How do I explain this to a difficult client?

you appear to be a very sensitive person that doesn't feel confident in the value of the services you are providing. whereas, your client seems comfortable in his ability to negotiate prices and understand value. This puts you in a very difficult situation. One that you aren't prepared to, nor even want to be involved with. So it's simple, You have priced your services at what you believe is fair and maybe even need to raise them. Regardless, when your client wants to begin the negotiation discussion (which your're not interested in) Say to the client " I'm charging "X", and i hope you're getting value from it, and if not then it's not going to work out". The best approach is to state your position, without concern to its import to this client. separate yourself from the emotional side of it, and state the fact. You can make this statement because it's a fact. GOOD LUCK P.S. whether he can or can't afford your service isn't your concern. You are providing a fair price for your service that they are using. Stand Tall and proud.

Just a bit of food for thought to add to what others have said. Yes, you have expenses, travel time, etc., but your clients don't really care about any of that. When you go shopping, do you ask your grocer what it costs to unload a truck, stock shelves, rotate goods, pay cashiers, or supply bags? No, you just look at the price on a can of corn and compare it to the grocery store down the road. As a trainer, your costs of doing business are not the concern of your clients. The only thing they care about is the value they receive, so telling him "I can't do it for less because I have to pay for x, y, and z" is going to fall on deaf ears.

What you can do, however, is sell the value of your services. That means stating what your experience is compared to your competition, stating how well your relationship with his daughter is working, showing him what she has learned and how far she has come, and stating what your prices are compared to the competition.

Then you have to hold firm on your price and let him go if he thinks you're not worth it. Personally, I'd be thrilled if I could get lessons for $25/hour. Most places near me charge more than that for group lessons with a half dozen riders. Something, however, tells me that he's not going to find anyone to work for less that actually knows what they're doing.

Tell him your business is not something to be haggled, you have a set price. If he doesn't like it, he'll have to either pay more with other trainers or stop his daughter's lessons as you're the best price in the area.

Stand your ground. If you allow him to do it once and you lower the price, he's likely to ask again after a while and you'll end up being paid next-to-nothing.

Great Best Answer but I would like to add some things. I've been training horses and giving lessons for 35+ years. You need to become stronger and stop trying to justify your rates! This is a BUSINESS transaction-take it or leave it.

When you try to explain your expenses to him, he just sees you as weak and feels that he winning-because he is!! No negotiating with jerks like this. Stand up tall and tell him thanks to the enormous number of horse crazy girls out there, you have an extensive waiting list and his daughter's spot can

be filled if he is not happy with the price.

$25.00 an hour is a piddling amount in most areas of the country for a riding lesson and you should be charging by hour or day if you take students to shows. Seriously consider RAISING your rates and stop comparing yours with what you've heard that trainers are getting. Every single time I raise my rates, I get more clients! If you have trouble obtaining new clients start networking and passing your business cards around. The clients you now have can be a great source of new business-if they are happy with you, they will pass the word on to their friends.

I NEVER take on clients who want to negotiate price. But, when I do implement an increase, I don't always raise the rate for loyal clients especially if they struggling with a budget a bit. Every one of them pays cheerfully and knows what is expected of them and of me.

Now that you have run across your 1st real jerk, you may want to sit down and compose a formal agreement for you and ALL of your lesson clients. For instance, rates subject to change at any time, payment in advance (sometimes for a month at a time!) is required, client must make contact ASAP when unable to come and excessive cancellations may result in a client losing their riding spot. This is something I had to finally do. I dealt with too many teenage girls who got involved in several school sports and were constantly cancelling. I feel that riding is just as important as any ball sport and warned the parents that their riding spots were at risk. After dropping a couple of them and replacing them with kids/adults who really wanted to ride, it stopped happening.

It seems to me that you are seriously undervaluing yourself. Take yourself and your job seriously and other people will do the same. You are a Professional- Act like one!

Tell him he has to pay your fees upfront and without argument, or he is free to take his daughter somewhere else. Make sure you don't say this in front of his daughter though, it's certainly not her fault her father's trying to weasel out of legitimate fees.

Unfortunately, this may cause hard feelings between you and even a breakup of the business relationship, but you have to stand up for yourself, or people like this will walk all over you. Remember, you are doing HIM a favor by providing HIS daughter with discounted, quality instruction. YOU'RE the one losing out monetarily, NOT him.

Best of luck.

I hate people like that, Andy, and I understand only too well where you're coming from with this. You need to be very firm with this gentleman and make it clear that you aren't made of money. You also need to be very clear that you expect payment at the time of service. If he doesn't want to cooperate, tell him that you won't be giving his daughter any more lessons unless they are paid for in advance.

Sometimes you have to be honest. Most people who are buying lessons for their children and are not "horse" people already do not really understand what tehy are really paying for. You have the rental of the... Tack, horse, space, equipment (jumps, poles, barrels, cones, ect...) you then you have the time of the trainer, the vet and farrier costs. Feed and suplements $25 for a lesson is CRAZY cheep where I am from. I dont even think a price like that exists. Then on top of that you take her to show. This is your livelyhood and your profession. You need to sit the family down and explain these things in a way they can understand, $$$.