A common thing that coaches always say (shoot it’s something I’ve said a lot to service providers and coaches) is that you need to raise your prices.
And while oftentimes raising your prices will help you hit your income goals faster or help you not take on so many clients, it can also shoot you in the foot if you don’t have systems in place to back up those high prices.
Not to mention, higher prices requires you to show up at a higher level and sometimes your energy just aint there yet.
You should never increase your prices just to increase them and remember that your coach, team members, or strategists are not your ideal client, so raising your prices solely based on what these people say to you is not a smart CEO practice.
Instead, here are some questions I want you to ask yourself and some things I want you to think about before you raise your prices thinking that’s your ticket to success and more revenue.
1. Has the experience improved?
If you don’t have systems in place for your business and you’re struggling with setting expectation, or communicating in a timely manner – then now isn’t the time to raise your prices.
However, if you have increased your experience then by all means raise the price of your offer because the value has gone up.
For example, in my photography business I raised my prices significantly because I started offering full service branding sessions – in these sessions I do a strategy call, create a shot list, scout locations, create a detailed mood board, and more. When I only charged $200 a session I didn’t do all that but as my experience increased, so did my price because the value went up.
I’m not saying you have to add things to your services or programs but what I am saying is that the value of your offer needs to increase before you increase your prices.
It could be as simple as you made significant investments in software that helps your clients get better results, you hire a new team member to make things more efficient, or you got a coaching certification so you can support your clients better.
Bottom line before you just raise the price you need to ask yourself has the experience actually improved.
2. Am I consistently helping people get a specific transformation or result?
One rule of thumb for all my businesses has been after x number of transformations or testimonials I have permission to raise my price.
Here’s the thing, your job is to get people a result.
If you’re not doing that then raising your prices isn’t going to help and it’ll honestly leave a bad taste in people’s mouth. Push yourself to get reviews and to document the progress of your clients.
Where are you consistently nailing it and getting them a transformation?
When you know the answer to this you can market this as your unique sauce and boom, you can command higher prices because you are truly adding value and serving others.
It’s so much easier to sell an offer when you’re actually getting people results than to just raise your prices because someone said your price was too low.
So what your prices are low, that’ll let you get your first wave of folks in and fine tune your offer and as things get better and you gain CONFIDENCE you can steadily increase your prices to what you want them to be.
3. Am I at capacity and if so, is there another business model I should consider first?
Oftentimes I see service providers increase their prices because you’re reaching your capacity. Maybe you are burnt out or you physically can’t take on another client.
Before you raise your price (which in this case I almost always support a price increase) but before you do that, consider other business models.
For example, with my social media agency I got to a point where raising my prices wasn’t the answer, instead I needed to build a team to support me in the execution of what my current clients needed. This led to a very small price increase for new clients to cover the costs of a team member. After I did this I had the capacity to take on more clients.
Then I created a NEW offer that was an offshoot so I could support a different type of client in a more aligned way since I decided I no longer wanted to offer social media management.
I still wanted to help service providers and coaching with their marketing strategy, this is what led me to create my VIP Simple Marketing Experience – this is a voxer only VIP experience where together we create a comprehensive marketing plan complete with market research, fine tuning your offers, launches, lead generation, marketing, and sales strategy and then I create a 90 day content calendar so all you have to do is execute.
I’m saying all this to say, just because you’re at capacity doesn’t mean you have to raise your prices, it may mean you need to hire help or assess if you should consider a different type of business offer that’s more aligned with the future of your business.
4. Have you invested at the level you’re asking for?
If you’ve never made the investment, it’s going to be hard for you to believe you’re worth the investment.
Your belief is only as big as your experience.
– Kay Hillman
It can be hard to charge 5 figures for your mastermind or program when you’ve never invested in a program.
You’ll struggle to sell it because you don’t know what it feels like on the other side, you don’t know the true value and transformation that happens when you invest at that level.
I’m not saying in order to charge $1500 for your services you have to spend $1500 in services but at least spend $1500 in education and learning the skill. When you do that you’ll have confidence in what you’re doing and honestly thats the key.
If you don’t make continuous STRATEGIC investments in your business you’ll never have the mindset shifts or support necessary to actually flourish.
One thing I know for certain is that every time my investment increased I felt confident that I could also increase my prices. I don’t always increase them but I know it’s possible. Investing at higher levels shows you a different side of business and honestly if you (and others) can invest at that level then there’s gotta be clients that can invest at that level.
This isn’t something I can just say to you, you have to actually experience it.
You have to experience a scary investment so you know how potential clients feel and also know how to get them to move past that so they can see the transformation.
Investing at the level I’m asking for is what made me create the BecomingCEO Method my lifetime group coaching program. I make you jump to get in.
But I’m also helping you raise your beliefs in what you can charge for your offers and programs and I was only able to do that because I’ve made huge investments in my business.
In the last 6 months of 2021 I invested $24,000 in coaching alone – that didn’t include team.
It was scary but it gave me the belief I needed to raise my prices and to know I could back my ish up!
** One disclaimer I wanna say is that over-investing is real! I don’t want you to get caught into the trap of constantly buying courses, coaching, programs, systems, or always hiring a team member left and right.
You still need to be strategic, can you actually afford the investment you’re making and what is the reason you’re making this investment!
I’ll be doing an episode soon on getting an ROI in all your investments but I want to be clear that I’m not saying you always need to spend more in order to raise your prices but it may be something that is necessary to strengthen your belief.
So,
Those are 4 questions to ask yourself before you raise your prices.
Be honest with yourself and it’s ok to adjust in other ways besides boom raise my price. Maybe you need to work on your client or delivery experience, perhaps you need to focus more on getting reviews and testimonials instead of just raising the price outta thin air, or maybe you need to adjust your business entirely and the stress you’re experiencing is an indication that you’re not in alignment with your current offer, lastly, you may have some room for growth whether its mindset, strategy, or systems and you need to make an investment to give you the confidence and belief that you can command higher prices.
Hope you enjoyed this food for thought!
IN THIS EPISODE, WE COVER:
- Why you shouldn’t raise your prices
- Who you shouldn’t listen to when it comes to pricing
- Alternatives to raising your prices
- 4 questions to ask yourself before you raise your prices
LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
- VIP Simple Marketing Experience
- Join us in the BecomingCEO Method!
- Check out my last episode on 4 Step Growth and Visibility Framework
- Follow me on Instagram: @mrskayhillman
- Follow the podcast on Instagram: @becomingceo
MORE ABOUT THE BECOMINGCEO PODCAST:
Podcast for Female Entrepreneurs and Christian Entrepreneurs to help you improve your marketing and social media strategy so you can make more money.
Every week your host Kay Hillman is going to share tips and tricks about social media marketing, mindset, and sales strategy. You’ll learn how to start, grow, and scale a service based or coaching business – God’s way.
From how to create a solid foundation for starting your business to how to strategically plan the next 6-months of marketing for your business – we will cover all things marketing, attracting more clients, converting sales, and more.
Sis,it’s time for you to up-level your mindset, marketing, and sales.
In this space we show up as our authentic selves – that means embrace being part of a community where we are low-key ratchet and high key saved – OKAY!!!
