Tried lowering my retainer fees to win more clients and got burned

I was struggling to close new business last quarter so I cut my monthly retainer from $3,000 down to $2,000 for three potential clients. I figured cheaper rates would make me an easy choice over the bigger agencies. One client signed on but then demanded constant revisions and extra calls every week. The other two just ghosted me after I sent over the proposal with the lower number. Turns out dropping my price made me look desperate or like my work wasn't worth full price. I ended up working twice as hard for less money and still lost time I could have spent on better leads. Has anyone else tried discounting and seen it backfire on their workload?

2 comments

2 Comments

kai_stone9922h ago

That bit about looking desperate is dead on. It's like when you drop your price people assume you were overcharging before and now they don't trust you.

val_taylor16h ago

oh come on though, sometimes dropping your price is just being smart about the market. like if your costs went down or you found a cheaper supplier, why would you keep charging the old price? people just look for reasons to be suspicious even when there's a totally normal explanation.