{"id":"sales-freelancer-rate-increase-email","audience":"freelancers","category":"sales-work","technique":"tone","track":"sales","level":"intermediate","title":"Tell a long-time client your rate is going up, warmly and firmly","free":false,"task":"You're a freelance web developer raising your rate for Corwin & Daughters from $85 to $100 an hour, starting February 1. Write the email under 120 words. Say clearly that the website relaunch already booked stays at $85. Don't apologize or say sorry, and don't offer a discount. End with the sign-off \"Ines\". Plain text, with line 1 exactly \"Subject: Rate update for 2027\".","materialLabel":"Your notes (attached to your prompt automatically)","material":"Client: Corwin & Daughters Hardware (family store, 2 locations), contact: Pete Corwin\nWorking together since 2021. I built their site and online ordering, do ~10 hours/month of updates.\n\nCurrent rate: $85/hour (unchanged since 2021).\nNew rate: $100/hour starting February 1, 2027.\nAlready booked: website relaunch project, 40 hours, Dec-Jan, quoted at $85/hour = $3,400. That stays at the old rate.\n\nWhy: rates for this work in my area are $95-130 now; my costs went up; I've added accessibility testing to every job.\nPete is friendly but careful with money. He once said \"just give it to me straight.\"\n\nMe: Ines Duarte, freelance web developer\nMy worry: I always over-apologize in these emails.","rules":[{"type":"maxWords","max":120},{"type":"plainText"}],"mistakes":[{"title":"Over-apologizing","why":"AI softens bad news with \"I'm so sorry\" and \"I hate to do this\", which makes it sound negotiable.","fix":"Add: \"Don't apologize or say sorry. Warm, direct, confident.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Offering a discount","why":"The AI tries to soften the blow with a loyalty discount.","fix":"Add: \"No discount.\"","checks":["r2"]},{"title":"Leaving the booked work unclear","why":"The AI forgets to say what happens to the project already quoted.","fix":"Add: \"Say the relaunch stays at $85.\"","checks":["r1"]},{"title":"Burying the number","why":"The AI explains for a paragraph before giving the new rate.","fix":"Add: \"Give the new rate and date in the first 2 sentences.\"","checks":["r0"]},{"title":"Trusting the AI to count words","why":"AI is bad at counting and runs long when you only give a total like 120 words.","fix":"Cap each part instead, like \"4 short paragraphs, each under 25 words,\" so the total lands well under 120.","checks":["maxWords","plainText"]}],"promptHints":[{"label":"Gives the rate and date","patterns":["\\$?100","feb(ruary)? 1"]},{"label":"Protects the booked work","patterns":["relaunch","booked","\\$?85"]},{"label":"Bans apologies","patterns":["don'?t apologi[sz]e","no apolog","sorry"]},{"label":"Sets the tone","patterns":["warm","direct","confident","firm"]},{"label":"Sets a size","patterns":["\\d+\\s*words","under \\d+","short","\\d+\\s*(sentences|lines)"]}],"hint":"Rate emails go wrong in tone, not facts. Tell the AI the tone, what not to say and what happens to work already booked.","rubricLabels":["States the new rate of $100 an hour starting February 1 in a plain-text email whose line 1 is exactly \"Subject: Rate update for 2027\"","Says the booked website relaunch stays at $85 an hour","Does not apologize or use the word sorry, does not offer a discount, and ends with the sign-off \"Ines\""]}