My first $25,000 client was total dumb luck.
It’s a perfect example of how you see the world can be totally different and even wrong, compared to how other people see the world.
I had been struggling for a while to get my website design agency really off the ground.
I’d moved into more of a digital marketing offering. But I was still finding it tough to get clients.
More than that, I was finding it tough to find clients that would pay good money.
Basically, I was broke.
I had been making YouTube videos for a while and speaking at lots of local small business events.
But it never seemed to translate into a big sale.
And the next lead that I got seemed to be going the exact same way.
They sold servers. Both the hardware and they rented out server space to larger companies.
They were looking for someone to help them give their sales guys more leads.
I pitched them and wrote a proposal (back when I would write them) but hesitated sending it off.
I knew I was under charging.
But I also needed the money.
I felt I was more likely to get the sale if I kept my price low like this.
And then something happened.
I attended a networking event and who should be there but a guy we’ll call Rob.
Rob was not only a competitor, but he was a bit of an arsehole.
He’d made multiple attempts to get me removed from the local chamber of commerce and business events.
He was threatened, no doubt. But he also had this really smug smarmy quality about himself.
He couldn’t wait to tell me that he’d just landed a deal with a server company.
He pointed to the marketing manager.
Sure enough, it was the same person I’d met the week before.
I was gutted. Not only had I lost the project, but Rob had taken it.
I was so angry that I went straight home in a strop and was about to delete the proposal, until, and to this day I have no idea why.
I bumped up the price. It was just shy of £10,000. But I raised it to £25,000.
“The hell with it” I thought. “At least their excuse can be ‘we can’t afford you’”
To me, that felt more dignified?
I don’t know – it was dumb.
But, to cut a long story short – they signed.
“Glad you sent this over Mike, we’d had another proposal but it was the only one we’d seen. Yours is much more expensive so seems like you know what you’re doing.”
