MONEY MATTERS | What Price to Charge for Your Services
You’ve spent time, money and energy learning life-changing knowledge and techniques. You’ve attended live workshops, watched hours of webinars, most likely undertaken case studies and answered exams. All to get to a point when you can professionally share your advice and skills with others. For all your hard work in learning how to help others professionally, you deserve to be profitable too.
Setting a fair price helps you to:
Only work with people who are committed to change and make use of what you teach.
Get higher word-of-mouth referral rates from existing happy customers.
Provide a balanced energetic relationship with the people you work with.
Earn a good income from doing the work you love.
Get a return on your investment from training and graduating.
Should I charge more or less?
Honestly, the price you set for your services is your choice and it needs to feel good within you. Personally, I have noticed that the more I charge, the better the results my clients get. It is a fascinating phenomenon.
I started off charging £45 per session and had a challenging time with my clients. They would talk for hours about their story and did not appear to want to move on. Then I increased my price to £75 per session and the results improved. Then again I increased my consultation fees, this time to £150, and guess what - the results became even better and the clients I attracted had a different level of focus and commitment. Since increasing my session rate to £297, I’ve had more repeat business and the results have been remarkable!
When clients meet with me, they waste no time. They want to learn and resolve things quickly and move on with their lives. They are also more willing to apply what we talk about between sessions. It is for this reason that I encourage you to charge a higher fee for your services, whenever possible. You can always offer concessionary discounts to those with a genuine need but not the means. Offering a higher rate, also gives you price flexibility too, enabling you to do ‘flash sales’ and still earn a fair rate.
Value versus Time
I would always recommend that you focus on ‘selling’ the value of the results people will get, rather than attempt to sell an 'hour with you'. If a person works in a shop they might earn £15 per hour, if they do massage they might earn £45. If you then say an hour with you costs £95 then you might find potential clients question your price. However, if you find out what your potential clients wants to work on and then offer your services as a potential solution to their problem, you will find it much easier for your clients to see the value in what you are offering.
Let's say a person has been suffering every day for the past three years because they cannot sleep. How much do you think that person would happily pay to be free from insomnia? A coaching package of £300, for example, is a small price to pay for freedom from the discomfort of not being able to sleep, for example.
Or what if the person you meet keeps creating relationship problems and is about to have a divorce. They may be facing their family falling apart, their kids going through a traumatic break-up of their parents, lawyers fees, moving costs and splitting financial assets with their soon-to-be ex-wife or husband. Again, £1000, for example, is a very small price to pay if they could get peace with the past and move on without a messy (and expensive) divorce.
These are just two common examples that help to illustrate the importance of focusing on the value you can offer potential clients, rather than attempting to sell an hourly rate.
Price resistance in the seller, not buyer…
It has been said that 'price resistance is always in the seller, not the buyer' and this is very much my experience. It is important that you charge a price that you are comfortable with. If you are uncomfortable with your price, then you will find more people picking up on it and challenging your price. At the same time, if it is much lower than the industry norm then you might also want to explore whether you have any 'issues' linked with money matters. Some people will look at a low price and be turned off by it - you get what you pay for - after all. I have found that since I became fully congruent with the prices I charge, I’ve experienced less resistance from potential clients with regards to my prices.
Let me know if you’ve found this article useful. Has it changed your perspectives on the price you may charge? Or made you more confident in your price. Please comment and share by scrolling down.