The good news is: There is no Price Police!

I’ve got some good news for you today – there is no price police!

I’m telling you this because pricing confusion is one of the biggest blocks that the heart-centred business owners I meet seem to face.  It can completely block them from getting out there and taking action to attract new clients.

Watch the video below or scroll down to read the blog.

Small business owners frequently admit to me that they avoid going out and marketing their business because they’re not clear or feel uneasy about their pricing.  So many times I’ve heard the words:  “I’m not going out networking or doing anything online to attract new clients yet – and I’m not going until I get clear on my pricing.”

Sometimes they even admit that they avoid getting into a sales conversation with somebody who’s actually showing an interest in working with them because they feel so unclear.

What I want you to understand about pricing

This is actually a really dangerous roadblock to let yourself get held up by, and an unnecessary one too. The thing is, figuring out your pricing isn’t something that needs to take you a lot of time.

Now, there are things in your business that are essential to put some time and effort into.  For example, getting clear on your ideal client, and crafting the message for that client so that they hear you loud and clear, or working on developing your unique proprietary system.  But pricing doesn’t have to be one of those things.

In fact, you can get clear on your pricing and make a decision about it in as little as 5-15 minutes!  It’s really as easy as making a decision and deciding to stick to it.

BUT to do this it helps if you understand a few things first:

1. There is no “Price Police!”

In other words, there is no such thing as “getting this wrong”.  Nobody is going to come knocking at your door to tell you that you got your pricing wrong. Your business isn’t going to fail just because your price might be just a little too low – or a little too high.  It’s totally fine to jump right in with whatever price you feel comfortable to start at.

In fact there is no such thing as a “right price” for your work – at all!

This is what causes so much of the confusion – the false belief that somehow there is a “right” price and you need to figure out what that is before you can get started.  But it’s not true.

As an example, if we take a look at what I do, at the core of it I’m offering sales and marketing training and mentoring to small business owners. If you are looking for this, you can find lots of resources for free online.  Also here in the UK (where the majority of my clients are based) there are government organisations and banks that offer free business advice to startups. So you can get started with some of the basics for free.  At the other end of the scale there are business mentors just like myself who charge tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of pounds or dollars for their advice.

With this huge scale of prices ranging from zero to $100,000 and above, how do I know the right price for what I offer?

The way I know is by setting the price right in the sweet spot that is right for me, and that is right for my ideal clients.  So to use an example from my business, I have an online programme, that is easily worth £2,000 to £3,000 – and other people charge this much for a lot less than I include in it.  Yet I price this programme at £995, and have sold it for a lot less in the past.

In fact since I first launched this programme I’ve sold it at no less than 4 different price points.

Now, if there was a price police, believe me, they would definitely have knocked on my door by now!

I know that what I charge now is a sweet spot for my “ideal client”  AND (very importantly) this price also works for me and my business.

To help you decide what that “right price” is for you and your ideal client you might find this article helpful: How to set the right price for your services.

2. You can change your price at any time

Yes.  Anytime you choose, whether that’s based on external feedback (e.g. clients don’t seem to be taking you seriously, or appearing to not fully commit to the work with you) or an internal gut instinct – that pull in your belly that says “Oh gosh, I’m just not charging enough”.

With that in mind – that you can change your pricing at any time –  the important thing becomes that you start somewhere.

How to get clear and confident on your pricing in just 5 minutes:

If you relate to what I’m talking about, in particular if you are one of these people who thinks you can’t really go out and let people know what you do because you can’t talk confidently and clearly about your price, then I want to take you through a really quick process – and I would love you to do this this right away – yes, right now before you leave this page.

Be warned:  It’s super-simple!

1. Choose a price

Choose a price to charge for your services.  That can be any price at all. (no Price Police, remember?).  Your intuition/gut instinct can be a great help in this step.

2. Stick to that price

Decide you are going to stick to that price for now – at the same time knowing that you can increase it or decrease it at any time. The only “rule” is that you can’t change that price on a whim while you’re in the middle of a conversation with a potential client. At that point your price needs to be fixed – just like it would be on a restaurant menu.

However, at any point when you are not actually in conversation with a client you can review your pricing.  For example, you might set a price for your package of £600, but later you might realise, “Oh wow, based on the results I’m getting at the moment, and the amount of energy that I’m putting into my work , I don’t feel that I’m charging enough to reward myself for all the years of training and experience I have.  I’m going to increase that price to £900.”

You can do that anytime you choose (there is no Price Police, remember?)

My message for you is this – just get started! You will get further faster in business if you start somewhere and are willing to move, than if you stand still waiting to get clarity.

The mistake you’ll almost definitely make

The truth is (between you and me) is that most of us start off not charging enough. When I started as a coach, the first client I enrolled paid £60 for a six-week coaching package (that’s right, that worked out at £10 per coaching session!). Then, when I started this business,  Selling from the Heart, the first workshop I ran, where I taught the very same content I now charge up to £1,000 for, was only £47.

Not only is it fine to not charge enough to begin with, it’s also a natural part of the journey for many of us.  I always tell the people in my programmes:  “I would far rather see you start off with your prices a little bit on the low side, but actually get going and get clients, and then increase later when you have more confidence, than stay stuck trying to figure out the “absolute right price””.

Because you can’t get in touch with what your “sweet spot: price will be when you’re standing still.

For example, if I had not started out charging £1,000 for my private VIP Strategy days, I would never have had that moment in the middle of a a VIP day when I thought “Oh, my gosh. I’m just not charging anywhere near enough in relation to the value that people are coming away with from these days.” And so I increased it to what it is now – £3,000.

What if I don’t know what price to go for?

The other place where people get stuck on their pricing sometimes is believing they actually have no idea where to start.  If that’s you then I want to challenge you on that because I find that most people do instinctively know.  If you’re someone who’s reading this and thinking “Yeah, but, I REALLY don’t know what to charge, Catherine,” then I want you to answer this question:

“If you did know what to charge, what would it be?

If you’re like most of my clients you probably instinctively know the value of your work, but there’s usually a bunch of “money stories” or a self-worth story that gets in the way and clouds it. For example, even if you instinctively know what you want to charge, you might have a story like “Oh, but, who’s going to pay for that?” Or “Who do I think I am to charge this much?”

So I want you to know, today,  that it’s absolutely okay to know what your work is worth, and simultaneously not yet feel confident about selling it at that level.

A client who I was working with last summer had a very clear sense of internal value around the work she did, it was clear to her that the value of her package was £3,000.  But even though she knew that she didn’t feel confident enough in her ability to actually sell it at that level (in part because of her lack of experience at having effective sales conversations) and so she decided to start lower by charging £1,000 with the intention of increasing over time as her confidence increased.

So to reiterate:  There IS no price police.  There IS no exact “right price” for what you offer.
You just need to start, and if starting with a lower price means you get moving, I would rather that than see you paralysed by indecision, or set a price that is so high that you’re too scared to offer it or don’t feel congruent about it.

Ready to get clear on your pricing and value?
If you would like to learn more about how to get clear on your pricing, get in touch with the value of your services and learn how to communicate that value effectively, I teach you how in my Get More Clients Saying Yes! course – which will be opening for enrolment later this year.  If you’d like to be among the first to know when that happens click here to be notified

Get started today for Free: 
You can also get started today by learning how to guide a potential client through a carefully structured sales conversation that will bring them to a natural and easy “Yes” without any “icky” closing techniques, get started today with my 7 Steps to Yes! video training.

It’s a series of bite-sized videos (just 3 minutes each) that will give you a complete step-by-step structure for your sales conversations – and it’s completely FREE.  Sign up here.