Marketing your product, and yourself, is a necessary evil. So many of us love the results of marketing, but hate the process of self-promotion.

However, without proper marketing, nobody knows you exist. I used to tell my team all the time, “If people don’t know we’re coming, they can’t buy tickets to our events.” Which seems obvious enough.

The problem is, most people don’t realize that just putting a WE’RE OPEN sign out front doesn’t bring awareness to the community at large. On top of marketing for awareness, you also have to be prepared to market your quality.

Recently I had a conversation about a friend’s spouse who was bidding a painting job on Craigslist that needed to be done by Saturday.(The conversation was on a Wednesday.) He was supposedly one of twenty people who bid this specific job.

The client called him and shared that he was on the higher side of those bidding, but he was being considered because he could do the job sooner than some of the others. If he was willing to come down on his rate, he would then be on the short list of folks being considered.

At the time, they were in negotiations on the rate. I shared with her that he needed to reconsider negotiating his rate. Instead, he needed to focus on selling the quality of his work. The client already tipped his hand when he shared the need to get it done quicker than some of the painters were able to do.

In a group of twenty bidders, the client also took the time to call him. This also is a tip of the client’s hand to his desire to work with my friend’s husband. And as any good businessperson should do, the client asked for a reduced rate.

I have ABSOLUTELY no problem with you asking for a reduced rate, as long as you understand that you might not get it. With these pieces of the puzzle, I suggested that he not focus on reducing his rate. Instead, go back to the client and let them know that he can offer something much greater than a discount; he could offer his personal guarantee of the quality!

If it was me, I would remind him of my ability to get the job done in the time frame he desires, AND that I would do a much better job than the folks who are low balling their bids. You see, people who are willing to give low bids will either do a fast and low to decent quality job, whereas I would do a high quality job that would not leave him regretting his decision come Sunday.

When marketing your product, don’t forget to also market you, your quality, and why you can offer something that nobody else can. Click here to Tweet

If you can do that, you’ll get all the jobs you want.

Question: What would you have done in this situation?