Pricing
I don’t know how you price (or plan to price) your services, so let’s start with a brief overview of pricing strategy. Broadly speaking, there are two ways to price creative services — value pricing and cost/input pricing.
Value pricing connects the service(s) you offer to the outcome for the client, irrespective of the time, energy, or other costs to you as the service provider.
For example, I usually value-price my Google Ads consulting services. I’ll review an account, determine potential cost savings (or expected revenue gains), and provide a price to meet specific targets. That price has nothing to do with how long the work will take me and my team to complete or how complicated it is. The price is based entirely on the expected outcome for the client.
Pricing by cost/input, on the other hand, estimates the work involved to provide the service with some margin added for the company/service provider. For example, if you’re a freelancer who charges $150/hour, and you estimate the project will require 10 hours of your time, the estimate would be $1,500 (regardless of the outcome for the client).
If you have a small agency, the calculations would be the same except you would do that for every individual contributor to the project. Your margins could be calculated at the employee level (e.g., Sally is paid $50/hour and she is billed at $150/hour), or at the project level (total expense + X%).
Pricing by cost/input is far more common for service providers than pricing based on value.
Let’s look at one example through the lenses of both value pricing and cost/input pricing to better appreciate the differences to us as the service providers, and to the client.
Imagine a potential client spending $25,000/month on Google Ads to generate $100,000 in revenue. An account review reveals that $5,000 of that ad spend is responsible for generating $90,000 in revenue that’s ROI-positive, and the remaining $20,000 is responsible for $10,000 in revenue.
How would you price a Google Ads optimization service?
Using the lens of cost/input pricing, I would first estimate the time involved to optimize the account, add an appropriate buffer to accommodate any errors in my estimating, and multiply by whatever hourly rate I use for my time and my team’s time.
That estimate might look something like this if I were doing the project myself: 10 hours + 20% = 12 hours x $500/hour = $6,000. Or, if I planned to use someone on my team for implementation, it might be:
- Strategy: 4 hours + 20% = 4.5 hours x $500 = $2,250.
- Implementation: 6 hours + 20% = 7.5 hours x $100/hour = $750
- Total: $3,000
Now let’s compare that to value pricing. The client has been spending $300,000/year to generate $1.2 million in revenue (that’s a 4x return on ad spend). I am confident I can optimize their account to spend $60,000 to generate $1,080 million in revenue (that’s an 18x return on ad spend).
Question #1 — What do I think it’s worth to the client to save $240,000 in ad spend? (Answer: $240,000 … this number drops immediately to the bottom line.)
Question #2 — Do I think there are opportunities for additional revenue gain if the client reallocates some or all of that $240,000 ad spend elsewhere? If so, how much?
Let’s look at these two questions individually. If I know I can save a client $240,000, what is fair compensation fo me to accomplish that? 20%? 50%? There is no clear cut answer other than to say the maximum you’re able to charge. At a minimum, I would charge 20% ($48,000) in this scenario. I would be far more likely to charge between 30% and 40% ($72,000 — $96,000).
How long would it take me to do that? Who cares. The client certainly shouldn’t (yet, in my experience, they often do). If I had an envelope with $240,000 in my hand, and I told you I would be willing to trade it for an envelope with $96,000, how quickly would you make that trade?
Exactly.
The second question adds some complexity because there are unknowns. It’s possible that the client is starving their high-performing campaigns by funding under-performing campaigns. If that’s the case, it would be easy to calculate the benefit to the client based on revenue.
Let’s assume that the client could double their ad spend on the $60,000 that was driving $1,080,000 in revenue. That would mean spending $120,000/year for $2,160,000 in revenue. In this scenario, you’re able to save the client $120,000/year, and generate an additional $1.8 million in revenue. How do you price that?
I want to emphasize that these are not ridiculous scenarios. I’ve seen variations of this example (smaller and larger) dozens of times.
Value pricing is difficult. It’s not always as clear-cut as I’ve made the examples (unless you have clients who are confident in your abilities and are comfortable paying well for performance.). It also goes without saying that you have to be able to deliver the results when you price based on value. Usually those fees are paid over time based entirely on performance.
Often the barrier is the client. I have had clients refuse to pay me on a fee-for-performance basis, even knowing that my compensation is based entirely on their results. In one example, I was able to reduce ad spend by 75% (saving the client $6,000 in ad spend per month without losing a dollar of revenue), and I had to threaten legal action to get paid 20% of that $6,000 for six months. Why? Because I was able to make the necessary changes in less than a day and the client told me that it “wasn’t fair”. Seriously.
Unfortunately, this is all-too-common.
Our concepts of fairness get in the way of a lot of smart business decisions. It’s also not always easy to guarantee a business result, particularly if the client has an unproven offer, poor tracking, or makes emotional (vs. data-driven) decisions. (We’ll talk about managing expectations later in this module.)
I also want to be clear that I’ve only scratched the surface of value-pricing from the narrow lens of how I use it. If you’d like to learn more about value pricing, I enthusiastically recommend these resources:
- Mastering the Value Conversation — 2Bobs Podcast with David C. Baker and Blair Ennes.
- Pricing Creativity: A Guide to Profit Beyond the Billable Hour — Blair Enns.
That’s my high-level view of pricing — let’s move on to a strategy you can implement immediately. My approach to pricing is based on a couple of rules.
Rule #1 — sell outcomes. When we’re close to our craft it’s easy to get wrapped up in the work of that craft. That often translates to selling that work, rather than selling the outcomes our work produces on behalf of our clients.
Clients do this too. They want to hire a ‘Facebook person’, a ‘Google specialist’, or an ’email copywriter’. We can’t ignore what the client is asking for, but we can move the conversation (quickly) away from the descriptions of the work to focus on the outcomes for the client our work creates.
This begins with an often transformative interview of the client (which is a great way to establish your authority and expertise). Let’s assume that the prospect is looking for a ‘Facebook ads specialist’. That can mean a lot of different things, so the first question I would ask would be:
“What results would you like a Facebook ads specialist to produce for your business?”
Often the first answer (offered with bewilderment) is “to create Facebook ads”. (Patience with prospects and clients is a virtue.) Keep digging until you understand what the client is hoping will be true as a result of working with a Facebook specialist (or any other service provider). Take however long you need to have a precise, actionable description that the client agrees is true.
It’s not uncommon for the client not to know the answer, and that is a wonderful opportunity to position yourself as an expert and guide. Describe the results you have created for other clients — not the process — the most valuable results.
For example, if our prospect was preparing for a Product Launch Formula-style launch, she has several specific needs that a Facebook ads specialist might fulfill. Identifying audiences, creating awareness of the launch content in that audience, generating leads, moving the audience through the launch content, notifying the audience when cart opens and when it’s close to closing, etc.
The ultimate goal for this fictitious prospective client is generating customers for her PLF-style launch, and that’s where I would start the conversation. I would begin by asking:
“How many customers do you need to consider this launch successful? Wildly successful? Acceptable?”
Explain the outcomes necessary to create customers (awareness of the launch content, retargeting engaged prospects, cart open/close messaging, etc.). Focus the conversation on providing those services using the Facebook advertising platform. Don’t explain how you do it — focus on the outcomes and how those outcomes relate to the overall outcome the prospect wants.
Pro tip — avoid jargon. Speak the language of business results, not the language of your discipline. I’ve seen clients’ eyes glaze over so many times when service providers think they’re being smart or clever with acronyms and ‘inside baseball’ references.
Rule #1 is also a wonderful filtering tool for you as a service provider. If your prospect can’t tell you the specific outcomes she wants, turn and run like hell the other way. If you put yourself in a position as a service provider where the client doesn’t have a clear vision for success, it is highly unlikely your work will be viewed as successful (unless your results are so spectacular it’s obvious). Avoiding this potential quicksand is a powerful upstream decision.
On the other hand, the right clients will appreciate your focus on outcomes, especially if your competitors have been focusing on process.
Here’s a tip that has been incredibly useful (and I’ve never shared it publicly before). I know that most of my competitors are going to talk about process, the work involved, and how they do that work. When I first sit down with a prospective client, I will say something like this:
“If you have been speaking with other professionals who do (whatever the work is — e.g., Google Ads), I’m sure they’ve explained the work involved (then cover the highlights of what you think they said). While I agree that the work is important, what’s more important is the results that work produces for your business and that’s where I’d like to focus our conversation…”
You’ve now put every other competitor into one category and made yourself a category of one.
You can amplify your results by disagreeing with conventional wisdom (this is my favorite strategy). That conversation starts off the same as above:
“If you’ve been speaking with other Google Ads professionals, I’m sure they’ve explained the work involved (then cover the highlights).”
Then you disagree — either with conventional wisdom or their approach.
“I used to do it that way too. However, when I started to notice that those strategies rarely work as well as they’re described, I began to look for a better way to get results for my clients…”
This is an opportunity to put all of your competitors into a single category in your prospect’s mind titled “doing it the wrong way”.
“What I discovered was… (this is where you describe your particular insight and how it produces better results for your clients).”
I did this once in a very competitive bid environment for a client I wanted desperately. After a long, grueling RFP and interview process, I was one of five finalists who had to present my proposal in person to a 12-person executive team with a disinterested CEO. I could tell he was barely paying attention, and from somewhere beyond me the Muse whispered in my ear and this strategy was born.
I explained that I was certain others had already explained the mechanics of how a project like this would work, and conceded that their process probably was better than mine. (This definitely got the CEO’s attention.) I even mentioned some of the ways my approach to doing the work wasn’t ideal.
There was a palpable sense of tension in the room as everyone wondered if they were about to witness a train wreck.
Imagine a room full of people at the edge of their seats. They had seen four presentations, all exactly the same, all focused on what their 12-15 week project would include, the milestones, etc. And there I was saying my competitors probably did all of that better than I would.
Then I explained that I had discovered years ago that focusing on the process was selfish, because it’s important to me, but not important to the client. Without saying a word about my competitors directly, I effectively summarized every proposal they had heard in five minutes, talking about timelines, milestones, buffers, deliverables, etc.
When I did that, I put all of my competitors into a single undifferentiated category. I had narrowed the field from four to one to me vs. all of them lumped together. I had made the competition interchangeable.
Then, I explained how I worked backwards from the client’s goals. How the project reflected their needs and the outcomes they cared about most. I talked about a few of those needs that I had observed in my previous interviews, and I could see heads nodding up and down as I repeated back to that audience the top 5-6 outcomes they had already told me they wanted in the initial request for proposal.
By the end of that presentation I knew I had been selected for the project. More importantly, I realized what I had done differently so I could reverse-engineer it.
Any time I’ve been in competitive bid/proposal environments since I’ve used the same strategy and it works exceptionally well. Modify it for your own expertise and audience and it will serve you well too.
One more thing — if you get a lot of word of mouth referrals, explain these differentiators to the people who refer you too so they can explain how you’re different when they make the introduction:
“Most Google Ads agencies focus on keyword volume — ‘spray and pray’ — hoping that the high-performers will make up for the waste. Not <insert your name here> — she has a completely different method that finds the high-performers fast, prevents waste, and gets way better results for her clients…I’ll introduce you two by email…”
Rule #2 — offer clients ranges so they can self-select their price point. For many years I priced projects with tight ranges assuming the client wanted precision. I don’t want to guess how much money I left on the table from underbidding and overbidding.
A better approach is to give clients three options and let them self-select.
I want to be clear this isn’t about trickery or some kind of persuasion technique. It’s about serving your clients by letting them decide what they want and how much they want to spend to get it.
The framework I use for pricing is to lead with what I think the prospect has asked for, and then provide one option that costs less and one option that costs more. I am completely transparent with the client about why I do this and I explain my thinking explicitly (which reinforces my authority/expertise and builds rapport).
Let’s imagine that we’re email copywriters and we have been asked to create a seven-day onboarding email series for a prospective client. After our initial interview we think the client wants seven emails, three different subject lines for each email (for testing purposes), and three different leads per email (i.e., the first 1-3 paragraphs of each email would be different and the remainder would be the same).
When presenting my proposal and pricing to the client, I would begin by saying something like this:
“If my understanding of the project is correct, here’s what I would expect to deliver to you and your team:
- Seven story-based emails focused on turning free leads to customers with your existing $49 offer;
- Three subject lines per email; and
- Three 100 to 250-word leads for each email.
All content would be delivered no later than X date for $X.”
Simple, straightforward, and 100% authentic and true. This is what I think they’ve asked for and this is what it would cost to provide that.
Then I would add the following:
“However, I want to be clear this is not an all-or-none proposal and I may have misunderstood your requirements. Knowing that, here are two additional options (one that focuses on the minimum work required to do the job you described, and the other with some high-value extras that may be beneficial).
Option #2 (emphasize the core offer from your initial proposal to reinforce how important that is, and then focus on where you could save them some money):
- Seven story-based emails focused on turning free leads to customers with your existing $49 offer — same as above;
- One subject line per email; and
- One lead per email.
All content would be delivered no later than X date for $X (which should be 20-25% less than your initial proposal).
(Then add why they might want to choose this option.) If testing subject lines and leads is not critically important, option #2 is a better choice than my initial proposal.
Option #3 (mention that there are other ways you could add value beyond the first proposal):
- Seven story-based emails focused on turning free leads to customers with your existing $49 offer;
- Three subject lines per email;
- Three 100 to 250-word leads per email;
- Weekly performance data review for 30 days with updates to emails based on subject lines and leads that perform best;
All context would be delivered on X date for $X (20-25% more than your initial proposal).
(Then mention why and how the particular things you’ve added — in this case, weekly performance reviews and updates — could be beneficial.)”
This framework does several things well. First, it establishes you as an expert and authority because you’ve listened to the client, explained back to them what you heard, and provided a clear solution with a precise price that you believe meets their needs.
Second, it gives the prospect options to spend more or less money depending on their needs.
Third, you no longer need to guess exactly what a client wants, or limit yourself only to what they’ve described. You’re the expert, and part of your expertise is giving them a proposal and price for what they’ve asked for, and also offering other scenarios that are more or less expensive.
Once you start using this pricing framework (and customizing it for your own needs) you’ll see how powerful it is. It’s better for you, and better for the prospect. Everyone wins.
One more pro tip I’ve used to gauge a client’s initial reaction to pricing so I know if it’s worth investing time and energy in a more extensive proposal.
After a client has described a project, I’ll say something like:
“Well … if I think about 6-7 projects of similar size and scope I’ve completed in the past couple of years, those were somewhere in the neighborhood of $X to $Y … if that’s the range you were thinking, I’ll look at those projects more closely and provide a narrower price range…”
This is a great way to see how a client reacts. For example, if the project is a 90-day Google Ads engagement, I might say something like:
“If I think about the last 6-7 client relationships of similar size and scope, you’re probably in the neighborhood of $2,500 — $3,500 per month for my team to manage that account … if that’s what you were expecting, I’ll take a closer look and send an estimate your way…”
Most of the time you will have established the price range with the client which is very helpful. In that scenario, I would provide an estimate for $3,000/month with a lower priced option for $2,500, and a higher-priced option for $3,500 following the guidance above.
Other times you’ll learn that the client had a lower (or higher) budget in mind. They’ll often explain why after you’ve prompted the conversation. Then you can make decisions about how to move forward with a better understanding of their price expectations.
All of these ideas can be mixed and matched. Make them your own.
Reporting
One of the most difficult parts of managing a client relationship is reporting — especially if the service you’re providing is related to paid traffic.
Side Note: I have a general rule of life which is never ask a question I don’t want an answer to. There’s a corollary for that rule that applies to reporting — never share a metric with a client that you don’t want them to ask you about.
“Why is our clickthrough rate so low on that ad? Maybe we need a better picture…”
“Gary Vee posted on Instagram that the only metric he looks at is page engagement — what’s my page engagement?”
“This ad has more comments than the other ads. Should we turn those other ads off?”
“My friend’s sister’s ex-husband’s dog walker went on a blind date with someone who worked in accounting at Facebook and she said…”
On and on it goes … it’s mind-numbing.
In my experience, there’s a two-part solution to this problem.
First, educate the client. Spend time early in the relationship explaining what you report, why you report that (and only that), and emphasize that you don’t report data simply for the sake of reporting.
Explain the difference between business performance metrics and account management metrics. Be clear — and firm — that you will report business performance metrics relative to the client’s goal(s), and that you and your team will review account management metrics for account-level optimization.
I have found it valuable to show a client a brief demonstration of how you or someone on your team performs account-level optimization (screencasts and live screen sharing are great for this). Make your point quickly, then reassure your client of the frequency of those review (e.g., daily, every 72 hours, weekly — whatever is appropriate for your engagement).
For many clients, once they realize that you’re reviewing their account regularly their need to see detailed reports diminishes quickly.
Second, connect everything you report to the goal(s) for the relationship (and do not report any other metrics, no matter what). If you’re hired for front-end customer acquisition, report CPA by campaign. If you’re hired for lead generation, report cost per lead by campaign.
Whenever possible, share that data in a narrative format that conveys context and meaning. Don’t send spreadsheets hoping the client will figure it out. Explain the results of the work you’ve done in simple language.
If the results aren’t great, own that. Don’t try to massage the numbers of make excuses. Tell the truth and then transition to what you’re doing next to improve those numbers. Honesty, authenticity, and integrity go a long way toward building trust with clients. One of the many benefits of high-trust client relationships is you don’t have to answer the “Gary Vee says…” questions forever.
If the client asks about any other metrics, reorient back to their goals and keep the conversation focused on business performance metrics relevant to those goals.
Once you’ve reported metrics out of context clients will expect that, and you will be given feedback about and direction for those metrics. When that happens you’ve lost the battle … (ask me how I know).
You will need to be firm in your resolve, and yes, there may be situations when you have to communicate other metrics to clients. When that happens, accept the situation with grace and consider it an opportunity to educate the client. Open up Google Ads or Facebook Ads Manager, find the information the client is interested in, and then connect it to the larger story the data is telling.
If the metric is irrelevant, explain why by focusing on what is relevant. If the metric is relevant to your account-level decision-making, explain how that metric has changed over time because of your efforts (and connect that to the high-level outcomes you’ve been hired to achieve).
And, if all else fails and a client insists on seeing every conceivable metric at every imaginable level of irrelevant detail, take a deep breath and smile — you’ve now earned your place in the digital marketing brotherhood/sisterhood because we’ve all had to deal with a client like that…
One last thought about reporting.
As a service provider you need to be the expert in your specific domain, and that expertise includes reporting tools. If the client uses Google Analytics you need to know GA backwards and forwards. If the client uses Wicked Reports, Segmetrics, or other third-party tools, you need to spend the time to understand those.
At a minimum, if you’re providing paid traffic services to clients you need to understand the platform-specific reporting in detail — well beyond the superficial presentation of data.
Here are a few options to get you started:
- Using Facebook Ads Manager To Understand Ad Performance
- Understanding Your Google Ads Data
- Google Analytics Academy
Managing Client Expectations
It is very common for service providers to promise clients everything imaginable in order to get work, and then have to live with those promises begrudgingly later.
There’s no judgment in that sentence — I’ve done that more times than I want to admit. However, over-promising to get work is not good for you, and ultimately it’s not good for the client. Managing expectations early in the relationship and staying consistent over time are critical skills to practice.
Here’s a list of suggestions for you to include in your early conversations with clients.
Put boundaries around the work that you’ll be doing. Describe your role (or your team’s role) clearly and succinctly. If you write email copy, for example, explain the format you’ll provide that copy in (e.g., Google docs), how it will be delivered (e.g., by email), and specifically reference anything you don’t do (e.g., setup the emails in the client’s email service provider).
Identify all client account access you’ll need, including permissions. For example, if you need My Client Center access to Google Ads, admin access to Google Tag Manager, and reporting access to Google Analytics, explain that very clearly.
Specify when you’re available for communication. If you’re in the office 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday — Friday and don’t reply to client communications outside those times, be clear about that. Keep in mind that clients will believe what you do more than what you say. If you say you’re available M-F, 9-5 and you regularly reply to emails at nights and on weekends, clients will begin to expect you to reply at night and on weekends.
Explain how a client should communicate with you.
For example, with few exceptions, I don’t answer phone calls that are not scheduled in advance. When I first work with clients I mention that the best way to reach me is by email. I also mention that I check email frequently and, if they’d like to reach me by phone, emailing me with 2-3 options for times is very helpful.
Keep in mind that this is another example where actions speak louder than words. If you say you prefer to schedule calls in advance, but you answer whenever a client calls, you’re training clients to call you without scheduling in advance.
You may be OK with that — I have many colleagues who are. Just be clear and consistent with your particular approach.
Specify response times for you and your team as well. Something as simple as saying “I, or someone on my team, will reply to emails the same day whenever possible, or within 24 hours at the latest”, is useful as long as it’s true.
Explain how you’ll engage with others on the team. For example, if you’re a front-end developer working on a project with content creators, designers, and paid traffic specialists, identify in advance who you’ll work with, how you’ll work with them, and identify any effects that might have on your pricing.
You may have priced a project assuming a designer would create fully layered visuals in Photoshop and written content would be provided in a Google doc. If those were your assumptions, make sure they’re visible to the client in your proposal, statement of work, or contract. Include language and pricing for other scenarios as well.
Identify potential problem areas in advance and call them out to the client. For example, if you’re a front-end developer working on a project that requires extensive tracking, and you’re assuming that you’ll be responsible for adding Google Tag Manager code that is managed by others, mention that explicitly.
Include a pricing scenarios if the project is not the way it was described. If, for example, the client discovers that GTM doesn’t work across all of the tech platforms s/he uses, and you find yourself adding code at the page level, it’s helpful to have clarified pricing in advance with the client so there are no surprises. “Can’t you just include X…?” Is not a fun conversation to have with clients.
Clarifying in advance what happens when something goes wrong is helpful too. “If X, then Y” is an easy framework to use. “If there are <these types of problems> in <these times>, then <this is what you can expect>.”
“If there are any issues with data tracking after business hours, please text XXX.XXX.XXXX and someone will take a look as soon as possible.”
A few statements like this can be exceptionally helpful.
The most important factor in managing client expectations is doing what you say you’ll do when you say you’ll do it. I’ve worked with so many service providers who just didn’t do what they said they would do and that is frustrating for everyone.
Managing client expectations really is as simple as telling the client what you’ll do, when you’ll do it, having a plan for when things go wrong, and being true to your word. The moment you deviate from your commitments you begin to train your clients that they can’t rely on what you say.
If you say you reply to requests Monday — Friday, and then respond on weekends, you are training your client to expect you to communicate on weekends.
If you consistently miss deadlines by 48-72 hours, you’ll train clients to give you fake deadlines until you’re eventually replaced. (Side note: missing deadlines is, by far, the most common problem I’ve seen with service providers.)
I can’t stress enough that you’re always training your clients how to treat you — take that responsibility (and opportunity) very seriously.
Communications
Clear, consistent, well-structured, synchronous communication with clients is a powerful upstream intervention that eliminates a significant number of downstream problems.
I have learned this lesson the hard way far too many times to count.
Every client seems to have their own particular timeframe for communications and, if you meet within that timeframe, everything stays on track. However, when you exceed their timeframe, problems and questions arise quickly.
It’s a strange phenomenon that I’ve seen repeat many times. Everything is fine with a meeting every two weeks, for example, then a meeting is cancelled and all hell breaks loose by week three. Problems arise out of nowhere, no one seems happy, and the world is suddenly upside down.
In my experience, the most effective timeframe to communicate with clients is weekly — even if it’s a 15-minute conversation. It’s also very helpful if you schedule that conversation for the same time every week whenever possible.
I can imagine many explanations for why this works. A week is enough time to make progress, and it’s not so long that the client starts to wonder what you’re doing (and why they’re paying you). If there are any issues that the client hasn’t brought to your attention, those surface quickly (which means the clients hasn’t spent a lot of time ruminating about them).
Clients like to be heard, and giving them opportunities to be heard frequently is a high-leverage decision.
You may not like the idea of weekly check ins with clients. Believe me, I know, because I resisted that frequency for 15+ years. And in exchange, I dealt with a lot of downstream problems that could have been easily avoided with more consistent communication.
I know what some of you are thinking — can I send an email or Slack message instead? No. There’s magic in synchronous communication — the back and forth that happens when two or more people are engaged with each other at the same time. You can augment those weekly meetings with emails, Slack, and other types of communication, but I promise you that a weekly meeting will save you countless headaches. It’s worth 100x the effort.
To frame these conversations effectively, I use a three-part structure:
- What we have accomplished since our last conversation.
- What we intend to accomplish before the next conversation.
- Anything preventing us from doing that (questions, needs, obstacles, etc.).
Depending on the scope of the client relationship, these check ins can take 15 minutes or longer. I do not recommend check in meetings that last more than an hour. If you need more than an hour to check in, divide that into two shorter meetings. It’s hard to sustain attention effectively beyond 45-60 minutes.
Make someone responsible for capturing any commitments you, your team, and the client make during these calls, and send a summary of those commitments by email to everyone within 24 hours following the call.
This extra work is well worth the time involved. It will force you (and your team) to listen closely for action items, to articulate those action items clearly, and to follow up with clients for anything you need from them. If anything falls through the cracks — particularly if the client doesn’t meet his/her commitments — you’ll also have a record of that.
If you use Zoom, I highly recommend an inexpensive transcription service called Otter.ai. Otter connects to your Zoom account and automatically transcribes recorded Zoom calls. The machine transcription is not perfect, but clicking anywhere in the transcription plays the audio from the recording at that location. I record all of my client calls and send links to the transcription/audio after. That has proven to be very valuable many times (clarifying misunderstandings, reviewing action items, etc.).
Pricing, reporting, managing client expectations, and communications are high-leverage activities for client-services professionals. Competency in each is critically important. More advanced skills in these areas are well worth the investment of time and energy.
I encourage you to include each of these skills in your professional development plans.
NEXT: Client Services Q&A Call #1, CS Modules 1-2