Episode 41
How can I put up my prices?
If you’re struggling to charge enough for your work, you're not alone. The solution is simple: raise your prices. It's the easiest way to increase your earnings. But lots of us face resistance and doubt when it comes to actually doing it.
To tackle this problem, we need to first understand our beliefs around pricing and money. We may have limiting beliefs that are holding us back from charging what we're truly worth.
To overcome these beliefs and raise our prices, we can follow these steps:
- Conduct a mental audit of our clients and identify who values our work the most.
- Decide on a new price point and communicate it confidently to our clients.
- Practice talking about money in a non-threatening setting to build our confidence.
- Keep in mind that price is a signal and can attract new, higher-paying clients.
If we don't tackle our pricing hang-ups, we risk staying trapped at our current earnings level and missing out on opportunities for growth and investment in our work.
Start today, by conducting a mental audit of your clients and identifying who values your work the most. Then, consider raising your prices and communicating the change confidently to your clients. Remember, the more we talk about money, the easier it becomes.
Links
Transcript
zenfactory.com.
Carlos:Is zenfactory com already a registered domain name or registered business?
Carlos:If it isn't, leave it alone because we need to nab it.
Ben:It's ours.
Carlos:If it is, let us know.
Carlos:If you're listening live, this is a hot money tip.
Carlos:Invest in zenfactory.com Today on the happy pricing podcast, we are going to be talking about, can you put up your prices right now?
Ben:Can you do an Amazon?
Carlos:Can you do an, why is it an Amazon?
Ben:Because Amazon put up their prices for Prime yesterday by 20%.
Carlos:I saw.
Carlos:Yeah, well, and Netflix has done that recently.
Ben:Right.
Ben:Yeah.
Carlos:So, um, it feels like they've randomly done it.
Carlos:I've, I can imagine there's some curious rationale behind it, but ultimately,
Ben:I think there isn't a very curious rationale.
Ben:It's just called some profit.
Carlos:More profit or some profit some profit.
Ben:Yeah
Carlos:So at least from the outside, it's like, okay, the price has gone up.
Carlos:What am I going to do about it?
Carlos:That's the guy that from a customer's perspective is like Netflix prices went up.
Carlos:How am I going to cancel.
Carlos:Amazon's prices are gonna how am I going to cancel at the moment?
Carlos:No until I actually find some space to think about it.
Carlos:So as a person who follows the Happy Pricing podcast and someone who's a bit more purpose driven and wants to do work that feels right and good and is needing to charge more because you're just not earning your worth or you're just struggling to stay sustainable or there's things that you would love to invest in because that's what more money can buy you, more things that will make you better at your work or make you feel better, but you're having a challenge with actually raising your prices.
Carlos:Ben, you had this little provocation.
Carlos:Why don't you just raise your prices right now?
Ben:I so maybe we'll sort of start with a little bit of context.
Ben:So I think as we kind of mentioned, everybody who we work with on the Happy Pricing course, almost all of them, I think, uh, I would say from my sort of, uh, external sort of position to look at all of them are in a position where they could put their prices up.
Ben:You know, many of them have not done so for years and years and years.
Ben:Maybe have been working with the same people for a really long period of time, and have not.
Ben:Or just from what I see of what they're doing and the usefulness that they provide and the value that they bring, it seems pretty clear to me that there is an opportunity for them just sort of straight away to increase their charging.
Ben:And I guess the underlying assumption is that there is a some sort of underlying unit amount.
Ben:whether it's some sort of rate or product price or whatever it might be.
Ben:So I guess that was the sort of the starting, um, kind of premise a little bit.
Ben:And that's one of the things which has come up.
Ben:And given then lots of people come to Happy Pricing, you know, for like reasons you've spoken of there, maybe it is about kind of, they don't, there's guesswork in pricing.
Ben:Maybe they're feeling kind of awkward around talking about money and then it's affecting their ability to price well, or maybe just straightforward, then just not owning.
Ben:enough.
Ben:They need to earn more.
Ben:And so I guess particularly on this, on this last point, uh, I think, you know, that might be because they want to earn more because there's X, Y, Z things that they kind of particularly want or need at that time, or it might be that they're just not generating enough money to see them through each month, you know, particularly at the moment with all everything that's kind of going on.
Ben:So, um, yeah, the, the kind of the conversation I've had with a few people around happy pricing is, you know, why don't you just start by putting your prices up?
Ben:Um, and that's typically met with a whole load of kind of resistances and objections and reasons why that would not, not be possible.
Ben:You know, which oftentimes then kind of manifest as there's fear around what your clients will do.
Ben:You know, your clients will leave.
Ben:It's actually interesting that, I don't know, we're not really talking about Amazon, because who gives a shit in a way, but what is interesting, what, what you kind of voiced there is actually, there is an interesting thing there.
Ben:Like I've not canceled my Amazon thing and I know it's not actually kicked in yet, but you know, inertia is a hugely powerful force, of course.
Ben:And that's what Amazon and Netflix are banking on.
Ben:Uh, and so there is some of that, which is kind of true anyway.
Ben:Um, but that, you know, that also could be true in, in your work, you know, you guys, you guys listening.
Ben:But equally, actually, you know, the underlying value of what you do all the people in this in the community, the underlying value of that work, you know, is useful, it is well intentioned, it is, it is helpful, and they are all of the conditions, the underlying conditions from which you can, you can price well.
Ben:So, um, I guess, yeah, so coming back, the, maybe the kind of place to start is kind of what happens at that point.
Ben:So like the conversation you have, you know, Why don't you just start by putting up your price and then send, I don't think anybody has said straight away.
Ben:Okay, I'll do it.
Ben:Quite a few people have got to a place when they do it, but nobody has said there and then I'll do it.
Ben:Because they tend to hit a wall, hit the resistance, hit the doubt, hit the stories in their mind that it is not possible for XYZ reasons.
Carlos:I think one, one thing, one reason that sprang to my mind at least is, is not just, oh, I'll lose a customer, but it's also what they'll think of me.
Carlos:It's like, what judgments are they going to have of me?
Carlos:Because suddenly I've just made myself more expensive.
Carlos:And to a certain level, that feels even more difficult than necessarily losing a customer.
Carlos:Of course, if you are...
Carlos:You know, just one customer away from just being properly broke, then I can imagine that's, that's, that's going to be more painful, but there's that feeling of like, Oh, how are they going to see me as someone who's like, Oh, I just want to.
Carlos:Particularly the kinds of people in our community who are, who value relationships and who value being of service and being helpful and being potentially accessible in terms of, um, the services they offer and who can buy them.
Carlos:But then there's this question there around who really values you, I think.
Carlos:And that's where, and I think back to our agency days, and this is going a little bit off, uh, piste and a bit of a tangent here, but it's connected, is that we went through an exercise of understanding where, which clients paid us the most money.
Carlos:And we could see there's only like two or three clients basically brought in 75% of the revenue.
Carlos:And the rest just like taking up time, being difficult, always carrying invoices, always carrying amounts.
Carlos:And it was like, well, if we'd been a bit more bold from the beginning and saying, actually, if you don't value us, then you don't work with us.
Carlos:So there's a, there's an element of being a, when we were a small agency, a bit of fear of like, oh, if we lose them, where are we going to get the next job?
Carlos:But thinking back now, that was also linked to a lack of clarity of who we wanted to work with.
Carlos:And so, because we didn't know who we wanted to work with, we wanted to work with everyone.
Ben:I think there is, there's some, there's partly around the clarity if you want to work with.
Ben:There's also a little bit there about the benefit of, um, some trading history, some kind of journey through time a little bit to understand how these things do play out.
Ben:Because, you know, the thing which is sort of true I think for lots and lots of small businesses particularly, Uh, maybe more so than the, the kind of individual, the sort of solopreneur type person.
Ben:You know, your point there around, you know, there was a handful of clients which account for that 75% of the money, you know, the, the Pareto principle thing.
Ben:But the inverse was probably true on the time, you know, the, there was also a kind of small number of clients who take all the fucking time, uh, who, you know, you know, all of the, all the mental, all the headspace, all the time.
Ben:And, you know, I bet those people were not actually the people who also were kind of paying you the most.
Ben:And I think, you know, there is always, there is always a need, there is always value to just be aware of those things and to be sort of conducting a little, you know, sort of, in a way, a little, a little mental audit of these things or an actual kind of audit, depending on how you do it, looking at who is paying you, what, looking, you know, are those people, the people who you want to be doing work with.
Ben:Are the people who you want to be doing, you know, are you kind of spending the most time with those people?
Ben:Because yeah, I think otherwise the thing that happens is, um, you know, there is always a need to kind of find new customers, to find new clients, to find new people, uh, who are kind of able to buy the thing that you do, and that becomes the sort of driving motivation, that kind of focus.
Ben:And then what happens is, In a relatively short amount of time is we're sort of stuck in a bit of a loop, really, where we are servicing all of these different people, and they may not be people who we want to service.
Ben:They may not be people who are, you know, are kind of who value what we do.
Ben:There may not be that kind of right collection.
Ben:So for sure, there is always a need to ask that question.
Ben:Yeah.
Ben:Who is it that I most want to be serving?
Ben:And where do they fit on this sort of spectrum of clients that I'm working with?
Carlos:there's an element here of, you could just raise your prices and like, Oh, but, uh, there's a fear and that fear can come from very many different places.
Carlos:But there's also this potential positive benefit, again, if you're willing to have more conversations and start doing a little bit more work around it, that means by putting your prices up, you become interesting to a different set of people.
Carlos:And it, I'm thinking back to your whole thing about pricing is a signal.
Ben:Yeah, I mean, I guess there's a couple of things.
Ben:One, just the kind of reminder again, part of the thing around putting prices up is oftentimes people just need to work out how to increase what they're running.
Ben:And so the putting prices up, of course, is the easiest way of increasing what you're earning.
Ben:And the secondary thing around that to what you're talking to there is price is a signal.
Ben:And so whenever we are buying anything or thinking about, thinking about buying something, we're looking for cues, we're looking for clues that the thing that we are thinking of buying.
Ben:is going to do the thing that I want it to do, that it's safe, that it's reliable, that I'm not going to look stupid if I, if I buy it, or it's not going to damage me or hurt me in some way.
Ben:And of course, I don't really mean probably that in a literal sense.
Ben:But you know, the, the, these kinds of sort of emotional kind of doubts and questions are the things which are rumbling around in the heart and mind of the people who are thinking about buying your.
Ben:Stuff, whatever it, whatever it may be.
Ben:And so the price that we charge is a big signal because, you know, whether you like it or not, we do equate, and we've spoken, I've spoken about this before a little bit, that whole sort of Stella Artois type idea of reassuringly expensive.
Ben:And that's not to say that everybody should just start charging sort of ridiculously high prices for things, because of course there is a knock on sort of consequence of that, about how accessible you are, which is something that is going to be more or less important to the people in the community.
Ben:But price is a signal, so we are looking for reassurance, we are looking for signals that the thing that I'm about to buy is, is safe, uh, and so the price that we charge is, is important in that sense because it is constantly beep, beep, beep, beep, emitting a signal, um, that says this is where I fit in the kind of spectrum of, um, suppliers or whatever it may be that I may choose to buy from.
Carlos:Another thing that springs to mind around this is kind of a deeper feeling and deeper sense of agency and autonomy.
Carlos:In your business.
Carlos:And saying that you can't raise your prices kind of feels like a sense, feeling of being trapped.
Carlos:I'm trapped in this, at this level.
Carlos:I'm constrained.
Carlos:I have no freedom.
Carlos:It's like if you're working for yourself, if you have the opportunity and option to charge whatever you want, and you're not doing it, then there's a question there for me.
Carlos:And like, so the, you know, fundamentally, I think one of the, the message that's sinking in for me around this whole topic for today is that if you want to earn more, simple, no nonsense way of doing it, raise your prices, however that is, whether it's double, triple, 10%, whatever, just increase.
Carlos:You don't have to do any thinking, you don't have to do any market research, you don't have to do anything, you can just do it.
Carlos:And the fact that you're not doing it, It's potentially telling you something about yourself.
Carlos:And then that's maybe the invitation, because if you don't tackle that, it doesn't matter what tactics and strategies you learn about talking to customers or giving them options or doing better positioning or whatever it is we like to talk to on the program.
Carlos:If there's that deeper issue around, oh, I can't raise my prices, then that needs to be tackled, particularly before you come onto the program.
Ben:Yeah, yeah.
Ben:Or the thing that I think lots of people find is when they, they get onto the program, actually, when I do start doing the work around this, I do get a better insight and understanding that actually maybe this is where the work most usefully, uh, will be.
Ben:And actually the more that I, I can start sort of shining a light on this, the more, the more positive impact that there, there will be around it.
Ben:I was thinking about the thing that came up, one of the clients who I work with one to one, um, I was talking to him around this.
Ben:And he said to me in one of the sessions, Oh, you know, we don't need to, um, we don't need to get too distracted down the psychology of the money thing, blah, blah, blah, blah, the thing that we're talking about, but actually that is absolutely where he needs to be sort of focused, not distracted.
Ben:Because he does, you know, he's at a point where he needs to make a little bit of a leap.
Ben:He's kind of very busy, which is good.
Ben:He's got lots of things kind of going on, but he's, he's at, he's at a, he's at a kind of ceiling of complexity, or we talk about on the course, a money ceiling point.
Ben:He has an idea in his mind about what is the most that he can charge, which actually, when I run the exercise, which is one of the same things that we do on the course and get him to look at what he used to charge, he can see actually that this thing has changed a lot over time.
Ben:So he has a story in his mind that there is a most that he can charge, and this story in his mind is actually is acting as a ceiling.
Ben:It's stopping him being able to make a change into the next phase of evolution that he needs to he needs to go through.
Carlos:I, I'm glad you picked me up on that because on one hand, joining the Happy Pricing program, having an awareness of these limiting beliefs that may be worked on them will help you use some of the tactics and strategies and approaches more skillfully and straight off the bat.
Carlos:And even if you haven't done that work going through this process I've tried to implement these things will shine a light on where you might need to do some deeper work.
Carlos:And we try and create a safe space to start exploring what that might be but like you're saying with your client unless you're real like you realize that You're gonna be banging your head against this glass ceiling and just maybe even self criticizing yourself or cri or even criticizing your, the people who you are, you are paying to help you.
Ben:Mm-hmm
Carlos:Because you believe it's therefore, as opposed to actually there's this internal thing that is actually limiting how much you can earn.
Ben:Mm-hmm.
Carlos:So when you say, all right, just put up your prices, you get to that point, I'm just thinking now just running through this.
Carlos:I put my prices and then I have to go and talk to my customers about it.
Carlos:Well, from your experience or your perspective, how can you tackle that conversation in a way that feels from a place of confidence and power rather than sheepishness and shame.
Ben:Yeah, the, the very witty little acronym that we, uh, put into the newsletter for this week uh, it's all about the ATM, uh, which of course isn't the hole in the wall money variety, uh, but is the principle of always talk money.
Ben:And actually last week we were talking about.
Ben:the spirit of experimenting, the spirit of play and the importance of that kind of generally, uh, but also, and also within the context of talking about money, of talking about pricing.
Ben:Because the more that we do this in situations and scenarios where, you know, the, the kind of the, the potential risk is low when we're in the really important, really important conversations, when we do really need to close the next client, if we haven't been practicing talking about money in other times, for sure, when we get to those real critical sort of pinch points talking about it is going to be much harder.
Ben:So that the ATM we were referring to is the principle of always be talking about money.
Ben:And that that is true in a general sense, in a kind of macro sense, you know, the more we're talking about it, the more comfortable we are, and then we're sort of talking to clients, it's easier.
Ben:But it's also true in the journey of kind of buy, buy, sell something when, when, when you're trying to sell something, something, when someone is buying something from you.
Ben:The more that we are talking about money from earlier and earlier and earlier, you know, the likely actually the, the, the higher they will end up paying for the thing that you do, providing there's some flexibility in, in what you can charge on a case by case basis.
Ben:One of the things which has been really helpful to people, and there's a few people have in mind in particular from, from the course, when we have this conversation, you know, just.
Ben:Kind of put, put your price, you know, when did you question that?
Ben:What I would then ask you, when did you last put your prices up?
Ben:Oh, and you know, get the response.
Ben:I, I've never done it.
Ben:I don't know, three, four, five more years ago.
Ben:So really long time.
Ben:And essentially all I'm saying to them then is, you know, like, so we're all reminding ourselves here, you know, you, you do good work.
Ben:Your work is important.
Ben:You are well intentioned and you know, that it's valuable.
Ben:You know, that it's valuable.
Ben:You know, that it's helpful.
Ben:Why not just start by saying to your prospective client and you could also say, look, I am uncomfortable talking about this, so just, I'm putting it out there.
Ben:I'm uncomfortable talking about this, but I would like to have a conversation with you about the money.
Ben:You know, I've not put a price, our prices up for however long it is, one year, two year, three year, five years, ten years, whatever it may be.
Ben:Um, and, um, I'd like to talk to you about doing that, you know, is there a situation, you know, is there a way or what would you need to see or what would you require for me to be able to work to a place where I am putting my prices up?
Ben:Is there, is there, is there a new amount that we can agree?
Ben:And you offer them, you know, if there is not, don't worry.
Ben:We will stick things as they are.
Ben:But actually the thing that you find because the people in this community are well intentioned, because the people in this community are doing good work, trust that your clients are actually keen to help you too.
Ben:Uh, and you know, by just being open, acknowledging that maybe it feels awkward, it's not giving them a fait accompli.
Ben:You don't need to do that.
Ben:You don't need to, you don't need to, you might choose to, but you don't need to say my rates are now going to be this.
Ben:And if you can't afford that.
Ben:that I have to move on.
Ben:That may be something that you want to experiment with, but maybe just in the first instance, you will find, you will be surprised actually that even existing clients have an appetite, have an interest to pay you significantly more than they are paying you now.
Ben:That has certainly been the experience of a number of people who've come to the program.
Ben:They then have that conversation and they find those rates that they hadn't changed for a really long period of time.
Ben:Now they are earning.
Ben:Maybe 50% more than they were earning before, just because they had the open conversation Which was had no fait accompli says then, you know, is there a way you can help me with this?
Ben:Is there anything that we might be able to do and if there isn't?
Ben:Don't worry about it.
Ben:We can stick to the art.
Ben:I just wanted to bring it up.
Carlos:What I got from what you're saying there Ben there's a conversation about Value and how tying that value to some kind of monetary amount.
Carlos:So being very I would say for a lot of people being very brave about being able to step into those conversations and sign to see ,Work with numbers actually you clear numbers as opposed to just a vague intentions of yeah, that sounds good.
Carlos:And then doing that I assume regularly with clients and having yeah.
Carlos:And it's interesting.
Carlos:When you said always talk about always talk money a question that was coming through going through my head is like what how does that conversation start, and what is the what is it I'm talking about?
Carlos:And then so one hand you're talking you said, you know, how do I?
Carlos:What's in my mind is like, I need this much money, you know, I want to be able to earn this much money per job.
Carlos:You, what do you need from me in order to pay me that much money?
Ben:You know, when I say always talk about money.
Ben:I don't mean only talk about money.
Ben:That would be really fucking weird.
Ben:There's one once that's one slight, slight qualification.
Ben:The other thing I'd say about a kind of ongoing client relationship, because I think we really want to talk about always talking about money is really in a, in the sort of sales situation, don't leave talking about money to the end of that conversation.
Ben:Don't have invested a whole load of time and energy and just kind of sort of will and all of that sort of stuff, only to get to the bit where you're talking about money to find out they don't have any money, or what they were expecting to spend is really not what you need or whatever it may be.
Ben:So it's more about talking about it in the, in the, in the sales process.
Ben:Um, I would say is, is the kind of first thing.
Ben:So not leaving it to the end.
Ben:Because there is also a thing like, um, you know, whilst lots of, lots of us, lots of people in the community find it difficult talking about money.
Ben:The same is of course true for lots of, lots of clients and customers.
Ben:They don't like talking about money either.
Ben:So it's about sort of striking that balance.
Ben:And I think if there is an ongoing relationship you have with someone, there of course needs to be built into that some sort of common understanding about what you're doing, for how much, when.
Ben:So that, you know, the thing we're sort of talking about is that you are trying to remove ambiguity from, um, from the kind of working relationship as much as possible.
Ben:And so if you were constantly talking about money, I constantly sort of changing it, that would just be bringing lots of ambiguity, lots of uncertainty to the relationship.
Ben:So it's more about, yeah, the qualification is not leaving the talking about money to the end of some other inquiry, which is happening before somebody has tried to buy something.
Carlos:And we talk a bit about on the course, the different types of questions that you can ask and ways to go into that conversation will feel less scary, or at least have some stock questions that you can go through.
Carlos:If you particularly if you're new to this and finding it a bit challenging to start talking about money.
Carlos:Um, before we leave, we have a question from Kieran, I just wanted to.
Carlos:Also confirmed from Kieran, I understood this question because he says, how much does the focus stroke recognition of your desired clients allow you better to follow the principle always talk money?
Ben:Yeah, I guess what I would say is it's not that being clearer Allows you to talk about money regularly, but what I would say is talking about money regularly will help you whether you were being unclear and scattergun in who you work with, or whether you were being razor focused and sharp.
Ben:The principle of talking about money early in the, in the sort of buyer's journey, early in the process, consistently trying to get practice and sort of talking about it, the principle of always talking money would help you whether you were scattergun or whether you were kind of razor sharp, razor sharp, clear.
Ben:So it kind of, it's, it's not that.
Ben:Being clear helps you do that being clear will help you, you know, sort of do the work that you want to do for the people that you want to do it.
Ben:And then you kind of plug into that.
Ben:The principle of always talking money will help you increase what you are earning.
Carlos:And I think that maybe the added benefit, the potential benefit of having a bit more focus and clarity of who you're working with, and maybe having worked with them for a few times, there'll be some consistent general stories that they have around money or consistent amounts of money they've invested in the past.
Carlos:For instance, if they have worked, you know, most of your clients have already had coaching in the past.
Carlos:You may already, you know, they're a particular level.
Carlos:You may be able to know that they generally invest two to five thousand dollars in a coach.
Carlos:And so you're when you talk money, you've got at least some area you can focus on and a ballpark that you can play with as opposed to each time going in with a completely blank slate.
Carlos:Um, so it's quite interesting.
Carlos:I think that whole being able to just generally talk money all the time.
Carlos:Uh, and I love, uh, Anya's, um, Connection to dating advice about talk to everyone so you don't choke when you talk to those you're attracted to.
Ben:Haha, right.
Ben:Yeah.
Carlos:So in a sense, it's like even talk money to people that you don't think are actually going to buy.
Ben:Yeah.
Carlos:Because it's just good practice to feel comfortable about asking these questions.
Ben:Hmm.
Ben:Yeah.
Ben:Do you talk money at home?
Ben:Do you talk money with family?
Ben:Do you talk money?
Ben:Because actually in a way, and it's not about
Carlos:Money in bed with your partner?
Ben:It's like, you know, how comfortable are people talking about money?
Ben:You know, because if it turns out what doesn't turn up there, if you are really comfortable sorting out the bills and budgets and all that sort of stuff at home, then for sure, there is, there is some more ease there, isn't there?
Carlos:Yeah.
Carlos:My understanding is many people find it awkward, so if you can approach the conversation from a piece, place of kind of quiet, calm confidence, so you don't amplify the awkwardness in the interaction, then that will actually make the other person feel made probably more comfortable and less scary, scared to talk about it because you're, you don't bring the same fear and anxiety that they're feeling.
Carlos:So yeah, it's a practice, um, and it's something that we, you know, we like.
Carlos:We want to encourage people who go through the program, while they're going through the program, and also after when they do the Momentum program afterwards, where we actually try and help them implement and integrate all of that learning, in the real businesses and the real work, because in the end it is a practice.
Carlos:It isn't a just learn it and you're done because it's such, some of these are quite deep beliefs and ideas.
Carlos:They can't be eased out in like a six week program.
Ben:No, it's super emotionally charged.
Carlos:Awesome.
Carlos:Thank you very much, Ben.
Carlos:Thank you.
Carlos:I think I think we solved that one.
Carlos:Everyone's not healed.
Carlos:Okay, great.
Carlos:All right.
Carlos:I hope you enjoyed that one until next time, thank you very much.
Carlos:Take care.
Carlos:Oh my God.
Carlos:Zenfactory.com is available.
Carlos:Anya.
Ben:I think it should be left there.
Carlos:Leave it alone.
