Episode 14:MMO Mailbag 3: Nick on Out-Pricing the Competition
In this third and final mailbag installment, Nick answers the question “how does he counter the many low-cost, ‘stack em high sell em cheap’ so-called Designers online currently bidding in 99Designs?”
Summary
Nick records this episode into Kai’s voicemail after Kai misses their scheduled session. Between automated system interruptions, Nick works through a mailbag question about competing with cheap designers on 99designs, arguing that his actual differentiation is mandatory research and strategy, not better-looking pictures.
Highlights
- Clients stay quiet through eight weeks of strategy and thousand-word reports, then go feral the moment Nick sends the visuals. He treats that pattern as proof that people want a shortcut to tangibility, not the underlying thinking.
- Cheap competitors on 99designs don’t ask about business needs and don’t talk to the client’s customers. That’s the real gap, not visual execution quality.
- Nick’s counter is to make research and strategy non-negotiable. A client who just wants a wireframe deck will be disappointed working with him, and will probably be overpaying by around $20,000.
- The belief that you can spend less and get the same output is disingenuous. The low-cost option skips the thought process entirely.
- When a prospect asks ‘what makes you better?’ Nick reads it as a sign he hasn’t positioned himself clearly, not as a routine sales objection.
- Design is a tool to address business needs. Nick keeps it there deliberately, rather than leading with or centering on deliverables.
Read the transcript
Your call has been forwarded through an automatic voice message system is not available. At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up or press one for more options.
You have disappointed me. We were supposed to record the podcast. I’m sitting here. It’s so funny being on a phone call with like my headphones on, the nice microphone, and everything. And I’m really just going to keep talking until you call me back. I don’t really have a whole lot to talk about regarding value-based pricing or Setting boundaries with clients or whatever have you. We got one from the mailbag. How does Nick counter the many low-cost Stack them high, sell them cheap, so-called designers online, currently bidding in 99 designs, etc. Love the phrase so-called designers. They call themselves designers. And I don’t. I don’t disagree that they’re doing something approaching design. It’s kind of this veneer of design. It’s the thing that the people go feral about, which is the pictures. Clients go feral at pictures. I spend Eight weeks presenting strategy, writing a thousand plus word reports, and then I send them the pictures, and that is when they go crazy. And they have all the questions. And I’m like, well, why didn’t you have the questions before this? People I love when my friends and colleagues call themselves visual thinkers. Because I think everyone is kind of a visual thinker to some extent. Even when you look at the wireframes, even when they’re ugly, you’re still a visual thinker. You can think about it: okay, this is tangibility, this is something that’s important. And people want a short circuit to the tangibility. It’s like almost like a weight loss scheme or like five steps to better dating or something like that. And It’s not really not really the point, is it? It doesn’t really work. So the way that I counter that is by focusing on the strategy and focusing on the business needs and keeping design as a tool. To address those business needs. If you’re coming in the door and you want just a wireframe deck for your Facebook microsite, which happens, some people ask that because they’re not wrong to ask that. That’s reasonable. What a lot of UX designers do. But if they come in wanting that, then they’re going to be pretty disappointed. They’re going to be disappointed not just because they’re probably not listening to the strategy. Also, probably because they get bored by me just talking a lot. And furthermore, because they’re probably spending a good $20,000 more than they should be spending. It is. tempting but disingenuous to believe that you can spend less money and get the same output. They don’t have a thought process around it. The 99 designs, so-called designers that this person is saying, they don’t really have how do I put this? They don’t really have a consideration for the business needs, like I said before. They aren’t asking about the business needs. They aren’t talking to the person’s customers. Those are expensive situations that require generating a lot of value. And Um spending a lot of time assessing what works and what doesn’t. Anyway, I play a different game. I try and propose Strategy, I require research, as has been previously mentioned in a Make Money Online episode. If somebody’s coming in asking, like, what makes you better? I’ll offer it honestly. But I’ll also think in the back of my head, like, It’s kind of worrisome. Like, how am I not positioning myself well? Am I not providing the value-based upside? Did they just not read anything on any of my websites? Which could happen. But I should be doing some work to. Set the correct expectations with these people and make sure that they’re valuing me well. Anyway, Kai, I.
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I don’t know if I’m satisfied with my mess. I don’t know how to press numbers on this.
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This is grim. Do I erase? Are you still there?
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I’m gonna hang up, but I’m very disappointed in you, the voicemail, and Kai Davis.
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