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Would you like to get paid what you’re worth, and be recognised for the great work you do?
If so, you need to clearly communicate your value. No one else is going to do it for you! Often times, our clients and other stakeholders don’t fully understand our work – so it’s up to us to connect those dots.
In this episode, I share how you can stop underselling yourself, learn to recognise the true value you bring, and to communicate your value effectively (without bragging, of course!).
This is for you if you run your own business, or you do freelance work and you charge way too little for your services, or you’re afraid to put your prices up. It’s also for you if you are an employed professional and feel like you deserve to be paid more, but when it comes to asking for a pay rise, you shrink and struggle to explain WHY you deserve that amount of money.
Questions to help you find your value:
1. What is my unique skill set?
What you ‘do’ (the part of your job that is visible to others) is just the tip of the iceberg. Think about all the time and effort and experience and classes and courses and books and everything else that has contributed to your level of expertise and where you are today. This is what makes you unique and different to everyone else.
2. What problems do I solve?
You’re not simply ‘doing work’. You’re solving someone’s problem. And what is having that problem solved worth for them?
Think about a product your service that you happily pay for. For example, if I’m in the city late at night and I need to go home, I could either pay $4 for public transport, or I could pay $20 for an uber. Now, most of the time, I am happy to pay for the Uber. Why? Because he or she is solving my problem of being stuck in the city when I’m tired and want to get home! Taking an Uber means I get home faster, which means I have more time to relax, or I can go to bed earlier, which means I’m more rested for the next day. All of these things are the real VALUE the Uber driver provides.
3. What’s my magic trick?
Think about the things you can do easily, but make other people go “What? How did you do that?!” This is your MAGIC.
For example, I don’t get techy email stuff. Recently, Aaron’s email was playing up, and I tried to fix it myself by googling the answer, and all it did was lead to hours of frustration. We paid a guy on Airtasker $50, and it took him 10 minutes.
For me, that was magic. And I was HAPPY to pay that $50 because I had NO idea how to do it myself. So whatever your magic trick is, don’t take it for granted. Someone else will be wowed by your skill, and will be happy to pay for it!
4. What are the outcomes I achieve?
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned since starting my own business is to stop charging for time, and instead to charge for the outcomes. This is HUGE. There are entire books dedicated to this topic – my favourite is Alan Weiss’ Million Dollar Consulting (not an affiliate link). He is all about value based consulting.
When you speak about your work, talk in terms of the outcomes you create, rather than the deliverables, or the things you do.
I discuss more in depth in the podcast 🙂
***We’re speaking at the ‘Boost Your Podcast’ workshop in London on Saturday 9 June 2018! Click here to register!***
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