Trying to Sell $10,000 Logos Might Kill Your Creative Business

This week I decided to tackle how “Trying to sell $10,000 logos might kill your business.” This topic comes as a response to those of you who have heard a favorite thought leader tell you that you are not charging enough and you need to dramatically increase your prices… 10x… 20x… 50x. You may have been told that not charging enough devalues your work and the industry as a whole.

While it is generally true that most creatives do not charge enough, a decision to dramatically increase your prices (for example your $500 logo projects should become $10,000 logo projects) could have a devastating effect on your business. Your new price has the potential to yield zero project wins if you do it without understanding the competitive dynamics of sales that I will explain to you here. Let’s dig in.

Business is a competitive environment. It is you against another company or two, head to head in a winner take all war, and there are a few key factors in which we always compete for business: price, convenience, customer experience, quality, relationship, and reputation. Let’s define each of these items and then talk about how this knowledge can help you improve sales at your business.

Some people will pay more for convenience and there are companies that build their entire business around this model. For example, a gallon of milk may cost $2.50 at the grocery store, but if the grocery store is five miles away, many people will gladly pay $4.00 for the gallon of milk at the 7-11 “convenience store” that is a block away. In your business, selling creative services, convenience plays a part in the customer decision when they examine your turnaround times, time zone, location, and accessibility. If you are local to your client (making daily communication easy) and you are competing against a freelancer who has a 12-hour time difference, you may win the project because you are “convenient” even though your price may be higher.

Some people will pay more for a better customer experience. Sure, there may be cheaper options, but if the cheaper option comes with a risk of a miserable experience working together, many people will pay more to you if they believe their experience working together will be better than the cheaper option. Providing a good customer experience means communicating effectively, making your customer feel heard, being organized and systematic, and making the whole engagement stress free and enjoyable.

High quality work is at the heart of what we all want to create. Fortunately, there are many clients who are willing to pay high dollar value for top quality work. When we talk about quality, we are referring to the visual attention to detail, the user experience, and the potential return on investment for the client. If your client believes you will provide better quality work, they may pay more to work with you than a cheaper competitor.

Next on the hierarchy is relationship. As the adage goes, “People do business with people they know, like and trust.” If you have a trusting relationship with your client, and your competition does not, the client may pay more to work with because you are “you” and the client knows you won’t let them down. (I built my agency on relationships.) Oftentimes, if you have the best relationship and all other factors are equal, you win.

Reputation is the key to unlocking the highest paying opportunities. Think of the names, Paul Rand, Michael Beirut, Pentagram, Stefan Sagmeister, Milton Glaser, McCann, BBDO, the list goes on. These names have a reputation of excellence that was built over years and years of winning awards, landing big clients, authoring books, speaking engagements and other activities that make potential customers “know who they are.” The name is what sells. There are a lot of amazing designers in the world capable of doing amazing design work, but when a big brand with a huge budget needs a major redesign, they most often choose a big name to do the work. Want to start providing high budget work? Start building your reputation.

Scenario 01: Your competition provides your same quality work but they are cheaper than you.