Why You Need to Double Your Prices

[00:00:00] Hello, wonderful to have you all back here on this unleashing brilliance podcast. I hope you've had a fabulous week. What I want to talk about this week is pricing. I've had so many conversations over the last few weeks about, what should I price myself at? Oh my goodness. All my clients are asking me to discount.

It's getting [00:01:00] tough out there. I think I should reduce my pricing. What should my day rate be? There's always questions about pricing and what your price should be. And what I want to talk about specifically today is why I think that right now is the time to double your prices. That's what we're talking about today.

And this is really on the back of a conversation I was having with a friend of mine recently. We were talking about the price war that we're seeing that's going on. It doesn't matter what industry we're in. We're seeing this price war happening. It's almost like out of desperation, people are dropping their prices or they're devaluing their work. As I said, it doesn't matter whether you're in coaching, advisory, consulting, it's happening across the board. And between the taxman, cost of living, unsteady markets, I can absolutely understand what's driving this desperation. But here's the thing, [00:02:00] desperation does not attract the clients that you want to be working with.

In fact, the thing that does attract the clients that you want to work with is confidence and conviction in your offer and in the pricing that you are putting out to market. I think we need to build this and be much more strong and confident about it as we go to market. And as I was talking to this friend of mine, it reminded me of how she pitched in some business.

And her client actually said to her quite cheekily, whether she would be open to negotiation on that price. And here's what she said, I love it. She went, of course I am. How much more would you like me to charge? That is conviction and that is confidence. And this is the very thing I think all of us need to have when it comes to actually valuing your work, because when there is discussion about your pricing, or when there's a discussion or objections about your pricing, I actually think there's two things at play.

And I want you to think [00:03:00] about these. First off, if there's an objection, usually it's hardly ever to do with the money. It's never about the money. In fact, the objection comes because your clients don't understand the value that you are bringing for them. It's never about the money. It's because they don't understand really how you can help.

So that's a clue to me that if this happens, you've got to actually figure out. What is the real problem the client has right now and how much is it costing them? How much is that problem costing that client? And then your job is to actually talk to that problem. You've got to make it crystal clear exactly how the outcome of your services, of what you do can solve the problem.

It's not a conversation about money. It's about the fact that you have not solved their problem. The second thing though, is if it does, and if it is really about the price, if they don't have the budget, what I don't want you to do is lower your price. [00:04:00] Don't offer a discount and don't add more to it.

What's important if they start challenging prices to really understand what their budget is. To understand what their problem is and to actually have a conversation about how what you can do can fit into their budget. Often it's actually saying to them, one of the things I often say to my clients is, what would you like to remove out of this proposal?

What would you like to remove so that I can help you solve that problem? Now, if they go on and on about price lowering your price or discounting your worth or jamming even more onto it isn't going to get you that quality client. You've got to remember that you've got years of experience behind you.

And if they're really not going to pay for your worth, if they really want a discount, then usually they're not the right client for you. So there's those two things I want you to think about with price objections. First up is that it's never really about the price. [00:05:00] I think if there's a price objection, start getting really curious about what have I not answered here?

What is the problem that this potential client really has, and how do I need to reshape, reframe my conversation here so that they are hearing very clearly how what I do can help them. Secondly, if budget really is an issue, whatever you do, do not discount your price, do not add more into it to try and prove your worth, but rather Ask them what they want you to remove from your proposal.

Rethink the offer so that it actually matches to their budget. And also be prepared to walk away because if they're not going to pay your rates now, they're never going to pay your rates. So we need to have conviction and confidence in our pricing. Now, at the end of the day, the clients that you really want to work with will see your worth and they'll be [00:06:00] okay to pay for that service.

And that's what we're aiming for. You've got to have confidence and conviction to really charge what you're worth. Now, the reason I wanted to jump on this podcast today and do an episode around doubling your prices, I want you to think about if you had to double your income in the next 90 days, would you be able to do it?

What would you do to make that happen? Maybe you'd come up with a new sales funnel. Maybe it's a new marketing and advertising strategy. Maybe you would look at getting some more team support. So you you've got that capacity to go and make those offers and do those sales calls or attend those networking functions or do business development, maybe you'd reach out to old clients and old prospects and people that you've never probably followed up with before.

And maybe just, maybe you might find that there's money in your inbox that you've left in there that you haven't actually answered, you know, people that have made inquiries that you've never [00:07:00] responded to, or you've never followed up on, or it may be new connections in LinkedIn or on your email list or whatever social platform that you're on, that you haven't actually nurtured or connected with, that you've never actually asked, is there anything I can do to help you?

Maybe it's about thinking about your market right now, thinking about your clients, thinking about their burning problems, and maybe it's about coming up with a new product, a new solution to help them. Something that is much more consumable. It could be any of those things, but here's the thing. What if I told you that while all of those tasks individually can absolutely add value to your business, what if I told you there was an easier way to double your income in the next 90 days? The easier way is to double your rates. Put your prices up. Now I get that some of you right now might be listening to this and thinking, Oh my God, Janine, she's grown two heads. I can't possibly double my rates. Can't do that [00:08:00] right now.

Currently you've got clients that are happy to pay what you're worth. You may even be having clients already that are telling you that you're too affordable. But what does, Raising your rates actually do, what does it feel like to you? Because so many of my clients go, no one will pay double my rate.Janine, I can't possibly increase this price. But what I want you to think about, who says that they won't, who says that they won't, because the easiest way to double your revenue, the easiest way to increase your profit is to put your prices up. And I reckon that so many of you listening to this right now are probably undervaluing, underpricing your services. If you don't believe me, then I want to share a story from one of my clients at my recent Elevate Mastermind. I was challenging people around the room to raise their rates. Rather than keeping their goals at that 24 hour grind sales [00:09:00] numbers that they were already playing around with.

And even though we discovered that in that room on that day at that mastermind, there was a combined experience of over 1200 years of experience. Can you believe that? 1200 years of experience, every single one of them hesitated. They hesitated. They had that question. I can't increase my prices, Janine. No one's going to pay more for my services.

And particularly not right now, Janine, with cost of living and taxman pressures and all of the uncertainty that's in the world. Why would anyone pay an increased price? Until one of my inner circle members spoke up and she told how she shared how after overcoming her feelings of self doubt and imposter syndrome that she did in fact double her rates.

And you know what happened? People said, yes, they said yes, without any hesitation and her business subsequently soared. It wasn't about going out there and finding brand new clients. It was actually about valuing [00:10:00] her worth, putting her pricing up and building her revenue and a profit from the inside out.

And when she started charging the right price for her expertise, when she started valuing her worth and aligning her pricing to her positioning, the right clients came to her. People were prepared to pay her worth. Now I've had to come to terms with this myself over the years. I've been running my own business now, my own practice now for over 12 years.

And over the years, my rate has increased gradually year on year, and only the people that I found push back were the people that actually looking back, I didn't even want to work with. The people that valued my worth, that valued the solutions that I was sharing with them, the people that could see how by working with me would help them solve the problem that they're currently facing.

They were prepared to pay [00:11:00] because they valued my expertise. And as many of us are becoming increasingly stressed around money and finances right now, I want to reassure you that there is money out there. There are plenty of people who are willing to pay. You just need to work out your positioning, the solutions that you are solving.

And then you need to match that positioning to those right clients that need your help right now. They might already be in your inbox. They may already be existing clients. Right now, increase your rates. Give it a go. You in my mastermind groups, once clients who for years have been doubting their self worth, for years have been underpricing their value, you know, I often say to people, you might as well be working in a fast food joint, in the drive thru for when you work at what your hourly rate is.

When those clients of mine get their [00:12:00] confidence in their own IP, when they truly value their worth and their years of experience, when they have consistently built that positioning over time, I always say to them right now is the time to increase your prices. Because guess what? With almost zero objections, every time they do that, every time they increase their pricing with zero objections, their revenue and their profit subsequently increases.

Charging your worth, dealing with objections and cutting through the market noise impact really can be that easy. It's time to elevate your positioning. It's time to elevate your pricing. And I want to encourage you this week, give it a go. Set yourself a new price. What have you got to lose? You've got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Set that new price, write it on a post it note, stick it on on your, in front of your computer. And every single time someone asks [00:13:00] you what your pricing is, or every single time you're writing a new proposal, put that new price in there. Get used to seeing this new price and get curious to see what happens because if you are anything like my clients who in 2023 and going into this new year have doubled their pricing, they are seeing zero objections. And the reason they're seeing zero objections is because they are valuing their worth. They have built their positioning and it's really clear that what they do can help other people and the people that want their help are willing to pay.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. I want you to get really curious to see what happens. Give it a go. as I said, you have got nothing to lose. You have got nothing to prove, but you have got absolutely everything to gain by increasing those price points and experiencing firsthand the impact that that has on doubling your [00:14:00] revenue and on increasing your profit. Hope you've enjoyed this episode. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and I look forward to catching up next week.