October 9, 2016

Reader question about the “Why Me?” category

Reader Aaron W. wrote in to ask a follow up question regarding the “Why Me?” category of questions in a Why Conversation (i.e., the sales conversation you have with prospective clients before writing a proposal).

In case you missed yesterdays message, here’s a quick recap of that category:

Why me?

Here are Aaron’s follow up questions:

1. Do you offer to connect them to junior resources if they ask?

Sure, if I know someone. If they wanted me to do a proper search, I’d give them a quote for that. I’ve never done this but some of my students have.

2. They don’t know if there is off the shelf software - do they turn this around and ask you to recommend?

If I know of something that might solve their problem, I’d certainly suggest they look into it. If I don’t, I would still suggest that they look around before hiring me (or anyone else) to do custom work.

The underlying message that I try to send is that paying me a ton of money to do custom work should be a last resort. Many client situations are not very unique and can be handled with junior talent and off-the-shelf software.

In the exceptional case where neither of those options are acceptable, the client will usually be prepared to pay a premium price because they understand that they require bespoke software custom tailored to their unique needs.

Thanks for the question, Aaron!

—J

P.S. I finally settled on a name for my new podcast (“Ditching Hourly”) and it’s set to launch on Monday October 17. W00t! Sign up here to make sure you don’t miss an episode -> https://jonathanstark.com/podcast

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