B2B Writing Institute

Learn how to write B2B content

B2B Business Seminar – Day 5

B2B Business Seminar – Day 5

“A ten dollar bill is a mutual belief.
If the belief isn’t present, it’s worth nothing.“
– Seth Godin

On a scale of 1-10, how you feel about pricing? What about project proposals? What about invoices?

Like most things in life, pricing, proposals, and invoices end up being a mirror for how you see your own value. If you’re struggling with pricing, proposals, and invoices, 90% of the time it’s because you haven’t come to terms with how valuable you are. That’s not to say your struggles are “your fault” at all! Just that the more I recognized my own value, the easier it became to write a proposal and send it without it keeping me up all night.

That said, there’s an element of fear that goes along with each and every proposal, no matter how many you’ve sent. Every price, proposal and invoice feels like putting yourself out there and being vulnerable in a situation where someone could reject you pretty clearly. It’s like submitting job applications 3-4 x a month and often getting rejected (AKA your “close rate”).

Just know that if these negative feelings are circulating, that’s totally normal. These feelings are a barrier that keeps people out of business, so that’s why we need to talk about it it more. It doesn’t mean anything about you if you feel weirded out by sending a request for money, or if you feel like everything you ask for is going to get smacked down and they’ll be outraged you dared to bill them money. Some of us just feel uncomfortable with that! We do it anyway, because we want to have a business.

⚠️Action Item: If you haven’t done this already, let’s do it together now

  • Open Google Drive or wherever you store your business information
  • Create a new folder called “[Your Name] Operations”
  • In that folder, create a folder called “Client Proposals”
  • Copy the document we look at later in this chat in there and customize as needed

The first rule of having systems and process is that you have them in one place. It does not help you to have one Google Doc of clients as your CRM, then invoices on your desktop in a spreadsheet, then a proposal template in your email that you copy and paste each time. It wastes time, it adds confusion, it stresses you out.

Get it all in one place and let your systems grow. Start going to that place every time you do something business-related and suddenly… you will have systems. You won’t have to re-think up that list of client kick off questions or re-Google that proposal template you really liked. It will be there waiting for you.

TODAY’S EVENTS

Today we’re going to talk about Pricing, Client Proposals and Invoicing

With pricing, you’ll come out of this with…

An approach to pricing called the holistic pricing rubric that will help you think about your work. Four big ideas to think about when it comes to deciding how to price your work (per-word, hourly, project pricing, and value pricing).

With proposals, you’ll come out of this with…

Three big ideas to think about when it comes to proposals and three things your proposal needs to have. Example proposals you can use to brainstorm your own.

With invoicing, you’ll come out of this with…

Three big ideas to think about when it comes to invoices and three things your invoice needs to have. An example invoice you can use to brainstorm your own.

PRICING WRITING WORK

Your minimum hourly rate is now $50.00USD/hour because Sarah G. told you so. 

If you need more than that, I’m glad you’re here. This is the closest to a jedi session I’m going to do. Because as it turns out, pricing is a lot less about the value of words and a lot more about how you see your own value. (I know… Jedi mind tricks)

What else explains the fact that…

  • I’ve seen advanced writers charging beginner rates. 
  • I’ve seen beginner writers charging advanced rates.
  • I’ve seen massive clients paying in peanuts. 
  • I’ve seen tiny clients paying in caviar. 

What made the difference? The answer is why there’s no accurate writing pricing guide in existence. The answer is why some clients pay in advance and some make you chase their invoice. Because it is all made up.

There’s an invisible spider thread stretching from the highest paid writer in the world to the writer still writing stuff for free. There are general qualifications and milestones along that spider thread… but it’s all connected. And you can make choices that move you up and down it. 

What you need to do is not find the perfect rate that no one can argue with. What you need to do is get your first client at $50/hour, do great work, then replace them with someone at $75/hour, and so on — all the while developing yourself so that you can come to feel the highest possible rates are justified. 

If you need a simple answer, here it is: 

Charge $50/hour when you’re starting out, or adjust to a project rate + 20% profit. Adjust up to $75/hour if you’d consider yourself intermediate, and $125/hour if you consider yourself advanced. 

But if you’re willing to wade in deeper with me into the ratty, gnarly backside of the psychology of freelance pricing… this is about to get abstract. 

HOLISTIC PRICING RUBRIC

The most success I’ve had explaining pricing freelance writing is the holistic pricing rubric, which we can simplify in this way: 

Your level…

  • Advanced
  • Intermediate
  • Beginner

Of what the client gets…

  • Outcome, Guarantee, Lack of Risk
  • Niche, Marketing Experience
  • Processes, Project Management, Client Experience
  • Writing Skill

OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER

TYPES OF PRICING

No matter how you cut it, exchanging money for writing can be brought back to any pricing option. 

For example, take a 800 word article…

  • “$800 per article” 
  • “$1/word”
  • “$80/hour” and it averages you 10 hours

To simplify our focus today, there are four common ways people price writing: 

Per WordPer word pricing was normalized in journalism fields where it was common for a publication to set the rate and pay that rate. Very low rates might look like 5 cents and 10 cents per word. High rates might come out to something like $3+ per word, though they’re rarely billed that way. Pro: It’s easy to estimate how much a given piece will cost, and you can estimate how much you’ll make. Clients can also estimate cost based on the volume of writing.  Con: It’s the definition of nickel and diming for length. And what about contractions? If the only metric is volume, that’s likely to be a low cost proposition. We want to get to the point where ideas and quality matter most; per-word pricing can bake that in, but it makes it too easy to compare apples to crappy apples. 
Per HourHourly pricing goes along with the way marketers bill for their time. If they bill $150/hour and pay you $75/hour, they are in business. Anything more is cutting into their margin. This is why you’ll see subcontracting roles paying hourly, often much less than what you’re “worth.” Because they want to profit on the margin: for owning the relationship, doing project management, offering more value, etc.Pro: It’s easy to estimate how much you’ll make based on how much you work. It’s easier to create retainers based on time. Con: It doesn’t often reflect the value you provide. The better and faster you get, the less you make; people are rewarded for being slow. There will always be a cap on how much you can make for your time. You do eventually reach a limit of how much a client will accept. 
Project PricingProject pricing is where you and the client assign a set fee to a given task or project based on your fee for executing the project. For example, blog posts ranging 800-1200 words are $825 each and include brainstorming, interviews, and editing rounds.Technically this is about $1/word… but positioning it as a project rate removes a lot of the cons that come with per-word pricing.Pro: It is much easier to scale your income; you benefit from your own efficiencies, effort, and experience. It removes time- and word-counting so you can be present as a partner. It’s easier to get deposits and estimate costs. Con: If you estimate in error, you can be stuck with the additional time, cost, and headache associated with a project. You may find that certain projects are simply not worth that much to the client, even though you love the work. Update: Can lead to a bit of  burnout because time and money start to mean nothing. (Biased-Sarah G.)
Value PricingIn value pricing situations, you and the client assign a set fee to a given task or project based on the value of the project to the client. For example, re-writing a landing page for a $1000 product might be “worth” $10,000 (or more) if it 100X sales of that product. A white paper might be “worth” $30,000 if it helps a team sell a $1,000,000 product, and so on.(I find this to be much more common in direct response and email sequences, etc.)Pro: The value you can bring to a project is limitless. Literally limitless. If you get good at identifying and selling your value, you can ask for high fees doing very specialized work. Con: Not every project can be tied back to value, not all of us have the skills or perspective to sell that value. 

HELPFUL LINKS:

CLIENT PROPOSALS

If you’ve never sent one before, proposals can be intimidating, but like most things in business, we feel that way only because we’re new to it, not because we’re broken. In reality, there are established practices and whole fields of study around proposals and the science of making high-ticket consulting offers. In fact, if you love this, you could make a whole business just being a proposal writer and teaching people about this stuff.

Some excellent teachers you’ll want to know in the field of proposals, value, and consulting include the following:

To simplify our focus today, there are three big ideas to think about when it comes to proposals:

ClarityA proposal has a legal purpose, but also an essential communication purposeI am not a lawyer, so I am focusing on the way a proposal functions as a way to clearly express an idea in writingYour #1 goal is to make it clear what you’re going to do, for what financial compensation, and what the client is going to getAs long as you do that, your proposal can more or less look however you want it to look
TrustYour proposal’s second goal is to reaffirm the client’s trust that you are the person who can do this workPart of building trust is accomplished by being clear about the work you’re proposingPart building trust is accomplished by being clear about “why you” — what experience, clips, characteristics, insights, or energy do you bring to this project that makes you a good fit for it?Much like in copywriting where you counter objections in the copy you write, you’re countering objections in the proposal you write — you’re trying to remove their risk of hiring you
ValueYour proposal’s final goal is to reflect the value the project brings to the client and that you bring to the projectSmall touches like explaining why people undertake these projects, why people hire you and what they get… that builds up the value for 1) why the client should act on this and 2) why they should hire you to be the one to act on itSometimes you’re not just trying to sell yourself on the project — you’re trying to sell the project in its entiretyEmphasizing the value of doing the project helps you step into that consultant/partner role

When it comes to putting all of this into practice, you’re going to see all of these three things reflected in the “must have” parts of a proposal: 

  • Clear items, prices, and timelines.
  • Details about you and your work.
  • A sense of what they’ll get out of it.

Let’s walk through an example!

BONUS

Lately I’ve been sending quick video summaries with the proposals I send out, and it’s going very, very well. Use a software like Descript or Loom to briefly summarize your proposal in a 2-3 minute video. It’s a great way to deliver that personal connection in a proposal without having to schedule a follow-up meeting.

⚠️Action Item: Tell me how I can work with you!

Pretend I’m a new client with a big budget and I’ve asked how I can work with you. My B2B business is that I’d like to sell B2B training to marketing companies with teams of B2B writers.  Send me a proposal for us to work together to hello@b2bwritinginstitute.com.

I’m not kidding — what would you send me if I wanted to work with you?

INVOICING

Invoicing brings out the worst mindset fears in all of us. 10 years later, even I repeat Ash Ambirge’s voice in my head when I hesitate to click send, and she tells me, “SEND THE D@MN INVOICE.” (More irreverent and cuss-filled blog articles about invoicing here). I regularly send invoices that scare me — I regularly get “Yes!” and “No!” 

If you hesitate to bill for your work, please know it is natural, normal, and important to get paid for the work you do. Especially in B2B, your clients are dang sure they get paid! They dang sure need to pay you. Your work is not a favor to you — you drive real business results and you should get paid like it. 

Even more importantly, if you’re out on your own doing this, YOU are the only one who can make sure you get paid. Put on your “accounts receivables” hat and save your future-you from stress by getting paid ASAP. Having money in the bank makes it easier to believe in yourself and say “No” to bad-fit clients who come along.

To simplify our focus today, here are three big ideas to think about when it comes to invoices


Payment terms		Payment terms may be made up or set in stone — you only find out when you ask or set your own boundariesI’ve had people be very flexible and do what I askI’ve had people say it won’t work out if I can’t be flexibleIt really, really changes with each clientThat said, almost everything is flexible if they want to work with youAs you build up credibility and a track record in your work (and niche down!), you will have more negotiating powerYou also have more negotiating power when you don’t desperately need the role — which is why the strongest invoicing strategy is a healthy bank account and regular prospecting 
Own the milestonesFreelancers often seem to “default” to getting paid when a project is doneBut from this moment on, we need to reframe this, and I want this to be your new motto:“The car doesn’t run without gas in the engine”This should be your default policy, and you can make exceptions when you want toFor example, I made an exception when I had a $1500 blog client and he paid the same day — I was fine with billing with the first draftBut I still own the milestone so I have some control over when I’m getting paidI also have a $600 blog client where I do all the work and get paid within 90 days or soThis works for me, and when it stops working for me, I’ll let go of that client
Scalable organizationMy first few projects, I just confirmed the amount by email and was sent payment by PayPal — no shame in that gameWith a regular flow of work, however, this system will break down and you will not be protected from making mistakes or organizing your income for taxesOnce you charge more than $200 or so, you need to be using a real invoicing system, which will make your invoices look more professional, make it easier to get paid, and make it easier to track your incomeInvoices must be distinguishable from each otherIf your client doesn’t already have a system for that (like JIRA from Atlassian) you should make your ownSomething to make it very clear if there’s ever concern about double payments or not being paid for somethingThe most basic system can be month, year, and project topic
⚠️Action Item: Pick one of these and sign up now. FreshBooks  HoneyBook  Wave  Send me an invoice for $1.00 at hello@b2bwritinginstitute.comI’m not kidding — send me an invoice and let me be your “client”!

When it comes to putting all of this into practice, you’re going to see all of these three things reflected in the “must have” parts of an invoice: 

  • Clear terms and payment schedule
  • Organization system for project details
  • Professional design 

Let’s walk through an example!

REAL LIFE EXAMPLES

Project Proposal Template (Google Doc)
Alan Weiss’s Example Proposals (PDF)
Jonathan Stark’s Free 5-Page Proposal Template (Blog)
Example client invoice (PDF)

CONCLUSION

Pricing, proposals, and invoicing can be intimidating when you look at it from the outside, but from the inside, it’s just clear record-keeping of all the work you’ve done, the work you’re doing, and the work you’re going to do. It’s like a mega to-do list with money signs every few lines. The more comfortable you get seeing a flow of money going out and going in, the better!

It’s worth mentioning that the goal is not to get rich and build a goblin house of gold. But most of us want to work less and make more and have enough money to buy a house and help our kids with college. Guess what… you have to get rich to do that nowadays. There’s no way around the fact that you need to learn how to charge a professional rate if you want a professional income. 

In a lot of ways, as cringe as it is to say this, you will be treated how you let people treat you. If you go to Fiverr and take 100s of blogs there… you will get the Fiverr rate for 100s of blogs. They aren’t going to argue with you, they’re happy to let you work for them. 

Something has to give, which means you have to stop that behavior and make new choices. You have to look at what you’re doing and who you’re doing it for.