Why Focusing on Retainer Isn't good To your Business
increase sales I almost committed the worst of Consulting sins today. I needed to have a long critical look at myself and demand a reason … “What had you been doing? What had you been thinking? Have you been MAD?” Specialists myself. The thing is, I was about to offer my services over a RETAINER! OMG! Are you able to imagine? What lunacy? What sabotage? What bad business! Reason #1 To not Focus on Retainer First and foremost, a retainer caps your income. Let’s be truthful, most of us work hard and strive to deliver our best. Are you currently really planning to “stop” when you’ve delivered the monthly dollar value? If you’re charging $5,000 a month, you’ll probably deliver $6,000 - $7,000 or more worth of value because you just can’t leaves things hanging. We’re all prone to under charge as well as over deliver. Reason #2 Never to Work On Retainer Leading me to my second point, think about those few months in which the hours are less and also the deliverables small? Your Clients are likely to feel ripped off - believe that they’re spending money on something they they’re not receiving, particularly when you’ve been over-delivering in previous months. You’ve just made yourself vulnerable to debate on the hours you’ve worked as well as the impact you’ve made. And again, forget all the months you worked as time passes; they don’t count. Reason #3 Never to Focus on Retainer Third, taking care of a retainer always contributes to scope creep. You consistently end up doing more than agreed and invariably, there’s a quarrel about what’s included and what’s not. Someone always ends up disgruntled and feeling short-changed. Reason #4 Never to Focus on Retainer And finally, my fourth bitch about retainers is the fact that being a Consultant, Coach or Adviser working on retainer, you lose your magic powers and fairy dust. Familiarity breeds contempt. With that you lose your skill to charge reduced. So, what’s the content here? Don’t focus on retainer! Simple. increase sales PS. Ok, OK … so there may be a few special exceptions. Leave a comment below in order to know when it’s OK to operate on retainer. |
