by Tony Vidler       

As a general rule I don’t recommend that a professional discount fees as it tends to undermine their entire value proposition whilst also creating a mindset for the client that the adviser is a price-taker rather than the price-setter.   Discounting fees usually moves a professional from being an expert with highly specialised and valuable knowledge to someone simply selling.

Discounting tends to commoditise the professionals’ service, leading in turn to consumers shopping around on the basis of lowest cost or price.  Even if discounting helps a professional “win” the client, the professional is typically in a perpetual challenge on cost or fees forever more with that client.  The value becomes all about the fee…or cost savings.

There are times however when it makes perfect sense to do so and can in fact be seen as a distinct added benefit of dealing with a particular professional.  It does need to be positioned correctly in order to avoid any perception in the consumers mind that the professional is not valuable, and is in fact aligning the interests of all parties.  

So a little bit of careful positioning can create the perception that yours and the clients interests are aligned, rather than moving you into the commoditised service space, which we walk through in this weeks quick video …

Watch the video to learn more…

You might also be interested in this related article:

 How To “Up Sell” Your Professional Services