Are you Funny About Money?

When I run the Get More Clients Saying Yes course for authentic sales conversations I always start out by exploring our relationship with sales and money because our beliefs and attitudes in these areas can really hold us back in business.

After all, if you believe that it’s wrong to charge money for your gifts or talents, that earning money is “bad” or “wrong,” that people who have money are greedy, or any negative connotations that you’re holding with regards to money or sales, then it really doesn’t matter what sales structure I teach, or how many great tips I share, this “money stuff” will just keep getting in your way.

When we look at this in the course there are always a lot of “A-ha” moments, with many people owning up to being “funny about money”.

• Does talking about money make you feel uncomfortable or embarrassed?
• Do you have blocks around charging what you know you should, maybe setting a low price because it’s all you feel comfortable with?
• Do you give away free sessions or frequently let your sessions run overtime?
• Do you sometimes justify your fees or offer a discount before the client has even commented?
• Do you feel guilty about charging money for your service?

If you answered ‘Yes’ to any of the above then I can give you an official diagnosis – you are “funny about money”!

Being “funny about money” in business commonly stems from one of two main areas:

1.  Professional “Funny about money”

Being “funny about money” with a professional cause normally comes when you doubt the value of what you do.  Perhaps you wonder whether you really can make the difference that you want to make or that you are promising your clients?    This lack of “professional self-worth” can naturally cause you to lose confidence because after all, if you don’t fully believe in what you are selling, how can you sell with integrity?

It, also makes it difficult for you to set and communicate clear pricing, because if you’re not really solid about the value that you can bring, then, of course, it’s very hard for you to become congruent about offering your work at pricing that is fair and appropriate to your level of skills and experience, and that reflects the difference you can make.

Equally, lack of confidence in communicating both what you do and its value can also lead to an awkwardness about money – because if you don’t know how to fully communicate the value of what you offer, when you come to state your fees it can feel incongruent to you because you can feel that the client just doesn’t “get it”.  Even though you know in your heart your work is worth it.

If you recognise yourself here then you can celebrate.  Yay!  Because it’s actually really good news. This type of professional “funny about money” can be resolved relatively easily, and there are a number of very practical things that you can do to help you to improve your relationship with money in a professional sense, and many of these I teach and cover within the Get More Clients Saying Yes programme itself.

For example, collecting testimonials and keeping a success notebook can help increase your sense of value. Or even working for free with a couple of clients to prove to yourself that you can get the results.   Getting support with your sales process can help you to set the right price congruently, get comfortable communicating what you do and give you a structure to your sales conversations so you become more confident.

And before you know it, the money part of the conversation will just flow for you – as will the clients who will be attracted by your confidence and congruence.

If you’d like to do further work with me on any of these areas, whether connecting more deeply with your value, learning how to communicate the value of what you do, or taking somebody through a structured sales conversation, getting clear on your pricing and sticking congruently with that pricing, then coming up soon in October and November, I’ll be running the Get More Clients Saying Yes programme. In the next couple of weeks, I’ll be sharing more with you about that, and I’d love to have you join me – if that feels right for you.

2.  Personal “Funny about money”

This is where the problems lie a bit deeper – particularly if your unhelpful attitudes to money stem from deeper programming, often dating right back to childhood.

For example, how you feel about money and pricing can be directly connected to low personal self-esteem.   If you connect your pricing to a sense of your own personal self-worth and you don’t feel you are “worth” what you are asking this can really keep you stuck.  This can also lead to overgiving and overhelping where you take too much responsibility for others and feel you want to give away your services for free – not a great model for a successful business!

Many people also carry around deeply embedded negative beliefs about money or people with money, for example, if you grew up hearing the people around you saying things like “money is the root of all evil” or  “rich people are greedy and dishonest”.   If these are the messages you received in childhood it can be very hard to shake these off as an adult no matter how you might “want” to adopt different views.   You might also have picked up beliefs such as “I will always be poor” or “money brings unhappiness”.  Or you may have suffered some sort of trauma around money as a child for example if your parents fought a lot about money, or lost their home.

If this is the case, not only will you find it hard to set solid prices and stick with them and therefore earn the money that you need to make your business viable,  but you will also find it hard to keep hold of the money you do earn because at some subconscious level you feel you have to get rid of the money in order to feel like a “good” person again.

These deeper beliefs can be more insidious than the Professional money issues, and will continue to hold you back in business if you don’t make a clear commitment to yourself to work to overcome them – perhaps by working with a good money coach, EFT or NLP practitioner, or hypnotherapist.

I do hope that this has struck a chord with you.  Do you recognise that your money attitudes could be holding you back?   What commitment do you make to overcome them?  Do share in the comments below. I always love to hear from you.