Removing Ingredients From Your Recipe
Yesterday, we talked about creating a recipe in your business that is impossible to recreate. Today, let’s explore what happens when we are asked to take ingredients out of our recipe.
Here’s what I’m talking about:
Client comes into meet with me about her wedding invites. We are super-grooving and coming up with a beautiful suite to send to the guests of her wedding. We talk about pricing and the client wants to leave the RSVP card and RSVP envelope out of the proposal. She wants to save some money and wants the guests to RSVP via email.
{HOLD IT}
I can’t do this. By removing the RSVP from the set, I’m left with only the invite and the outer envelope. This is hardly a strong reflection of my work. This isn’t the sort of experience that I’d like her guests to have when opening up this gorgeous invite suite. And, this isn’t in line with the brand and culture that I’m creating.
What happens when you leave out ingredients from a recipe?
When you leave out ingredients from a recipe, the meal is either bland or boring or flat… or it simply fails to be what it was supposed to be. (I know this well because I’m the world’s worse cook. I accidentally melted my measuring cup last year.)
It’s OK to remove a little of the spice – but not KEY ingredients
I’m going to be REAL here. In the art of negotiating, you will need to remove some ingredients from time to time. You may have to switch out flowers, offer a variety of printing options, or take out a minor service. This is part of the customization process. Take out a little of the spice if it’s too hot for your client to handle. But, don’t take out KEY ingredients that leave you with something bland. Make sure your products and services still have your secret sauce.
Have you had this experience before? Has a client asked you to remove services from your packages that left you with the inability to service them in the way that you pride yourself?