Change the Outcome or Change the Investment

If the outcome your prospective client wants exceeds the amount of money they can invest in obtaining it, something has to change. Either the outcome has to change, or the investment has to change. As it stands, they are in direct opposition to each other.

Change the Outcome

Changing the expected outcome can make it possible for your prospective client to use their budget wisely and to generate some portion of the outcome they seek. Maybe achieving  80 percent of the original desired outcome makes more sense with the existing budget.

If you find it difficult to speak with your prospective client about their inability to invest the right amount of money to achieve their desired outcomes, you are going to find it even more difficult to tell them that you failed to deliver that outcome because they failed to make the necessary investment. The time to have this conversation is before you agree to an investment that doesn’t match the outcome.

You’re better off agreeing to a different outcome, even if it means a different solution, and even if it means you lose the business.

Change the Investment

Anyone can have anything they want, provided they’re willing to pay for it. They can have your gold plated solution if they are willing to make the necessary investment. They can have 24-hour service, as long as they pay for that service. They can have special concessions and customizations that no one else on earth can have, if they want to spend the money.

In situations where there is a conflict between the desired outcome and the investment, increasing the investment eliminates any conflict in achieving a prospective client’s desired outcomes. If your prospective client insists on the outcome, you have to insist on the investment.

We often fear the wrong dangers. We fear asking the prospective client for more money once they’ve told us their budget, when the real danger is taking their money and failing them.

If your prospective client wants champagne, they need a budget to match their desire. If their budget dictates that they can only afford beer, they can only afford beer. Even if they really want champagne.