Thread by @ronaldnzimora

21 Lessons My Mentor Dr. Emmanuel Ojeagbase Taught Me

Continued.

Today's installment is Lesson 3: Ask For What You Are Worth

Let's go.

So one day Dr. Ojeagbase called me to his office, where he asked me to write a salesletter for a new training program his organization SADC (Success Attitude Development Centre) was running.

Ronald: Ok Sir. I'll get to it immediately.

Dr. Ojeagbase : How much do you charge?

Now it was my second or third time meeting the man. I was in awe of his person and now he was asking me to write for him!

I didn't want to "offend" him by charging too much and spoil this new relationship, so while trying not to piss in my trousers, I stammered...

Ronald: My fee is =N=10,000 Sir.

Dr. OJeagbase: Really?! Fantastic! I'll write you a cheque now.

So he brings out his cheque book, picks up a pen, asks me what name I want on the cheque and I tell him.

Then he writes and hands me the cheque. As I make to collect it, he pauses.

and says

Dr. Ojeagbase: You know Ronald, I don't know why you only charged =N=10,000 for this salesletter. I have read your salesletters, they are fantastic.

If you charged me =N=100,000 I would have paid it, but then you charged only =N=10,000 and that's what you will get.

Learn to charge what you are worth.

Arrrghhhhhhhhhhh!

I was both stunned and angry with myself at the same time.

Here I was trying not to offend someone I just met by charging too much and he turns around to tell me he would have gladly paid me 10x more if only I had asked.

That was my first of many lessons. Over the next few years, I learnt even more.

Another time, I had just made my first =N=1 million.

Giddy, I sent Dr. Ojeagbase an email to let him know. He was happy for me, congratulated me and then invited me over to talk about it.

Once there, he made me do a breakdown of my numbers and sales process.

Then he asked me why I charged only =N=3,000 for the product.

I told him:

Ronald: I wanted to charge =N=5,000 but I didn't want people to be unable to afford it.

Then he said:

Dr Ojeagbase: "Looking at your numbers, if you charged =N=5,000, the same number of people would have bought it. It's not a significantly different and you would have made almost double what you currently have, and if you had charged =N=10,000, you would have made 3 times more".

"The problem Ronald is you are NOT confident in the value of what you are giving to people."

I sat there looking confused. 🙂

He continued.

Dr. Ojeagbase: "Let me ask you. When you apply to the American Embassy to for a VISA to the USA, do you argue with their VISA fees?"

Ronald: No Sir, that would be crazy! They'd throw you out.

Dr. Ojeagbase: Without paying, you won't even set foot in the embassy premises. And what do they do really other than charge you that high for keeping you waiting long hours and then talking with you for some minutes?

But they believe that THEY ARE DOING YOU A FAVOUR, not you doing them one.

That's the same mindset you must develop. Be totally confident of yourself. You are doing your clients a favour. You must make your sales argument from that angle.

If you do not believe in the value of what you're selling, how do you want to convince others to do so?

Hmmmm.

That day a new vista opened before me. I immediately changed my pricing strategy. I started asking copywriting clients to pay me =N=50,000 for each salesletter.

Then I started charging =N=80,0000. Then =N=100,000. Then =N=250,000 within 3 months.

I went that high because I saw that the salescopy I did for clients was making them millions. I did the hardwork of convincing their buyers, they were making the money.

And when I and my friend Toyin set up DigitalNexus, our digital marketing communications firm, I stopped doing copywriting work, started creating full-blown online marketing campaigns and upped the fee to =N=1,000,000 upfront, before we do any work + 15% of ad budget every month.

Now we're at =N=10,000,000 upfront, payable each year a client remains with us + 15% per month.

What changed?

My mindset did.

I now could see that the value I was bringing was worth more than what I was asking them to pay.

Let me make a small illustration here:

Let's say you have a cure for cancer. You were sleeping at night and in a dream, God revealed the cure for any kind of cancer to you and then woke you up.

Now you start advertising your cure for cancer, telling people how you got it and patients started calling on you...

You test it and it works!

Do you think that if you charged =N=1 Million for your cure, people won't pay?

Of course they will pay! Cancer is a terminal illness and many patients already have spent far more than that going through unimaginable pain and still die.

A proven...

cure holds unimaginable value. People will pay anything to have it. Anything.

Now contrast it with this:

Do you think if you charged =N=3,000 for a cancer cure, they would buy it?

No they won't and here's why.

Cancer patients and their families are already used to...

and conditioned to a certain level of fees aimed at eliminating that disease, EVEN IF THEY CANNOT AFFORD IT right away.

Anything less and it feels and is believed to be fake.

So why should they believe your =N=3,000 "cure" has any value at all?

How To Use This In Your Business

1. Determine your ideal client. Who do you want to sell to? How are they already buying?

2. Do a survey & check how much your competition (who sell to the same kind of people) are charging?

3. Set similar pricing (a little higher or the same).

Heck if you think yours has a higher value, then set it there and have a way to justify the price and communicate it effectively.

4. Create an irresistible offer, something different and which has perceived value, something your competition is not offering.

5. Bring it to your market's attention. Let them know they will get better choosing you versus others.

#MentorLessons continues tomorrow morning with "Lesson 4: Anoint Yourself A Guru"

I hope you loved today's lesson.

Let me know in the comments. Thank you for reading.