A client in a diner booth gave me the best advice about my rates

I was grabbing a late breakfast at a truck stop outside of Toledo, and the guy in the next booth overheard me stressing on the phone about a lowball offer. He slid over a napkin and wrote, 'Charge for the problem you solve, not the hour you work.' I mean, that simple line completely flipped how I pitch my web design work now. Has anyone else had a random moment like that shift their whole pricing strategy?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenix1981mo ago

My Toledo truck stop advice was to always bill by the hour, actually.

rowan7251mo ago

Truck stop pricing gurus are a mixed bag, I guess. One tells you to sell the solution, the next says clock every minute. Maybe the real lesson is to avoid discussing your rates near the hash browns. You could get whiplash from all the conflicting free advice.

derek_schmidt61mo ago

Phoenix has a point with hourly billing. It cuts through the noise. You fix a busted air line, that's one hour. A wiring gremlin takes three, that's three hours. The customer sees the clock, they know what they're paying for. It stops the "solution selling" talk from turning into a fight over what that solution is actually worth.