Recently, a colleague posted about how she was providing value for a client and that 
there were some other tasks that needed to be done and the client wanted to assign it to someone else. My colleague could easily do it faster and, likely, more easily than someone else, however the client had different thoughts.
I completely understand her frustration. We want to help (the entire reason we’re in the service business) and we can definitely do the job. Why, why, why can’t the client just let us get stuff done and now? Well, I wish it were that easy.
Question: Her question was, “How do I convince a client of my value?”
Tara’s Answer:
Short answer: You don’t!
I wouldn’t take time trying to convince someone of your value. They either get it or they don’t. If they’ve been working with you for a while, I’m sure they see your worth. Some people prefer to create chaos and hire 10 people to do 10 simple tasks that one person could have done in one 10th the time for one iota of the frustration.
Also, just because time is of the essence to you, to others it may not be. Read up on Myers-Briggs personality types and you’ll see what I mean. Personally, I’m a “get it done now” person and that is who I am. I do not work well with people who don’t want to get things done quickly or done right. I have to let them be who they are — even if it’s frustrating!
Keep on doing what you do and I’m sure what you do is excellent. Trying to convince others of our value is not worthwhile and you also don’t know all the different data points they are considering in their mind when there is something they need done — the big one is money.
Folks who are cheap or who actually don’t have the funds would rather spend 3 hours of their time to save $5 dollars. They don’t get the concept of opportunity cost at all. I’ve seen this behavior in business for over 30 years and I don’t expect it to change anytime soon. Put your mental efforts into something else that will serve you better.
Remember … our priorities are often not those of the clients. The client needs to be responsible for setting the priorities. Sure we can inform and educate, however the client calls the shots about their business and what they want to do.
To Your Success!
Tara Kachaturoff
