As freelancers, we all want to make more money. But freelancing doesn’t scale, so there’s always a ceiling. There’s a limit as to how many clients you can take on, right? So how do you make more money, if you can’t or don’t want to take on more clients? Well, if you’re better than average in what you do and can put in just a little bit of extra effort, you can get paid more by clients.
Yep, there are 3 simple ways you can get paid more by clients – the same clients you’re currently contacting. You’ll be expanding vertically rather than horizontally, as they say. No, there’s no scammy tricks, or magic pills, or sleazy sales tactics. There are simple tweaks to what you’re already doing that’ll make your clients want to pay you more – either by you being able to charge more now or raise the price for the next project.
So without further ado, here are 3 simple ways to get paid more by clients:
1. Make Life Easier for Your Clients
If you make life easier for your client, you’ll increase the chances that they’ll pay you more. Because that’s ultimately what they’re paying for – convenience. Making their life easier so they don’t have to do something. Even if they could learn and become proficient in it, they’d rather pay you to do it. The more your client has to do themselves, the less they’ll want to pay you. After all, why should they pay you more, when they’re doing part of the work?
Your mission as a freelancer is to make your client’s life easier.
So the more you focus on your benefits to your client and specifically how it makes their life easier, rather than simply features that you offer, the more likely they’ll want to pay you more. Who cares that you’re able to design technical thing X or implement widget Y? How do those things make life easy?
Focus on that – in your pitches, in your proposals, in your conversations, and in your actual work.
Be willing to do as much as possible to make your client’s life easier. Don’t tell them they have to do something themselves – unless it’s unavoidable, and even then, don’t highlight it but instead word it in a way that it becomes a prerequisite or requirement for a task rather than work for the client.
2. Use More Convincing Wording
The more convincing the wording of your offer, the higher likelihood that you’ll get paid more for it. Yeah yeah, it’s forehead-slapping common sense. No surprises there. But it still bears stating. How can a client want to pay you more if they’re not convinced you’re worth the money?
So, convince them – in your wording, on the phone, in your pitch, your proposal, everywhere:
- Replace “maybe” with “guaranteed or *risk-free deal*”
- Use “I’ll definitely” instead of “I’ll try”
- Focus on benefits over features…
- How you’ll make your client’s life easier…
- And how you’ll increase their chance of their desired result
Use more convincing wording to make your offer seem like a steal.
Now, this isn’t to say that you should lie in your freelancing. No, never. Lying and being fake sucks, so don’t do it. Rather, you’re not deceiving your clients but simply making it more clear why you’re worth the money you’re charging. You’re elegantly reminding them why they’re about to pay you more than a cheaper but lower quality alternative.
If you’re confident in your offer, then show it. Don’t shy away from your self-belief. Don’t be arrogant, but don’t be overly modest and meager either – that’s just sabotaging yourself.
3. Bundle Easy-to-Do Freebies
When you over-deliver in value, it makes it seem like you have a great deal. Y’know, like those corny-but-it-works lines like “but wait, order now and we’ll throw in A, B, and C for FREE!” Of course, you don’t have to sound corny or sales-y. But you can bundle easy-to-do freebies to over-deliver at the price you’re asking for, all the while being able to confidently raise that price just enough so you’re still over-delivering but charging more than you used to.
You see non-salesy companies and offers do this all the time:
- Buy 2 of something, get the 3rd free.
- Buy our main app, and we’ll throw in this other app at 1/2 off.
- Sign up for the premium level, and we’ll give you our thing over here for free.
- Every order for A comes with a complimentary B and C.
- And so forth.
So you can do the same with your freelancing. Offer your clients the same type of deal. That you’ll not only do the main benefit, but you’ll also do task B and C for no additional cost. And those little extras will make it seem like the client is getting a great deal. Even if you’re charging a little more than the competition. And it should be a great deal, since you’ll be providing even more benefits at the asking price, no matter how small those benefits are.
Hold on. That means more work though, right? The trick is to make sure that those additional tasks are really easy for you to do. Stuff that you can do in your sleep but would still be an effort for your client. That way, at not much extra work, you’ll be able to charge a little more than usual. Or, your client will be so impressed the first time around that they’ll be willing to pay more the next time.
So, since it’ll take barely any time and effort on your part to do, but it’ll still provide a real benefit to the client, why not bundle them into your offer at no additional cost?
- Your client wins because they get extra value for the price you’re asking.
- You win because you get to charge more (or earn more the next time around), since you’re over-delivering on value.
- You also win because it won’t take that much more time and effort for you to work on those freebies.
By bundling easy-to-do freebies, you’re increasing the chances of getting paid more by your clients.
Get Paid More by Clients
No tricks or facades or schemes. Just simple tweaks to what you’re already doing that’ll make your clients want to pay you more.
To recap – you can get paid more by clients using these 3 simple ways:
- Make life easy for your clients
- Use more convincing wording
- Bundle easy-to-do freebies
Now get out there and start getting paid more.
How about you? How have these ways worked for you? What other ways have you been able to get paid more by clients?