Hello May, and welcome back to another edition of Tips and Tacos. First, I want to thank everyone who participated in last month’s giveaway and those who shared kind words about how they found last’s month tips helpful. I hope this month’s tips are even better. Now let’s dig into these tips and tacos.

What to do when a lead cancels a paid discovery call

Last month, I shared why I started to offer paid discovery calls, and I still do even to this day. But last month, I had something happen for the first time ever. Someone booked a paid discovery call and then decided to cancel.

Ok, first of all, it sucks when this happens because I was looking forward to working with this potential client. However, the person gave proper notice that they needed to cancel and said they did not want to reschedule the call due to personal reasons. 

But what can you do? Do you keep the person’s money or give a refund? You give them a refund and keep it pushing. And here’s why. The discovery call isn’t about making money. It’s about getting serious people on the phone who are ready to commit.

If the person provides proper notice, give them a full refund. You never know if that person might come back around again, especially if you have a follow-up system for leads that need more time.

Because of this situation, I thought it’d be good to share my discovery call cancellation, rescheduling, and refund policy. Feel free to copy and paste the entire policy or tweak it to make it your own.

Overpromising and underdelivering

No one except for maybe scammers set out to intentionally overpromise and underdeliver services to their clients. However, most service providers are making this mistake again and again, even though they have the best of intentions in mind.

Why does this happen? Some common reasons include:

• The desire to please clients: You might commit to unrealistic deadlines or project scopes to win over clients or secure projects.
• Competitive pressure: In an effort to stand out against your peers, you might fall into this trap of showing leads you’re better and faster than a competitor.
• Overestimating personal capacity: You misjudge your own time management skills or underestimate the complexity of a project.
• Scarcity mindset: You’re charging too little, and you don’t think there are clients out there willing to pay you what you’re worth, so you undervalue your services and take on too many clients.

If you identify with any of the reasons above, take this as a personal acknowledgment to fix the issue now. You might do amazing work, but no one cares when you’re days, weeks, or even months behind on a deadline.

In an effort to overcome this challenge, I want you to do 2 things; 

1. Add an extra 2 weeks to your turnaround time. So if you think you can do something in a week, tell your client 3 weeks. Now you’re in a position to underpromise and overdeliver, and that’s something no one is mad about.

2. Price your services based on this new timeline. For example, if you’re a copywriter and it typically takes 2 weeks to complete your service, and you charge $500, now this service takes 4 weeks and costs $1,000. With this strategy, even if you finish early, you’re not rushed to take on a new client because you did the work in 2 weeks and got paid for the month. Now take those 2 weeks to relax or work on growing your business.

Wrapping Up

I hope you enjoyed this edition of Tips and Tacos, and I’d love it if you could share it on Twitter to help your followers too. Don’t forget to check out this newsletter’s sponsor too.

Until next time!