Clients may be aware of symptoms they face, but rarely see the real danger in treating experts like easily interchangeable work units. If you know what you are doing, you have more leverage than they are prepared for, but only if you can show this.
Dressing something up doesn’t change what it actually is. You can try and convince yourself that the massive discount you were pressured into allowing is in fact a masterful negotiation trick, but that’s just “putting lipstick on a pig”. Pressure gets to us all. Applying extra pressure in a negotiation may border on unethical, but Read more…
Imagine a fox, used to simple world order – hide from bigger animals, but chase anything smaller than you. But one day, a rabbit refuses to run and calmly punches it in the nose instead. Can you picture the expression on that fox’s face at that moment? Many clients are used to playing Read more…
Some clients are a delight to work with, usually those with a clear need, a healthy respect for what you do, and maybe a sense of humor. Others… well, not so much. Telling them apart in time to “dodge the bullet” is not always easy, but it’s certainly possible if Read more…
There is a several-year-old short comedy video called “The Expert”. You may have seen it before. If not, here’s the link : It has 28 million views and many positive comments that show it struck a nerve. One of the comments tells a story about a boss being angry at his art department Read more…
The best boost to your negotiation power is the ability to say “no” to a client with absolutely no regrets whatsoever. When you can do that, and the client knows what is meaningfully different about you, you can make deals that would now seem as impossible as growing wings and flying off. That Read more…
In online game leagues, high-tier players are normally paired against equally good opponents. But sometimes, a highly skilled individual will simply make a new account under a new name and start over from lower tiers in order to get the chance at playing against new players, which is called “[[Smurfing]]”, because Read more…
In the beginning, I provided consulting services on strategic marketing, which sounds vague because it is vague. Sometimes that meant pricing and value communication, but also brochure auditing, website renovation oversight, negotiation sparring, copywriting, campaign or infographic ideation, product naming, etc. I could do all that with a fair level of confidence in the value Read more…
Let’s play a game. **If Tony is an expert and lives in a place where costs of living are low, should he have a lower price even for global clients?** In the eyes of some, people who say “keep them low” have a neo-colonialist, rigid, exploitative mindset and should be Read more…