A funny thing happens when you get busy.
What happens exactly? You stop marketing yourself!
But that may not be a problem for the obvious reasons.
Sure, you will potentially have revenue problems 6 months down the line. The old feast and famine and whatnot.
But the real problem is simple: you have no idea what prices you could really be charging!
The only way you can do true price discovery around what the market is willing to bear is to become what Daniel Priestly calls oversubscribed.
When you have more people waiting to hire you than you can handle, you have the opportunity to create a waiting list.
And not just any waiting list. A waiting list at incrementally higher prices and/or lower labour intensity.
You can continue to increase your rates to prioritize the highest bidder or decrease the level of involvement you’ll offer for lower prices.
You now get to discover what prices the market can truly bear.
This only works if you have a degree of specialism or are perceived as having rare expertise.
Another benefit to being oversubscribed is that you can turn over those old clients who are paying your old prices.
They either pay more for your services, you offer less for the same amount, or you refer them somewhere else.
(Unless, of course, you enjoy working with them enough to leave money on the table, which is actually totally legit if that’s your preference).
The third benefit to being oversubscribed is it creates urgency and scarcity.
If people know there are 10 others lined up behind them ready to work with you (or even 2-3), there’s an incentive to commit to working with you sooner rather than later.
No more long-lasting sales cycles and negotiations. They commit, sign, pay the first invoice, and you get to them as soon as you can.
Or they risk waiting several more months to work with you.
I know this sounds great in theory to those of you still struggling to get a few clients to fill your roster. But it has to be your mindset going into this.
It’s not enough to finish the race. You have to run past the finish line. Aim for twice as many prospects as you can handle. Heck, 3x as many.
Sure, it takes energy and effort. A lot of it. And you will be tired.
But like all things, the more content (marketing) you produce the easier it becomes and the more your results will compound.
Don’t stop at the finish line—aim past it.
—kevin
P.S. If you’re interested, I’m opening the doors to Mindshare membership again next week.
If you’re on the waiting list, you’ll get a special bonus. If not, you’ll still hear about it with everyone else. 🙂
Get on the waiting list here: https://howtoselladvice.com/membership