What a Wealthy Client Pays For

Imagine a math tutor named Priya Raman who has a table at her children’s school fundraiser. Mrs. Danforth stops by and asks what she does. Priya is busy selling raffle tickets, so she gives her usual answer. “I tutor high school math, algebra through calculus. It’s $120 an hour, usually once a week.”

Mrs. Danforth nods, takes a raffle ticket, and moves on to the bake sale. In March, her son needs help with algebra. She calls the tutor her neighbor uses.

Suppose instead that Priya gives a different first sentence. “I tutor teenagers whose parents would rather they get ahead in math than rescue a grade. It’s an hour a week, at $120.”

Mrs. Danforth asks what getting ahead looks like for a ninth grader. Priya says, “Usually it means starting next year’s algebra in the spring, so September feels like review.” Mrs. Danforth asks for Priya’s number, and in March she books a first session for her son.

Priya teaches the same math at the same price both times. What changed was her first sentence. In the first version, she gave a subject, an hour, and a price, which any tutor in town could give. In the second, she named the family who hires her, and Mrs. Danforth heard her own family in it.

So open the first sentence about your work with the kind of client who hires you. Put the hours and the price in the sentence after it. Here is what a wealthy client pays for and why numbers get compared. Then you will see what a private chef learned from a burned tray of potatoes.

A wealthy client pays for what the work says about them

In The Luxury Strategy, Jean-Noël Kapferer and Vincent Bastien argue that a luxury purchase is about the person more than the object. Part of what the buyer pays for is what owning it says about them. It says something to the buyers themselves, and it says something to other people.

A service works the same way. A family photographer hands over 60 edited photos. To the parents themselves, having the photos says that they keep an honest record of their children growing up. To friends who see them on the wall, the photos say that the parents took care in choosing who would take them.

Here is the course’s view of what that means for you. A wealthy client rarely says that they are paying for what the work says about them. They ask about dates and prices like anyone else. Still, when two photographers are both good, the one whose work fits how the parents see themselves tends to get the job.

A description in numbers gets compared on numbers

The first sentence a client hears or reads about your work is usually your answer to “What do you do?” or the first sentence of your home page. Many service professionals fill it with numbers, such as 60 edited images, 12 sessions a month, or three courses for eight guests. A client can set those numbers beside three other quotes in an afternoon. So that is what the client does, and the lowest price usually wins.

A sentence about what the work says about the client cannot be set beside another quote in the same way. The package details still matter. They belong in the sentence after it, where they back up what the first sentence said.

Describe the client, not the work you hand over

A family photographer might say, “I take photos for parents who want an honest record of their children growing up.” That sentence describes the parent, not the photos.

A parent who wants that record recognizes their own family in the sentence and keeps listening. A parent who does not want it moves on, which saves you both a call.

A private chef found new words for a spoiled dish, and her client loved it

Maddy DeVita is a private chef in New York. She wrote about her first private chef job, which began weeks after she finished culinary school. She cooked five days a week, with a large dinner party once a month.

At a dinner party for 20, she burned a tray of potato rounds. The second tray cooked perfectly, but its blossom pattern fell apart. The potatoes were listed on the printed menu at every guest’s place, so she had to serve them somehow.

DeVita put the good rounds into tea cups. She served them as “oven-roasted potato coins intended to sprinkle over your wagyu to add crunch and salt to every bite.”

“Everyone loved it,” she wrote. Afterward, her client told her it was the best meal she had cooked for them. The client also asked how she came up with the potato coin idea.

DeVita concluded that “my words could directly impact how my client experienced their meal, irrespective of the food itself.” From then on, she took more care over how she described each dish, “especially for dinner parties when my clients liked to put on a show.”

DeVita’s words changed how her client experienced the potatoes, and what the guests saw on the table. The step from her menu to your first sentence is the course’s own. Your first sentence does that before a client has seen anything you have done. It tells them, and anyone they repeat it to, what kind of person hires you. So choose its words with the care DeVita gave her menu.

Why a new first sentence with the old first call goes wrong

Imagine a home organizer named Tess Callow who rewrites the first sentence of her home page. It now says, “I work with families who want a house that runs itself while they’re busy running everything else.” Below it, she lists her three packages by the hour.

Mrs. Penhallow reads the page and calls. Tess is in the car between two jobs, and she opens the call the way she usually does. “Which package were you looking at?”

Mrs. Penhallow goes back to the package list. She sets Tess’s hours beside the hours of two other organizers. Then she books the one with the lowest hourly price.

Tess’s mistake was going back to the packages before she knew anything about the house. Her home page named the family who hires her, and her first question put the hours back in front of Mrs. Penhallow.

The version that works carries the first sentence into the call. Tess opens with “Tell me about the house and who lives in it.” Mrs. Penhallow talks about three children, two dogs, and a mudroom nobody can walk through.

Tess tells Mrs. Penhallow what the work will be like for her family. “After the first morning, every boot and every leash has a hook by the door,” Tess says, “and you can walk through the mudroom again.” Then she names the package that fits. Mrs. Penhallow books a first visit.

How to rewrite the first sentence about your work

Write down what you say when someone asks what you do. Under it, copy the first sentence of your home page.
Circle every hour, number, and price in both. Those go in your second sentence, not your first.
Pick the client you would most like more of, and write what having your work says about them. For example, a dog walker might write that his best clients are owners who will not leave a dog alone all day.
Turn that into one sentence that names your work and the kind of client who hires you. For example, the dog walker can say, “I walk dogs for owners who won’t leave them alone all day.”
Put the package details in the sentence after it. For example, the dog walker can add, “Each dog gets an hour out at midday, in a group of three at most.”
Say the two sentences the next time someone asks what you do. Put the same two facts, in the same order, at the top of your home page.
On the first call with a new client, start with a question about the client, not the packages. For example, a coach can say, “Tell me about the job you have just started.” Bring out your packages once you know which one fits.

Next: You will see the three tiers a service business can sit in, which are premium, aspirational, and luxury.