Happy May! We’ve got new Spring energy and more sunshine. The world is our oyster, my friend.

I get some great questions in the mail and Facebook and I thought I’d share one with you here…

 QUESTION FROM A FACEBOOK FAN:

QUESTION FROM A FACEBOOK FAN

When testing a new class or product (or service), do you invite Beta users/participants? And if so – do you charge them?

DEANNA'S ANSWER:

I ALWAYS (yes this is a ‘soapbox issue’ for me) advocate charging for your services. If it’s an info product, I suppose you could give it away because you don’t have to give your time to deliver it but, I don’t think that honors your gifts and talents either.

‘Practice’ should be paid practice and your service is valuable. If you don’t charge for it, most people won’t deem it as valuable as it is.  You know the old saying “You get what you pay for.” A lot of people believe that.  Here’s what you can do instead…

You can decide to lower the investment in lieu of requiring they give you feedback, participate more in the shaping of the program, for ‘not having it all figured out yet’ but, honestly…most of your clients wouldn’t know it’s a beta if you don’t tell them.

I’m not saying you should lie, no way. I’m saying how do they benefit from knowing it’s your first time running the program. If it will serve them to know, tell them and include them in the process. But, don’t you dare give it away for free.

Oh and if you haven’t already…Don’t forget to take my Spring 2013 Service Business Survey.

It’s only 5 minutes and you’ll get my juicy “How to Write Sales Letters that Sell Big” worbook and checklist as my thank you gift for sharing your perspective.

Click here to take it now.

To your fantastic success,
–Deanna

DeannaMaio100

PS: If you’d like to see more “Answers from the Mailbag” and perhaps get your own question answered, add a comment below and let me know this was useful to you. Just leave a comment below, or let me know if you have a burning question of your own. In the meantime have a beautiful Spring day and enjoy your business!