Why Lowball Clients Are No Good

Truth be told, no human being in this entire world would ever want to be taken advantage of. Everyone strives to study or work hard so that they’d earn what they deem they deserve. However, circumstances may vary. When you’re a starter, you may think that meager wages may be a part of that slow winning process. Since no successes come in hand easily, one may have to bear with the sparsity before they make their way to the top.

It happens to most of us. In our own little ways, each possesses a sundry kind of ambitious heart. To make these ambitions come into life, each of us performs a manifold of ways to do so and this may include our utmost patience and perseverance to keep up from the arduous ground-level process. 

Well, count me in. 

I started my journey from scratch. In the initial phase, I also went through a hard phase of being taken advantage of. I had to deal with clients that threw out a low number and made me suffer under pressure and heavy workloads. The worst thing about it is having no other option at all. Who am I to complain? I’m just a simple beginner who’s trying to find her way in the world of virtual assistance. Plus, I kept myself alive by optimistically thinking to myself, ‘Winners never complain. Winners buttress themselves until they vanquish the battle.’

My ambitious yet brave and determined spirit never failed me. I did pour my uttermost persistence because I didn’t want to settle for less. I made sure that I am tracking the right path to success. In the most beautiful outcome, I have endured and conquered all the degrading things that I had to go through. Thanks to those, it paved my way to where I am standing and cherishing everything about business and life right now. 

Now, as a woman in the business for 11 sturdy years, I have learned innumerable things, and this writing is intended to impart to you some of those lessons. One lesson that these experiences have taught me is scraping any rooms for lowball clients.

When you are highly familiar with your capabilities and value, making any space for lowball clients in your life will only waste your time and use up your competence for nothing. In other words, you will only allow them to take advantage of you and steal your shining gem-like skills.

And that’s a big no, no!

Accepting lowball clients will not motivate you. This disincentive will only debase the quality of your work because chances are, you’ll end up unproductive and inefficient. Besides, who would want to work for an employer who does not value your merit? No one! Who would be enthusiastically active in their tasks when they are not paid highly? Let’s be real and say what’s in our hearts; no one!

Working with a lowball client, you’ll realize that by the end of the day, you’ll submit dull reports and of course, you can’t call it achievements. The outcomes? Well, in the highest probability that we could foresee, it would be you getting scolded by the client while degrading you and offering you another lowball value. I may say that it can be a psychological battle and abuse but trust me, been there done that.

On a brighter note, if you have transparently seen your value and have already set your sight on a price in the most reasonable manner, carry it with you with heads high and never compromise. In every client negotiation, never allow lowball offers to be a booby trap. You will never fall from this deception if you unequivocally know your worth, in numbers particularly. So setting your value before meeting them can be a great help to not waste your precious time from these beaker clients.

However, it’s good to know that setting a high value should be parallel to what you can offer. It’s just plain and simple: you need to have the skills. By this means, you need to give the client the impression that he can’t find another one just like you. You need to inculcate him the idea that letting you go will lose all his chances big time.

Somehow, at this time, due to the undeniable evolution of virtual assistance, your skills may not be as inimitable and incomparable as you think. Well, it doesn’t mean that you won’t stand out from the rest. Hard work and perseverance bear abundance and success. On this ground, you may need to diligently upgrade your skills. Not settling for limited skills and expanding the horizon of your knowledge in this industry will give you all the reasons to set your price high. 

Quite the contrary, not all clients look for mere skills. The gift of skills holds no value at all when you don’t have a positive stance. This pleasing attitude is incorporated with the right sense of politeness, respect and kindliness which definitely engender a good impression to the client. They know that a positive stance in real life reflects on every work you do. 

So, during client negotiations, be direct but never forget to be always polite on your responses. Respect begets respect. If you treat the client nicely, you’ll get the kind of appreciation that you need and he may eventually agree to meet your standards.

In this industry, lowball clients will never perish but at least you have the freedom to choose if you’ll settle with them or focus on seeking highball clients that believe in you and see your value. It’s like getting to choose between making your life sad and miserable or making it happy and well-respected. The life-changing choice is in your hands.