Do customers want to pay for your “Time” not your “Talent”?
“Sell your talent, not your time.”
“Likewise, selling results motivates you to constantly raise the calibre of your work. It is a natural incentive to adopt a growth mindset and to constantly push yourself to aim higher.
Quote from Bruce Kasanoff – Social media ghostwriter for leading entrepreneurs
Bruce says it so right when he says this in his article “Sell your talent, not your time”.
We have customers often watching us fit and replace car glass. After all, we’re doing it in their driveway. We frequently come across DIYselfers who watch us intently while we work, asking questions along the way, which we are more than happy to answer.
Customer “Wow, that took you less than 10 minutes to fit”
D & C “Yes it did. But you don’t see the 30 years+ that it too me to learn how to fit that in less than 10 minutes. It’s my experience that you are paying for not the time it takes for me to fit the glass.”
Is this true for your industry also? Do customers want to pay for your “time” not your “talent”?
It’s a hard thing to break but I think business owners are trying to break the cycle.
Our son works for a very talented young team as a 4th year electrical apprentice. This Perth business charges clients depending on the job not how long the electrician takes for the job to be done. For example, installation of a ceiling fan is a price and installing a new socket is another price completely.
Clients often always ask “What do you charge per hour?”
In their head, they are trying to work out the cost of materials, that is the cost of the fan and the socket and the labour separately.
When they are told “We don’t charge by the hour. We charge by the job”. Customers have a hard time understanding this because we’ve been so conditioned to paying people by how much time it takes them.
An electrician spends 4 years on a basic wage. Then when he qualifies, he has to buy materials, tools for his job and countless licences which cost thousands of dollars every year to renew. Do something wrong and it can kill him or his client. How are we trying to put a “price” on this?
There’s a lovely story about Pablo Picasso about this and it goes like this.
One day, whilst enjoying his evening meal at a restaurant, Pablo Picasso—the world’s most influential artist at the time—got interrupted by a fan who handed over a napkin to him and said, “could you sketch something for me? I’ll pay you for it. Name your price.”
In response, Picasso pulled out a charcoal pencil from his pocket and swiftly sketched an image of a goat.
The man reached out to collect the napkin, but Picasso withheld it. “You owe me $100,000,” he said.
The man was outraged. “$100,000? Why? That took you no more than 30 seconds to draw!”
Picasso then crumpled up the napkin and stuffed it into his jacket pocket. “You are wrong,” he said.
“It took me 40 years.”
Pablo Picasso knew his worth and so do we. Do you?
