delivering more value than the price that your clients are paying. At the end of the day it is all a business arrangement between the clients and if they cannot understand your problems, it is better to have new set of clients. Until you take the steps, you will never come to know whether it was the right step or wrong. In a worst case, you can still go back to your old admirers if things dont shape up the way you want.

Again, i wish i knew more about your company or website, but still happy to help :-)

Nimit

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Permalink Reply by Anamika Joshi on May 17, 2012 at 11:41am

hahha...sorry it slipped ma mind..This is an advertising agency - nailbites! You can check out www.nailbites.in | facebook.com/nailbites | www.nailbites3c.wordpress.com

These are three different links which will give you a definite perspective about nailbites. We are ardent nailbiters that tickles our thinking process and we love to call our place of work as - "a thinking hub"! :) 

Once you visit these links you will get to know about our services and other stuffs! :)

happy to converse!!!

 

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Permalink Reply by Ashish Kothari on May 18, 2012 at 7:53am

Hey Anamika ths is the real dilemma for any startups. To get more client or business we try to prove our self at early stage by giving services @ a price which compels our client to say "WOW!!! is that possible", but once proven and established with our credentials everyone would like to get the revised prices which client's don't except this could be through many reasons. So the real dilemma: " If you increase prices they would probably leave you and if not you wont be happy in serviceng them".

The best solution could be to create "Sub Portfolio" (increase the length )inside your product portfolio category. i.e. if you have   say X, Y, Z as products before, now you increase it to X (X1, X2, X3) ans so on for each product, but make it a point to clearly differentiate between the products and service (while you deliver them). If not so your client would feel cheated and would leave you/your services.

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