Five Ways To Communicate The Value of Your Time
If you do not know what your time is worth, it is all too easy to walk past a dollar to pick up a dime…all the while thinking you are doing something smart to protect what you’ve already earned.
In this episode, Cooksey sheds some light on this simple (and often costly) mistake, and shares FIVE easy to implement rules to establish value on your time, and leverage it to make more income NOW.
The Rules
- GET SOME ASSISTANCE If you are lucky, you already have someone (even if they are a shared resource with co-workers) who helps manage your calendar. A gatekeeper. Someone whose very presence suggests your time is extremely valuable, and others should respect it. Not in your budget? At the very least, hire a service (I happen to use TimeTrade.com…and no, they don’t pay me and this is not an affiliate link. I am a PAYING CUSTOMER) for as little as $49 A YEAR and you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.
- LEVERAGE DOWN TIME When you have the ability to send someone a simple link of available times to fit the type of meeting necessary, you can now send / respond to requests for a call, meeting, coaching session, client presentation, coffee, Skype-call…when YOU HAVE TIME to send them. Then, while you’re meeting with clients, traveling or just taking a break, your calendar is filling up ON ITS OWN for the times you WANT to be working.
- PUT IT ON THEM – For certain types of appointments, it may be best to put the responsibility on THEM to dial you. Have a client who is habitually late for virtual meetings, no problem. Schedule them for the agreed upon time (which THEY choose from your available time slots) and when they arrive late, you remind them you have a hard stop at the originally scheduled time.If the call is for YOUR benefit (new business, favor you are asking, or just out of plain ol’ respect for them), the automated system allows them (or THEIR assistant) to easily pick a preferred time knowing YOU WILL DIAL THEM at the time THEY PICKED – thus increasing the odds they will TAKE YOUR CALL!
- CUSTOMERS FIRST – If a paying customer is requesting your time or you’re holding a date while you iron out the details of your deal, block that date and let others schedule around it. Should the day open up, simply release the hold on your calendar and others will be offered that time to fill in when it is available.
- CREATE SCARCITY – Business is business, but sometimes a more involved appointment is better planned for ahead of time. For our team, a scheduled introductory call can be set up same-day, but a coaching session or more-involved conversation may only be scheduled in the future. Perhaps you like to block certain days of the week or month to handle certain types of calls (say, coaching appointments or client portfolio reviews)- you can decide which types of appointments work on which days. [I have even known a few people to just allow pre-planned appointments via their schedulers to occur during limited times during the day to create the illusion they are busier than they really are…but that isn’t necessarily a great plan.]
Whatever the case: Identify what your time is worth. If you can hire someone to take care of repetitive tasks for a fraction of what you can bill a client for that same period of time, STOP WALKING PAST THE DOLLARS AND START PICKING THEM UP!
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Learn more about how Scott and the IdeaCharger team can work with your organization to improve connections and help you build lasting, profitable client relationships TODAY by visiting www.IdeaCharger.com
