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Why + How to Slow Down the Sale

Why + How to Slow Down the Sale

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.”
~ Lao Tzu

In this blog post I talk about slowing down the sale. Both the importance of it and some practical ways to do it.

It’s important to note that what we’re talking about here is, in the main, the kind of sales made within the context of a conversation, i.e. higher priced services such as 1:1 work or group programs, although some of what I share can be applied to your sales pages for lower priced digital products too.

We are living in a world where speed is celebrated as the be all and end all and nowhere do we see this more than in the world of online business.

Most marketing practices we see online are designed to get people to buy now. We’re encouraged to use false deadlines, trip wires and countdown timers to hurry people along in their decision to buy.

Just recently, whilst reading a newsletter, I felt a wave of disappointment when I followed a link to a recommended training and realised it was one of those pages that gives you just minutes to decide if you want to attend it and then invites you to book a time slot, even though it’s a recording, so the very idea of time slots is something of a nonsense!

We’re taught to play on people’s fear of missing out in order to get them to buy, whether or not it is in their best interests to do so.

In traditional online marketing the focus is on getting the sale and getting it quick before the buyer has a chance to change their mind or figure out that what’s on offer isn’t what they truly need or want!

Some business experts will even encourage you to tell buyers to get out their credit card and make high ticket purchases on the call — yuck!

As conscious business owners, this is not how you want to treat your potential clients and customers, yet it can sometimes feel like this is the only way to really make money in your business.

In this article, I want to get across the point that there is another way.

In fact, what I’m going to share is an approach that not only differs from what we’re usually told about “closing the sale” but that actually flies in the face of it.

What I’m talking about is slowing down the sale.

Taking the foot off the gas pedal and creating time and space in which our customers can make an informed decision about whether or not to buy from us.

Why is this so important?

Slowing down the sale is important for several reasons.

Top of the list for me is that it cultivates trust. Unlike what many online marketers would have you believe, rather than letting the sale escape, what it actually does is make a true and genuine yes much more likely. This is because people have the space to say no, meaning that when they say yes, you can count on it.

I can’t tell you how many times, clients have come to me complaining that people have said yes to working with them on a sales call, only to later change their mind or, worse still, have started to ghost them. The reason? They felt pressured to say yes, but deep down didn’t want to or they didn’t have enough time to make the right decision for them in the first place.

Slowing down the sale also ensures that you only work with right-fit clients. When you’ve spent adequate time with another person, getting to know them and taking the time to ensure that what you offer and what they need is a fit, then you are much more likely to enrol people who will benefit from your service. Working with ideal clients means you get to do your best work, which in turn means you’re much more likely to have a greater impact, which in turn leads to glowing testimonials and word of mouth referrals. If you’ve already experienced working with a less than ideal client or a perfect one, you’ll know what I mean.

Another important reason to slow down the sale is that it feels better for you as the business owner and for your would-be clients. No one likes to feel like they are pressuring someone into saying yes and nobody enjoys being pressured to make a decision faster than feels comfortable for them. When we as business owners create space for the right decision for all to be make, it makes such a refreshing change from the usual online practice of closing the sale quickly, that people really feel the difference and feel enormously grateful as a result.

And last but definitely not least, I believe we should slow down the sale because it’s the right thing to do. Might we lose some people, who would otherwise say yes with a bit more pressure? Maybe, but for those people who do say yes, what we create are relationships far more likely to last over time, because they are built on a foundation of trust and respect. So slowing down the sale is both the right thing to do and doesn’t have to mean less income in the long run, because when you work with people who trust you, they will buy from you again and again. I have seen lots of evidence of this in my own business.

That covers much of the why around slowing down the sale but how do we do it in practical terms. Below you’ll find six practical steps you can take to slow down the sale.

1. Slow yourself down

Slowing yourself down absolutely has to happen before you can genuinely slow down the sale for the customer. Oftentimes, before the money is flowing consistently in our business, we might find ourselves feeling needy or even desperate for the sale, so much so that when someone shows interest, it can be hard not to pounce on the opportunity.

Regardless of our financial needs, keeping our energy in check is crucial, if we are serious about creating the necessary space and conditions for a right-fit sale to occur. In the early days of my business, before talking to someone about working together I would remind myself that whilst I might need (or really want) to make a sale, I didn’t need to make this sale. That was my way of reminding myself that there would be other sales conversations and that getting a sale was not more important than enrolling the right person to my coaching program. Ahead of complimentary sessions or sales conversations, I would often meditate to get into a calm and trusting space — this really helped me to slow down.

2. Slow the customer down

You get to set the pace, just because someone you’ve never met before writes and asks you to share details of your packages, doesn’t mean you have to send over your prices in a heartbeat. Instead, you can say something like: before we get to that, let’s look at what you really need and whether or not what I offer can truly help you.

I see this with clients all the time. They are in reaction mode when someone expresses an interest in working together and because they haven’t taken the time to slow themselves down, they feel like they have to respond as quickly as possible with whatever the potential client has asked for.

Personally I won’t agree to work with someone unless I’ve coached or had a conversation with them and feel certain that there is something I can support them with. With that in mind, discussing the logistics of working together feels very premature. Besides which all of those details are on my sales page. I would much rather get into a conversation about why they are looking for help and what kind of help they are looking for before we even think about buying or selling.

3. Carve out adequate time and space to have a sales conversation

Of course sales conversations largely relate to the kind of services that people enrol for (such as coaching or group programs) because people are highly unlikely to put down several thousands dollars for such a service without having a conversation with you first.

Many online services providers will offer a short “discovery call” for this purpose but I am not a fan of these (you can read more here for my reasons). If you are currently allocating 30 or 40 minutes for these conversations, I would encourage you to extend the time. You might even have several conversations. Or like me, offer a complimentary session before you even get to the conversation about sales so that you both really get to experience what working together would feel like.

The reason I like to give more than 30 or 40 minutes is because really discussing what the potential client is dealing with and what support they are needing takes time. Why rush it? If the income is going to be several thousands of dollars or more, isn’t it worth spending an hour (or more) to give the potential client the best enrollment experience possible?

4. Test the yes

Even when someone says yes, I encourage you to ask questions that test the yes. It can feel counterintuitive to do this when you want to make the sale but it’s essential if you want to enrol someone who is a right-fit for your service. I encourage you to ask questions like:

Are you sure? Are you a hell yes?

Who else do you need to talk to before you can make this decision?

Do you need more time or information in order to make this decision?

Why do you want to do *this* program?

Why do you want to hire *me* specifically? Why not another coach or healer?

These questions slow down the sale and they let the would-be client know that you are not desperate to make the sale and that you genuinely want them to make the right decision for them (which incidentally will be the right decision for both of you!).

It’s such a different approach to trying to overcome the person’s objections (a practice I loathe), because it’s actually encouraging the objections and then allowing space for the potential client to either honour those objections or overcome them for themselves. In my experience, if I have to work hard to help a client overcome their objections, then they’re not an ideal client. Part of what makes a person ideal for me is that they are 100% in and excited to get started, anything less makes for a less than ideal working relationship.

As conscious business owners we know that each person has all the wisdom they need within themselves to make the right decisions — doing sales in this way honours that truth.

And even if you’re selling something that doesn’t require a sales conversation you can still slow the sale down. The next two points relate to things you can do on your sales page in service to this idea.

5. State clearly who your products and services are not for

On my sales pages I like to make it clear who my product or service is *not* a fit for. We so often fear turning people away that we would never dream of doing this but the clearer you can be about who you can and can’t help and who you want and don’t want to work with, the more likely you are to get clients and customers who are a perfect fit.

I love the way Tad Hargrave does this with some of his offerings — he has what he calls an Are you sure? page, which pops up when you try to buy some of his services and then he basically lists all of the reasons why you shouldn’t buy. It flies in the face of conventional marketing and personally I think it’s both clever and kind. I love what he does on his 1:1 coaching page to manage expectations and ensure fit. You can check it out here.

6. Be mindful of your language

Are you using wording like BUY NOW and/or creating false scarcity or using arbitrary deadlines? If so, I recommend you stop doing so. You may get the sale in the short-term but you’ll seriously erode trust and may find that you end up with unhappy customers because they bought something that wasn’t truly a fit.

The last thing we want is to have lots of unsatisfied clients out in the world sharing their dissatisfaction about our work with others. Instead of creating false scarcity why not let people know (if it’s true) that there will be other opportunities to join your program or purchase your product. Again, this slows down the sale and has people buy from a centered place rather than out of anxiety or FOMO. It makes such a difference.

We get told that we need to use pressurising tactics in order to get the sale but by slowing the sale down, what you ultimately do is cultivate a deep trust, something that over time will help you to build a sustainable and deeply impactful business with truly loyal customers who sing your praises every chance they get. Now doesn’t that sound preferable to the alternative?

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The intention behind these letters is to be a voice for integrity within your (undoubtedly) cluttered inbox. To be the one email you can count on to contain strategic and soulful advice for building a business without selling your soul.

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How To Start Enjoying The Sales Process

How To Start Enjoying The Sales Process

“Sales is not about selling anymore, but about building trust and educating.”

~ Siva Devaki

I had the great pleasure of being interviewed by authentic business coach, George Kao. Now if you’ve known me for any length of time, you’ll know that I am a huge fan of George’s work and his approach to business.

George initially invited me to share about my most interesting insights and learnings when it comes to business growth and after spending not too long thinking about it, I decided that what I most wanted to talk about was how we sell. After making just a few notes on the topic, 4 distinctions emerged that I felt called to share. Distinctions that I think can help to reframe the sales process for you, the conscious business owner.

I share these 4 distinctions as an alternative to the mainstream marketing advice you might usually find online about how to sell.

Sales and marketing present the biggest struggle for the majority of people I work with. This is I believe, a result of what they think they need to do in order to get more sales. My hope is that the 4 alternatives I present below, help you to see that sales can, in fact, feel good for you, the business owner and for the people you are selling to.

1. Create Vs Attract

I talked about this distinction in some detail in another article. If you didn’t see it then, head here now to get the full low-down. Essentially, what I mean by creating clients versus attracting them is placing a focus on building meaningful relationships with people in your network and audience versus trying to present a polished image to the world so as to attract people to your business. Mainstream advice would have us focus on things like branding, web design, professional photos and persuasive copy as a means to sell but in this alternative approach, none of that is actually essential.

Instead of focusing on how your business “looks”, it’s possible to create clients by showing up for the people you already know and serving them deeply, whether that be through your content, complimentary sessions or any other way of being generous with your expertise. An analogy I share in the video is this:

Imagine you were looking for the love of your life and rather than spend your time going out and having fun meeting people and making meaningful connections, you spent all of your time focused on your appearance, working out in the gym to have the perfect body, spending all your money on the perfect clothes and spending hours each day trying to make your hair and makeup look perfect.

How do you think that would go? Sure you might attract some people but would they be there for the right reasons? Would the connections you make be rooted in what’s important? Most of us know this when it comes to finding a partner but when it comes to our business we fall into the trap of trying to present the perfect image. Today, I’m giving you full permission to let go of that.

2. Demonstrating expertise vs describing it

As part of the mainstream attraction model, we’re often taught that in order to sell our products and services, we must become masters of persuasion. In order to “convert” our audience into buyers, we must becomes experts at describing our services in such a way that the potential client can’t wait to buy. There are many strategies touted online designed to manipulate people into buying from us. Check out the ethical move for a set of tactics we advise you avoid in favour of more ethical alternatives.

In place of trying to convince people to buy your products and services with words, I encourage you to demonstrate your expertise instead. You can do this in a number of ways including, but not limited to, offering complimentary sessions, hosting free workshops, publishing free training videos so people can see your work in action and last but not least, sharing your knowledge in your content. And with this last point, I advise that you don’t hint at what you know to get the sale, instead share generously and in doing so cultivate deeper trust with your audience.

3. Serving vs Selling

This is where our primary objective when connecting with people in our network is to serve rather than to sell. Be that to potential clients, your colleagues and peers as well as mentors and role models. Whenever you find yourself thinking about making an ask of someone, see if you can find a way to serve instead. Here are two examples of what this might look like:

Instead of writing to former clients to ask if they know anyone who might be interested in working with you, write to them to offer a pitch-free, complimentary session to gift to someone in their network. In doing so you give the gift of giving to one of your former clients, the gift of your service to someone new and at the same time, ask for nothing in return. No selling is involved, yet you get an opportunity to demonstrate your experience to someone who may benefit from working with you.

Another place this distinction shows up for me is in your content, how often do we read newsletters and social media posts that go deep into a problem we might have, only to lead us to a solution we then have to buy — which goes something like…do you have this problem? Is it causing you all of these sorts of suffering? Then don’t despair because everything you need is available in my course, e-book, program etc.

When you serve in your content rather than sell, you cultivate trust, demonstrate your expertise and allow people to get value from your work whether they buy or not. Now you might be sat there thinking but I need to sell or I can’t pay my bills. In my experience the less I focus on selling and the more I focus on serving, the more my business grows.

4. Authentic pricing vs Premium pricing

Again this is one I cover in some detail in this article but for the purposes of this post, I’ll share the distinction in a nutshell. Whilst mainstream business advice will nearly always tell you to raise your prices, I’m here to tell you that you can build a profitable business without charging insane amounts of money for your services. In fact, often adopting the premium pricing model for your coaching, mentoring or healing services can have the adverse effect of making less than money than you otherwise might.

Big prices don’t necessarily equate to big income. In fact for many people the opposite happens. The bigger the price, the harder they have to work to get the sale and the less income is being generated overall. I invite you to tune out the noise online about pricing and to tune into what feels right to you as a business owner.

I hope you’ve found those distinctions useful and if you want to hear me and George chat about them, you can watch the video of our conversation here.

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The intention behind these letters is to be a voice for integrity within your (undoubtedly) cluttered inbox. To be the one email you can count on to contain strategic and soulful advice for building a business without selling your soul.

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Stop Asking For The Sale (And Do This Instead)

Stop Asking For The Sale (And Do This Instead)

“A salesperson’s ethics and values contribute more to sales success than do techniques or strategies.”
~ Ron Willingham

Let me start by sharing the fact that I’ve built both my current and former businesses without ever “asking” for the sale inside of a conversation with a potential client.

I started my life coaching business back in 2014, following the 4-step approach laid out in a book called The Prosperous Coach by Steve Chandler and Rich Litvin. That approach looks like this:

Step 1 – Connect – Who would I love to speak to?
Step 2 – Invite – Would you like to experience a powerful coaching conversation?
Step 3 – Create – Serve them so powerfully they never forget your conversation for the rest of their life.
Step 4 – Propose – Are you in? Hell yeah or no?

As a strategy for creating clients, I loved it. This approach allowed me to coach people regularly even before I had many clients and, in doing so, spend most of my “business” time doing what I most loved to do – helping people to create the transformation they were seeking in their life.

I had absolutely no problem with step 1 – connecting with people, in fact outreach was and still is one of the favourite parts of my work. Nor did I struggle with step 2 – because being able to offer the gift of coaching to people who can really benefit is a wonderful way to practice true generosity in business, which feels wonderful to me! In terms of step 3 – I’m not sure if all of my complimentary coaching sessions will be remembered forever by those that have had one BUT giving my all to each and every session never failed to leave me with a feeling of deep fulfilment.

Where I struggled and where many of the people I work with struggle was with step 4 – making the proposal, i.e. asking for the sale or inviting someone to consider or discuss working together. For me it felt so out of alignment with my values. Offering someone the gift of a complimentary session and then trying to ask for the sale. Bringing up working together after a deep coaching session just felt off, so I refused to do it. Despite the fact that I was paying $15,000 for a 6 month apprenticeship with a coach who was teaching me this very approach!

Rather than trying to force myself to learn how to ask for the sale and or get better at making the proposal, I worked on everything else that would support the outcome of working together. I worked on:

1. My inner game. Getting myself to a place where I could genuinely show up in service to the person in front of me without feeling needy for the sale AND at the same time being completely open for a sale to occur, should it be a fit for both parties.
2. My service. Making the coaching session (as well as the set up and aftercare) as professional, powerful and impactful as possible.
3. My paid for offering. Getting clear on how someone could work with me should they want to and making my offering clear and easy to find. I’ve worked hard to refine this over the years.
4. My content. Showing up consistently with content that shares my best strategies, methodology and point of view so that the people I’m having gift sessions with already know a lot about the problem I solve, who I solve it for and how I solve it.

Instead of asking for the sale, I would get to the end of my gift session and I would simply say: “is there anything else I can support you with?” and with time something magical started to happen.

People started to consistently ask me what it could look like to work together at the end of the complimentary coaching session. I genuinely don’t recall the last time someone didn’t ask me about working together at the end of a free session with me.

Given that I don’t ask for the sale and my 1:1 practice is still full with a sizable wait list, I know that it’s possible to build a thriving business without becoming an expert at asking for the sale. I have no doubt that putting my attention on all of the above has been far more fruitful for my business than focusing on how to get better at asking for the sale.

If you are giving complimentary sessions in your business and people are not asking you about working together at the end of them, then consider the four areas I outline above and ask yourself which needs working on.

Are you showing up in the right energy or do you feel needy about getting the sale? Something I have found useful to remember over the years is that whilst I might need or want a new client, I don’t need THIS particular person to be that client. That always allowed me to lean back into trusting the process and knowing that the right next client will come.

Are you showing up powerfully to the coaching session and giving your best? If not, consider what you would change in the set up or delivery of your calls if you were to treat this person as if they were already your highest paying client.

Are your offerings clear? A big mistake I see is when service providers have a lot of services on offer without clarity on the difference between them. If someone has taken up your offer of a free session, then it’s highly likely that they’ve checked out your website first, if your services are confusing. absent (you’d be surprised how common this is!) or simply not aligned with what your people need then it doesn’t matter how powerful the session was, a confused mind says no.

Are you creating and sharing content consistently? When people come to your site, are there recent and relevant articles that demonstrate your expertise and speak to the struggles your ideal clients have and the solutions to those struggles? If not, then you are missing a huge opportunity to generate interest in working on you outside of the sales call or free session.

The opportunity to enroll a new client doesn’t simply happen at the end of a free session or discovery call. You could be a master at making the ask and still fall flat if you haven’t taken the time to work on these fundamental pieces.

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Once a week, in the form of an e-letter, I share the best of what I know about building a business with integrity for conscious business owners.

The intention behind these letters is to be a voice for integrity within your (undoubtedly) cluttered inbox. To be the one email you can count on to contain strategic and soulful advice for building a business without selling your soul.

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Ten reasons why Your Content Isn’t Converting Into Sales

Ten reasons why Your Content Isn’t Converting Into Sales

 

1. You’re not asking for the sale often enough

 

Soulful Strategies Weekly

Once a week, in the form of an e-letter, I share the best of what I know about building a business with integrity.

The contents offer a more conscious way to see an old issue. Soulful strategies to bring more integrity into the way you do business and permission to do things in a way that feels good to your soul. 

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Do Discounts and Sales Devalue Your Offering?

Do Discounts and Sales Devalue Your Offering?

“Strong people have a strong sense of self-worth and self-awareness; they don’t need the approval of others.”
~ Roy T. Bennett

I know that a lot of people feel that the whole mass sales affair is pretty gross and simply feeds consumerism on a grand scale but I actually have a different view.

As a family of four, with two growing children, we often bookmark any big purchases we need to make online and wait to see if any of them go down in price during the sales. I must admit, this is my partner’s influence as I have zero patience and would probably pay more than something is worth just to get it sooner. However, each year, thanks to his thoughtful planning, we save some of our hard-earned cash.

It would, therefore, be safe to say that I don’t see sales as a bad thing and I also don’t see them as devaluing the worth of what’s on offer. If I think of one of my favourite brands, Apple, I absolutely would not see anything I might buy from them as having any less value simply because it was discounted in the sales. I would, instead, be delighted (their products are pretty expensive!)

Yet, I hear many small online business owners arguing the case that offering sales and discounts (or heaven forbid freebies) is a sign that you don’t value your own worth or that of your products and services.

There are two points I want to make to this.

First of all your value, as a human being, is not determined by your business, your products or your services, nor is it determined by the price you attach to them. You are inherently valuable as a precious expression of life on this planet we call earth.

Secondly, offering discounts and sales on your products and services does not and cannot devalue their worth. How can it? What you offer is either valuable to the person receiving it or it’s not. To person A your product or service might be insanely valuable and to person B it might have no value whatsoever.

I also hear this argument made about offering taster or complimentary sessions, in that when you give something away for free, people will undoubtedly see it as less valuable than if you charge for it. I also call bullsh*t here too. Personally I’ve had people pay me thousands of dollars for a coaching program that they haven’t made the most of and arguably failed to get their money’s worth, while I’ve had others who have squeezed every last drop of value out of a complimentary session or two that they didn’t pay a dime for.

Highly successful, Authentic Business Coach, George Kao runs a new online course every single month and before he puts the sales page up on his site, he offers the course at a discounted rate. I nearly always buy his courses using the pre-sales page rate and I’m deeply grateful for it.

Marketing legend, Tad Hargrave of Marketing for Hippies runs a birthday sale every year where he offers a whopping discount across all of his digital products. During these sales, I nearly always buy one of his amazing, high value eBooks and learn a ton of new strategies and business ideas as a result.

Kelly Rae Roberts, a hugely successful artist and online entrepreneur, runs sales on the regular and I’ve bought (and completed!) all of her online art courses by taking advantage of the reduced price on offer during these times. You can see one of my pieces from her Angel Wings class below 🙂 I don’t believe I got any less pleasure or value from this class than someone who paid full price for it.

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Once a week, in the form of an e-letter, I share the best of what I know about building a business with integrity for conscious business owners.

The intention behind these letters is to be a voice for integrity within your (undoubtedly) cluttered inbox. To be the one email you can count on to contain strategic and soulful advice for building a business without selling your soul.

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A Guide to Authentic Pricing for Conscious Business Owners

A Guide to Authentic Pricing for Conscious Business Owners

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
~Winston Churchill

In this article I want to talk you about pricing. It’s something that confuses a lot of business owners and a topic that evokes a lot of strong opinions, read on for my response to some of those opinions.

The first thing to say is that I don’t have a pretty, one size fits all approach to pricing that I can lay out for you here and you can happily go away and implement in your business. It’s simply not that clear cut. My own journey with pricing has been all over the place throughout the years but I’ve arrived at a place that feels in integrity for me.

“You should charge the highest price you can”

When I first started my first online business, the advice I received from my mentors and peers alike was to go for premium pricing. Many of the coaches whose advice I followed, were charging very high prices, figures like $75,000 for a year of coaching, $25,000 for a 6 month program and up to $500 for single, one hour sessions. I myself spent $15,000 on a 6 month program with my first business coach.

During our time together, I was encouraged by my coach to raise my prices over and over again. I started my business with my very first client paying $400 for a package of 8 sessions. Just over a year later I was charging $5,000 for an 18 session program. So, within that timeframe, my price per session went from $50 an hour to nearly $300 a session.

When my prices were at their highest, I had a full roster of clients and money was flowing. I should have felt great about my business, but it was actually around this time that I really began to fall out of love with it (you can read more on that here). Amongst other reasons, I didn’t feel in integrity charging those kinds of rates. Not because I didn’t see the value of my work but because it just didn’t feel good to me to see people investing thousands and thousands of dollars to get access to my work. I love over-delivering for my clients and I came to the conclusion fast that when you are priced high, it’s quite hard to over deliver without burning yourself out.

Fast forward several years and you might have noticed that my coaching programs no longer cost $5,000. In fact I’ve been steadily reducing my coaching rates for the past few years, much to the shock and horror of some, but not all, of my colleagues. It’s actually pretty unheard of for a Business Coach to suggest you might lower your rates but I can tell you right now that I have made this suggestion more than once.

Why? Because sometimes it’s the wisest thing to do.

I think you would be genuinely surprised if you knew just how many people I’ve coached who have premium price tags attached to their services, yet have never enrolled a single client. They have those prices in place because that’s what the mainstream marketing advice has told them that they should be charging, because that’s what they say is the market rate.

But charging premium rates when you are a beginner in business doesn’t make sense to me, especially when it comes to services like coaching, where the case for charging more can be made when a coach has hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of client sessions under his or her belt and the case for his or her level of expertise and experience can well and truly be made.

To charge premium pricing as a beginner in business is a dangerous trap to fall into, both for the service provider and the client. If you, as a business owner don’t believe in your price, you’ll never enrol clients at that price. There has to be alignment and integrity when we state our prices. We have to believe that it’s truly a sound investment for the person before us if they are to believe it too. This works as much for over-charging as it does for under-charging. If you don’t feel aligned with your price, neither will the customer.

My advice. Don’t charge premium prices unless you feel ready to and you want to position yourself as a premium service. And remember, not all online services have to be premium or only be accessible to those who can afford it. You can still offer high value services and charge more accessible pricing (and make a good income to boot!).

“If your prices are low people won’t value your work”

I have had several business mentors over the years and I’ve paid for some pretty expensive coaching — a whole $15,000 worth for 6 months of weekly sessions with a relatively new coach, bringing the price per hour to a whopping $625 and I’ve paid as little as $100 an hour for a coach with many more years experience and also himself making 6-figures, without charging premium rates.

Was the premium coaching good and did I value it? Hell yes! It was amazing coaching and it took me from thinking about building a business to running a profitable business in a relatively short period of time. I learned a lot. Which goes to show that you can be a great service provider even without decades of experience under your belt. But would I pay that much money for coaching again? Not likely. Now that I know that excellent coaching doesn’t need to cost a small fortune, I doubt I would pay that kind of price again.

Was the cheaper coaching good and I did I value it? Hell yes! The business I have today is in large part because of my work with one of the most experienced, successful and affordable coaches I know and is at the time of writing, my go to person whenever I want to tackle something new in my business.

On the other side, I’ve also coached people who paid my $5,000 rate and took little action in pursuit of their goals and had people do wonders as a result of 1 or 2 free sessions.

My conclusion — Price doesn’t dictate value. What is valuable to one person, won’t necessarily be valuable to someone else. Something that costs $15,000 could be a huge rip off, whilst something else with the same price tag might be the bargain of the century. Just because something is valuable doesn’t mean it has to be expensive and just because something is expensive doesn’t mean it has to be valuable.

“You need to charge what your worth”

If I’ve heard this once, I’ve heard it a thousand times and it makes me shake my head every time I do. The premise is that somehow your worth and the value of your products and services are linked. Nothing could in fact be further from the truth. Your worth as a precious human being is not quantifiable and it is definitely not defined or dictated by your business model.

George Kao, one of the most respected Business Coaches in the conscious business space, says this:

“Have you heard that you should “Charge what you’re worth?”… that in your pricing, you should “claim / stand up for your value” ?
Let’s look more deeply at this.
How much is your value?
How much are you worth? $25/hour? $150/hour? $500/hour? $10,000/hour?
Does this mean that people who charge more are worth more?
Words matter. It shapes how we see other people and ourselves. Connecting fee structures to “worth” sets up a very unhealthy comparison.
Are you worth less than someone who charges more?
Truth: You are worth infinity.
You are an incredibly precious human being whose odds of being born are 1 in 400 trillion!
“Charge what you’re worth” is an insidious lie, started by some high-priced coaches who needed to justify how much they’re charging you.
I have seen many people raise their prices (because they’re “worth” much more!)… and then guess what? They saw their business decline.”

I couldn’t agree more.

It would be foolish to ignore the fact that many people collapse around pricing and chronically undercharge, partly I think because they’ve bought into the “charge what you’re worth” idea and have low self-esteem. If that applies to you and you consistently undercharge because you have a hard time seeing the value of your offering despite evidence to the contrary, then I implore you to face your fears and raise your prices. Asking for a dollar amount does not equate to forcing people to pay it. Each and every one of our customers is free to choose whether or not they say yes to our price. They get to decide how valuable they think our service is to them.

“If you charge more, you can work less”

Now I get it. I get that you might desire a certain lifestyle and you need to make a certain amount of money to make that a reality. I also get that there are only so many hours in the day so if you don’t raise your “hourly” rate, you place a limit on your earning potential. I also don’t doubt that if you stick at your business and see it grow over time, there will come a point when raising your prices not only makes sense, but becomes a necessity. You may for example get to the point where you need to outsource or hire staff and to do so, you need to make more money.

So here’s the thing. I’m not against making lots of money — in fact quite the opposite.

My beef is with the advice and misinformation we’re sold online about how best to make that money and at the same time live the life you want to.

Let’s work through an example.

Let’s say you’re a coach who wants to make $3,000 a month.

If you charge $300 an hour for your services, in theory, it will take you 10 hours of 1:1 work to hit your goal.

By comparison, if you charge only $150 an hour for your services, it will take you 20 hours of 1:1 time to hit your goal. Therefore the idea that charging more saves you time does, on the surface of it, make sense. But let’s look a little more closely.

Let’s consider how much time you need to spend to get someone to pay you $300 an hour versus how long it would take to enrol someone at $150 an hour. How many more hours of marketing would you have to do? If you are charging premium prices, how much more might you need to spend on a fancy website, branding and glamorous photos to present a premium image?

Let’s also consider how much easier the sale is when the ask is a no-brainer for the client. Thing about your own experience investing online. When I see an online training that costs $100 or less, if I want it, I’ll buy it and not think twice about it. When I see an online training that costs closer to $500 or $1,000 I do have to think twice and I need to feel much more convinced that the investment is worth it before I’ll stump up that kind of cash.

In my own business, I’ve found that my 3-month €2200 coaching program was a harder sell for people than my €300 a month coaching subscription is. I’ve also found that I can in fact hit my financial goals more quickly and more easily with a lower rate than I can with a premium price tag. Why? Because I’m enrolling more clients more often. Not only am I making more money than before I had this more affordable option available, but my clients are happier — because they are getting the same level of service/value for half the price. That’s what I call a win-win.

In conclusion

I’m not against making big money from your business. In fact I’m all for it. What I’m sharing with you here is the idea that big prices don’t necessarily equate to big income. In fact for many people the opposite happens. The bigger the price, the harder they have to work to get the sale and the less income is being generated overall. I also know some wonderful conscious businesses out there who charge lower than the market rate but are still making 6-figures a year and have thousands of people who love and respect their work to boot.

I’m also not saying that lower prices is the right way to go for you. What I’m inviting you to do here is to tune out the noise online about pricing and to tune into what feels right to you as a business owner. I’m inviting you to consider what kind of business you run and what model you want to apply and screw what other people say (including me!)

I would love to hear what this brings up for you. Where do you stand on pricing? What did you take-away from this post? Feel free to leave a comment and let me know.

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