Unknown Speaker 0:00
This week, I want to talk about something that has come up quite a lot recently, with clients, with prospective clients, and just in general networking conversations. It's one of those topics that comes up time and time again. And it really follows on so nicely from Episode Two, where we were talking about undercharging and the implications of doing that.
Unknown Speaker 0:36
Welcome, welcome to the heads together Podcast. I'm Gill Moakes and I am obsessed with cutting through the noise when it comes to growing your business. Each week via intimate coaching conversations and inspirational stories, I share what it really takes to get the results you want, in a way that feels right to you.
Unknown Speaker 0:59
I am all about attracting higher ticket opportunities, building authentic relationships, and creating the abundant full fat version of your dream business. I mean, how many of us have been put away creating a lite version of what we really want? The thing is, I honestly believe when you're outstanding at what you do, there is no limit to what you can achieve. So are you ready to put our heads together and make it happen? Let's go.
Unknown Speaker 1:38
In today's episode, I want to talk about how you can increase your prices, without losing clients and without feeling guilty about doing it. Because there's one thing for sure, I don't want you to ever feel guilty for charging what you're worth. And if you listened to episode two, if you didn't go back and listen, because this is a really important one, there are really serious implications around not charging what you're worth. There are really detrimental implications that will hold you back from growing your business if you under charge. But when it comes to actually increasing our prices, this can have us sometimes feeling like our anxiety levels are going through the roof. Because we make up the stories, don't we? You know, we play through the scenarios of having conversations with whether it's with clients who don't even know about us yet. You know, it's all that thought process around what will they think of that pricing structure that I want to put into place in my business. But often one of the massive problems we have is how do we increase our prices for clients we already work with. Maybe it's a client that we started working with a few years ago, when our prices were really bearing no resemblance to what we know we're worth now for that service. Today, I want to cover both of those things. Because one thing for sure, if you want to earn more money in your business, and you're not ready or you don't want to move completely to a passive income model, then you've really only got two choices, you need to be working with more people, or you need to be charging more. And here's the thing, if you do a lot of one to one work like I do, if you work with too many clients, that is the surefire way to burn out. I work so intensely with my clients that I could possibly work with a lot of clients in one week because I go really deep. I really get under the skin of my clients businesses. I can't do that with lots and lots of clients each week. So I have to charge accordingly. I have to charge for the service I give them for that one to one attention. So if you've already feel like you're kind of teetering on that edge of burnout, or maybe you're at capacity timewise, and you already have got a waiting list in place maybe, and really your only option is to increase your prices if you want to grow your business in terms of revenue. To be honest, there's a few signs that are really big indicators that it's time to increase what you charge. I guess it's kind of like four main things that I want you to think about. While I go over these just have a little think about whether any of these apply to you and your business. Are you already at capacity? And I know that can mean different things to different people. You know, it's completely personal. I'm not going to start telling you how many clients you should or shouldn't be working with, of course, but I do believe that we all know the feeling of having taken on too much.
Unknown Speaker 4:58
You know when you get that really scary feeling that you're not gonna be able to deliver on a promise as you've made your shedule just unsustainable. And that's a horrible feeling right? Getting worried that you're not going to be able to keep up the intense level of delivery and service that you provide your clients just because you've overstretched yourself. Even if you've got a waitlist, even if you very sensibly cap the number of clients that you're working with, and you're operating on a waitlist, unless that's a short moving list, then the chances are you are too cheap for your reputation. You're undercharging in relation to your reputation. I'm sure there's lots of you listening and thinking that would be a fantastic problem to have. But trust me, you know, I come across this a lot where people are. They know that their choice at the moment or with their current pricing is to either work with way too many clients, because they're so scared of turning anyone away. Because of that whole mindset we have some times around not knowing where the next clients coming from.
Unknown Speaker 6:06
And if you have got an awful lot of people coming to you, and you can't service them all, then like I say, You're too cheap for your reputation.
Unknown Speaker 6:14
And think about this, and this is a biggie, if you doubled your rates, and lost half your clients, your income would be unaffected.
Unknown Speaker 6:25
You would literally still be earning the same amount that you are now.
Unknown Speaker 6:29
I'm not suggesting for one minute that you would want to double your rates for your existing clients.
Unknown Speaker 6:36
I mean, your business, your roles, remember, but I've certainly had clients who have doubled their rates for new clients. And I've actually seen very little change in the number of inquiries that they've had.
Unknown Speaker 6:50
So I think that's a definite red flag is, you know, if you're at capacity, then it's really time to look at a significant increase in your pricing. Because your business will be able to withstand a dropping clients providing you're increasing your price accordingly.
Unknown Speaker 7:13
Okay. The second thing I want you to think about is do you take on clients that demand a really quick turnaround. So this is for you, if you're delivering a kind of a maybe it's a done for you service, maybe you're a copywriter, maybe you're a proofreader, maybe you are working on brand new, you're a graphic designer, something like that, are you bringing on clients that are demanding a really quick turnaround, you've probably heard this expression before, fast, cheap and good, you can only pick two, right? You can either have it fast and cheap, but the quality is going to suffer.
Unknown Speaker 7:52
You can have it cheap and good. But it's not going to come quickly. It's going to be slow. Yeah, and so on. So I think you need to be making sure that you're pricing your service accordingly. So if people want a really fast service, it's either going to be less quality. And I know that's not what you're ever going to consider delivering. So therefore, it's not going to be cheap. If they want a quick turn around, they've got to pay a premium price. So if you're accepting urgent jobs without charging more than I want you to really think about this, if you've got clients who need you to, you know, just do a quick review of something for them or couple of hours later, your resentment is going through the roof. If you're not willing to put tighter boundaries in place, then my advice is to really think carefully about having a two tiered pricing structure. So maybe you have your standard price. And then a premium quick turnaround price.
Unknown Speaker 9:00
As long as your schedule allows you to do that. So have a think about that. If you're doing urgent turnaround jobs, you have to be charging more for them. And then think about the kind of clients you're working with. Do you have some high maintenance clients? And when I say that, if you have any high maintenance clients, they will have immediately popped into your mind, trust me.
Unknown Speaker 9:24
The amazing thing about working with higher ticket coaching clients, for my perspective in my business is that my one to one clients are literally without exception, a pleasure to work with. But it hasn't always been that way for me. You know, years ago when when I was working as a VA, for example. And I was charging like a fraction of what I should have been charging for the service I delivered. There were a couple of clients back then who actually had me in tears with unreasonable demands and their drama. That is something that I will
Unknown Speaker 10:00
Never forget, that was a huge lesson for me. I have found throughout my career that every single time I've increased what I charge, I've started attracting more and more. For me perfect clients, you know, people who valued me and valued the exceptional service that I give
Unknown Speaker 10:27
people who don't invest in you won't appreciate you.
Unknown Speaker 10:32
So that's a big one. And that's something I want you to think about.
Unknown Speaker 10:38
Saying no, to clients that you just know,
Unknown Speaker 10:43
you're not going to work well with
Unknown Speaker 10:47
the feeling of empowerment, when you say no to those clients is absolutely priceless.
Unknown Speaker 10:53
And you will never ever regret walking away from a high maintenance client.
Unknown Speaker 11:01
And then the fourth thing I want you to think about is, what kind of service do you deliver, you average, a mediocre? What do you deliver an incredible service and get amazing results for your clients, because I gotta be honest with you, your experience, and your competence. And your pricing should grow together. So think about that. I just had my head on this morning, actually, strangely enough. And I was thinking about this one, I was in the salon sitting there looking like an alien with my foils on and I was thinking about how hairdressers do this so effortlessly.
Unknown Speaker 11:41
If you think about it, you know, you can often get like a free haircut with an apprentice who's practising. But if you want the senior stylist, you're going to be paying more.
Unknown Speaker 11:51
And trust me, if the salon owner agrees to cut your hair as one of her select personal clients, you're gonna be paying a premium price. In that scenario that seems perfectly natural and obvious that the more experience and competence the person delivering the services, the more we expect to pay. Why would you think that's different for you, whatever you do in your business, if you're a coach or consultant, or freelancer, whatever you're doing, if you are amazing at what you do,
Unknown Speaker 12:28
then your pricing needs to reflect that. And trust me, it doesn't mean that if you're just starting out you have to be cheap, doesn't mean that it just means that your pricing needs to reflect the service or the results you deliver. If you get amazing results for your clients, then you absolutely deserve to charge accordingly.
Unknown Speaker 12:49
Okay, I just want to talk a bit now about how you communicate that.
Unknown Speaker 12:56
Because I think that gets some people in a bit of a flap, the thought of having to tell people they're putting up their prices makes them feel anxious. So let's talk about it. So first of all, if it's putting up your prices in terms of clients who don't You don't work with yet. So then it's really a bit of a mindset wrestle. Don't overthink your strategy. First of all, you know, there, there isn't really a pricing strategy with what we do as entrepreneurs, we just have to pick a number, do a bit of market research. But generally speaking, there's no science to this. It's your business and you get to charge what feels right to you.
Unknown Speaker 13:38
Right. So when you're thinking about a pricing increase, you could decide on a percentage increase, but that's probably going to end up with some weird, stupid, complicated number. And I like it, you know this about me. I like I think if you're going to work with high ticket clients, your numbers should be round numbers, round numbers that are what they say they are. There's no 2990 nines around here, you know, if you're charging $500 500 pounds, that it's 500 it's not 499. So pick a number that feels right to you. And the problem is, it's your mindset that you've got to overcome now, because the little ear worms are going to start with the what if no one will pay my new price, and then I can't pay my bills, then I lose my house and I live in a cardboard box. So my children, you know, let's breed that that's not going to happen. It's genuinely in your interest and your future clients interest to increase your prices. Okay, because your price needs to reflect your value. We've talked about this before undercharging and overworking leads to burnout. You can't help future clients if your business is unsustainable. Under
Unknown Speaker 15:00
charging, we talked about this in episode two, under charging reduces the perceived value of what you do. And people may not trust that an offer price so low would deliver what they're looking for. However good you know you are, you're giving out the wrong signal. And the truth is clients who invest in themselves and their business, they show up, they do the work, they really focus they get the results.
Unknown Speaker 15:28
And isn't that what it's all about? Don't you want your pricing of the service, you offer to shout quality
Unknown Speaker 15:37
to shout, pay me this, and you're not going to regret it, because you're going to get the results in terms of announcing it and communicating it just to update your website, anywhere else shows your pricing, just do it unashamedly confidence, just change the number on the website, no one else is going to think about it as much as you are. It just becomes your new pricing. Right. But when we're talking about existing clients, I think that's a little bit different.
Unknown Speaker 16:09
I think, for existing clients, you just need to think a little bit about your business model.
Unknown Speaker 16:17
So it might be that you increase your price for new clients coming on. And then for any existing clients that you're already working with, until the end of the engagement, their current engagement with you, you keep them on their current rate. Certainly that is what I do. I wouldn't dream of increasing my prices for a client who is already working with me, and is within that contract. You know, that goes without saying for me, if you came on, you know, and they've signed a contract with you for a certain period, don't even think about trying to increase your price midway through that contract. Okay, so retainer clients, you want to absolutely wait until their contract is up for renewal, then have the conversation. If you work with clients on an ad hoc basis, you know, then you do need to have the conversation and also for clients when their contract is due to renew. How do you let them know about the pricing increase and keep them as a client the truth, sometimes you won't. Sometimes you won't, sometimes clients won't want to carry on working with you at your new prices.
Unknown Speaker 17:27
Sorry, but that you know, that's
Unknown Speaker 17:31
quite a possibility. But that's okay. If that client is no longer aligned with your pricing, then the absolute best decision for them might be to find someone who they are aligned with. And it will be the best decision for you too.
Unknown Speaker 17:49
You want to work with the clients who are right for you, the clients who value what you do, and are happy to pay you what you charge. And here's the thing, to be honest, in my experience, if a pricing increase is communicated well, most clients understand, most clients are willing to pay more to keep working with you. And to keep getting that service and the results you deliver. Keep reminding yourself of the value you bring to those clients. Reread the testimonials you've received, the competent, that the pricing increase is for the benefit of your business, which in turn benefits your clients. We're not just paying lip service to that it's genuinely true.
Unknown Speaker 18:35
A profitable sustainable business model is what will allow you to keep serving clients, you don't ever have to feel guilty about charging your worth.
Unknown Speaker 18:46
Right.
Unknown Speaker 18:48
What I would recommend doing is just booking a specific 30 minute meeting with the client to discuss your pricing for the renewal of their contract.
Unknown Speaker 18:59
Make sure when you do that, so like I say book a separate meeting for it. Don't take up some of their precious time with you. If you're a coach or consultant, you know, there should should be done on your time, not their time. So make sure you're booking a specific call with them. And when you do talk to them about the pricing increase. This is gonna sound silly, but I you know me I won't go into all the detail give you all the tools you need to do this really well. I want you to speak slowly, clearly and confidently.
Unknown Speaker 19:33
As you're telling them about the increased cost of working with you. You know, just make sure you're letting them know how much you love working with them, but give them time and space to speak.
Unknown Speaker 19:47
When you say how much you love working with them pause, give them time to agree with you and tell you how much they love working with you too.
Unknown Speaker 19:55
And just remember you're not asking for their permission
Unknown Speaker 20:00
To increase your rate, this isn't a negotiation, you don't need to apologise, don't need to justify why you're increasing it. Quite often, I think people say too much, they almost start a conversation. And they mean to just say I'm just, I just want to let you know that as from such and such a date, my prices are going up to X amount, they ends up talking for almost an hour of justify Well, you know, and I have to do it, because you know, the overheads of the business, you don't need to do any of that. One thing you might want to do is, you might want to just offer repeat clients or retainer clients, like a bonus of some kind to reward their loyalty, you know, it's not a bribe to get them to stay with you, it's more like a, just like a reward for how long they've worked with you. And it might be an extra session with you or it might be,
Unknown Speaker 20:53
it might be that you do deliver a fast turnaround service for a week, or maybe you give them some WhatsApp access to you for a limited period, you know, something like that something they don't normally get, as a bonus, as a thank you, for working with you.
Unknown Speaker 21:08
Don't make it something that's going to really bog you down in the delivery of it. But you know, just a token of appreciation, I think goes down really well. Make sure I'm just, I'm running through my mental checklist here of things that you need to just think about when you're having these conversations with clients and increasing your prices, make sure you're giving them good notice. So let's make it at least a month, you know, and make sure you haven't got the call in the diary when in advance. Once you've had the conversation, this is important, make sure you're following up by email and setting up clearly when the increase comes into effect. Okay, don't leave anything, just because it's a difficult conversation doesn't mean it needs to be over with really quickly and then brushed under the carpet. You know, you're doing this proudly, and you're doing it because you want to continue providing them and future clients with this amazing service. Be very, very transparent about it. No apologies, pure transparency.
Unknown Speaker 22:16
Alright, there's a couple of ways, really, that you can turn pricing increases into an opportunity as well, in terms of new business, don't forget,
Unknown Speaker 22:26
you've got this opportunity here to email anyone you've previously had a call with. So if you've had like a sales call or discovery call or breakthrough session, whatever you call it, enrollment call, anyone who you didn't convert into a paying client, well, the ones who you felt were a good fit for you, but you didn't sign up, this is an opportunity to email them and let them know that you're about to increase your prices. And give them the chance to sign up with you now before the increase comes into effect. Now, this is a strategy that I like it, as long as it is done with complete transparency. And completely authentically, please don't ever try and do this as a tactic. And then you know, and make up something about increasing your prices. Don't do that. Don't be that person, you know, but if you are genuinely increasing your prices, then this is a great opportunity to kind of reignite some prospects from the past.
Unknown Speaker 23:29
Again, you know, post about it on social media, if you want to let people know about that increase that's coming openly, transparently, given the chance to get in quick before the price goes up.
Unknown Speaker 23:43
And it's really important here, I just want to say again, it's really important that you act with integrity here. You know, if you do say your prices are going up and see it through, increase the price on the day, you said the price was going to increase. Absolutely do it. So I hope that's been helpful. Remember, there are no pricing police here. There's no right or wrong answer. And you can change your prices as often as you like it's your business, your way and the highway. So by all means when it comes to pricing what you do, you know, do your research, see what the market rates are, but most importantly, go with your gut. go with what feels right to you because you don't need anyone's validation but your own.
Unknown Speaker 24:30
Okay, everyone, well, I hope you enjoyed that. As always have a fantastic week. Don't forget to head to the shownotes and apply. There's a link there to apply if you would like to come on the show and I'll probably coach you for about 60 minutes. It might not all make it onto the onto the show but it's an absolutely brilliant opportunity to get some in depth one on one business coaching. There's no charge and
Unknown Speaker 25:00
The reason that I love
Unknown Speaker 25:03
to do this and I'm really excited about sharing live coaching sessions with my audience here is because what one person struggles with you can guarantee there are hundreds or 1000s of other people out there who are struggling with the same thing. So just hearing someone else voice, something that you're struggling with is so comforting. And everyone else listening gets to benefit from the solutions that we come up with together during the coaching. Everyone gets to share the insights that come up. So do do that. If that appeals head to the show notes. The link is in there to apply. Okay, have a fantastic week and I will catch you next week.
Unknown Speaker 25:53
I hope you enjoyed this episode, and that getting our heads together this week has filled your mind with what's possible. If you love the show, would you do me a massive favour please? Would you leave a five star rating on Apple podcasts? It would really help you put more heads together, reach more ears and expand more minds. Until next week. Bye for now.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
