Episode 11 A+A podcast: Is Your Pricing Aligned? How Can You Tell?

Is your pricing aligned - and how can you tell?

I can't wait to explore this with you. I think it's something that as entrepreneurs, we think about a lot - what is the right pricing for us? What is the right pricing for our ideal clients?

Today, we're going into this in detail. Looking at the pricing you have now, and considering if there are any changes that you might like to make moving forward. Because it's so incredibly personal to decide on the right pricing for you. Sometimes people can feel like there is just this magic number and almost might hope that somebody else is going to tell them what that number is. However, a big part of pricing is really owning the pricing that you choose - and running with that.

First, my money mentor...

I want to acknowledge the most significant mentor I've worked with on money and on pricing - Denise Duffield-Thomas. I'm sure many of you are already familiar with Denise. I joined Denise's money bootcamp in 2012. So that tells you I have been in her world for a very long time. I was in the second live round of her money bootcamp. I've really seen Denise grow and evolve - and we are friends as well. We're in an informal mastermind group together. We've spoken at conferences together. I was in one of her books at one point. We've got lots and lots of crossovers. The reason why I'm mentioning this is because when I talk about money, I have been so informed and influenced by the work I have done with Denise.

There are going to be elements of what she has taught me - or what I've learned from being in her space - that are going to be interwoven into what I'm going to talk about. So, I really want to acknowledge her. It connects in with what I spoke about in the last episode around aligned inspiration. So even though I might feel like this is something I have come up with uniquely, it is going to be deeply informed by all of the work I have done with her over the years. And I wanted to model that it's important to acknowledge the people who are our mentors. When we have worked with them on a specific topic. Of course, I recommend Denise's books and her bootcamp as well.

Notice how you feel about your existing pricing.

I want you to start out by thinking about your pricing in your business. Thinking about any one-on-one offerings that you might have and how much you charge for those. If you have single sessions, how much they cost. If you have a package or packages in your business, how much they cost. Think about other offerings that you've got, courses, group programs, other downloadable products, and just notice how you feel about your existing pricing. Does it feel good for you? Does it feel like there is a really beautiful flow? Does it feel like it is a price point or a series of price points that makes sense in the context of your business and that seem to resonate with your ideal clients? So we would get that resonance by the flow of clients that we are noticing to those different offerings, and also the kind of feedback we get.

It might be that some clients, or some people who might work with you might say, 'Oh, that's a little bit too much for me', or 'I need to save for that'. That feedback is fine. Your pricing does not have to be affordable right now for everyone. If every single person who could potentially work with you is saying that, well, first of all, there is something maybe to shift within you, but it may also be that the actual pricing is not currently a match for your ideal clients. So sometimes it's us that needs to shift. And sometimes it's the actual external thing. And in this case pricing that might need a tweak.

Ask yourself: Does that pricing feel good? Does it feel aligned?

Ask; Does it feel like it is maybe too little? Am I charging too little? We would have a sense that we are charging too little if we're starting to feel any kind of feelings of resentment, or kind of feeling like, 'Wow, people are just getting so much value. Like, I feel like I'm over-delivering for what it is that people are paying. Like they're just getting such an incredible amount out of this service or offering when they work with me.' And it can also be that we start to get too busy. We've got too many people who want to work with us or our waitlist starts to extend out. So people can't get in to see you for weeks or months at a time. For me, that has historically been the times that I have introduced a price increase.

You don't necessarily have to wait until you're booked out well ahead to do that, but it can be a great time because you've got that clear evidence that the demand is there. And the other thing you might feel is that your pricing is too high. That could happen sometimes if, for example, somebody else has told you, you should charge this amount, your service is worth it and you're undervaluing yourself. It could be a mentor or peers - or something like that. So maybe you in that moment settled on that pricing. You were like 'Yes, you're right.' But then when you go away and you're in your own energy, you actually don't feel so comfortable with that pricing at this particular point in time. Or maybe you just don't know yet how to market and how to connect with clients at this point in time who are willing to pay that amount.

It comes down to the value of the service.

So, let's go into the different aspects we can consider when we are evaluating our pricing and making the decision to increase our pricing or to restructure our pricing. First of all - and it's obvious - it's the value of the service. This connects to the outcomes that your clients can expect; the quality of the work you do with them. And it can also relate to any savings they might make through working with you and using your process. And really having that problem solved. And what that means that they're not having to spend in a different way. So sometimes for those of us who do therapies, results can be achieved for our clients quite quickly.

Of course, you need to be really careful about making any kind of promises in that area. However, if you've had that experience yourself, and I know that I did. After working with different types of therapies... I came across kinesiology and it was able to create so much dramatic change in a short space of time. I really do have that confidence and that knowing within myself that that is very possible and indeed likely for my clients, and that does play a part in my pricing decisions. So the value of your service and what it is that people are really going to get out of that, the problem that you solve and how much that problem is really worth being solved for your client. The second aspect to consider is your own resonance with a specific price.

Is the balance right?

If something feels too high for you, or it feels too low for you, you can do work to balance yourself to it. But until you've done that, it just feels too high. Of course, if you don't have that alignment, that's going to come through in the way you communicate about that. So this is about being really connected to yourself, your own instincts, your own intuition, and really stepping outside of what other people are doing, what it is maybe that mentors have told you, what you see your peers doing, and really getting that clarity within yourself and knowing you might end up charging less than what some of your peers do. And I don't want you to see that as being a negative or you don't value yourself - or something like that.

I've had clients in the past who maybe have said what their peers are charging, whatever it is. It's really quite a high number for a person starting out and they were charging much less, but they were attracting clients. So try not to get caught up in that kind of comparison because it might work for somebody else and that's great. But if something different might work for you, it's also important to consider what your ideal client can and will actually pay. So that becomes clear when you're sharing your service, you're sharing your product or your course, your group program. Are your ideal clients, actually able to afford that price point and are they actually investing in it? So it needs to be something they value enough to pay for.

It needs to feel like really good value for them.

Like it's a really good return on what it is that they're going to get back from it. It might be that one of your price points or some of your price points are a stretch for your ideal client. But the feeling you want to have, and that they want to have, is that if they do make that stretch, it's going to be worth it. And it's worth it for them, a vast majority of your clients, who do make that stretch? So, really think about your ideal client and what is going to be a good fit for them. If you're working with people who are exclusively in the very early stages of business, can you charge a premium price point, or maybe not like you need to think about how much responsibility you want to take on, and pressure that you want to take on.

Fourth aspect, your marketing and communication and their congruence alignment, resonance with your pricing. So, it might be that actually your service genuinely is worth a particular price. When the clients that you work with get really great outcomes that are so worth the money. And yet you haven't yet learned at this point how to communicate that and how to market that to enough people. And so then the price becomes a barrier. The barrier is not the actual value, it's your ability to communicate that value. So sometimes, because of that mismatch, it may take some time and some skill for you to learn how to do that. In some instances you might choose to restructure your pricing so that it actually is more of a match for the marketing and communication skills that you have at this point in time.

There is a strategic element to pricing.

There are going to be a certain number of clients that you want and have the capacity to work with. And sometimes this is going to influence your pricing decisions. So earlier on in my business, I started out charging $80 an hour, then $90, then $100, then $115. I was working with 15 to 20 clients a week. Now, we just mentioned about the marketing and the communication a moment ago... My marketing and communication were really congruent with that. I was able to attract 15-20 clients at those particular price points and had beautiful consistency and that flow. I had the one income stream at that time, and it felt better for me to be maybe undercharge for what it was, the value that my clients were getting. For it to flow and be easy and not stressful to be attracting that number of clients meant that I had very consistent income which was necessary for the responsibilities I had.

I recall speaking to different clients and colleagues at that time who really believed in the value of what it is that they were offering and having a much higher price point. But then I recall some of those clients saying to me 'But Kerry, you've got so many clients, I would love to have that'. In some cases their fees might have been five times my rates. They needed less clients due to a higher price point, but they weren't attracting the number of clients to even get an equivalent kind of income. A lower price point might have been a better match if their goal was to work with a lot more people and have that kind of momentum. 

So, as I say, there is a strategic element there. If you over time are working with far less clients because you've got different demands and commitments, you are working on other things in your business and your one-on-one time, or some other offering you have to deliver that, that can be a time where you might choose to increase the price point. Especially if it's going to be too much demand at a lower price point.

Pricing can become a barrier to entry in a way that may feel necessary.

Of course, people are going to get incredible results and you want to make sure that the value is still there, but having a higher price point in that instance is going to be more of a strategic decision for you as it is likely to reduce demand to match your reduced capacity.

I hope that has given you a lot to think about in terms of your pricing to get really clear on how it is that you're currently feeling about your pricing to consider whether or not you'd like to increase your pricing or perhaps make other changes to your current pricing and perhaps other areas of your business that you might level-up to make your pricing more congruent.

Let's go back through the five areas that I outlined...

Number one, it's about the value of the service that you provide, the outcomes that your clients get, your skills and experience and professionalism. And the way that you deliver any potential savings that your clients might make. If you're able to help them to get to a result quicker than they'd be able to get that result through other methods.

Number two, your resonance with a specific price. So how that price actually feels for you in your own body. We cannot underestimate that. It's important that your pricing feels good for you.

Number three, what your ideal clients can, and will, pay. Are you offering them something that they really understand what it is that they're going to get from working with you and that outcome or that process is really worth it to that individual? So they totally get what they are going to receive, and they want to pay for that.

Number four, your marketing and communications skills and how resonant they are with your current pricing.

Number five is strategy. That's to do with how many clients you actually want or need to work with. Sometimes if you're wanting to work with more clients, if that is a flow that really feels good for you or perhaps in the earlier days of your business, it can be really beneficial just to work with a lot of people, if that helps you to really hone your skills.

Choose a price point that feels comfortable for you.

Sometimes rather than trying to overcome your own barrier to charging more, you're better off just choosing a price point that feels comfortable for you and working with a lot of people. If you've got the capacity and it's not going to burn you out. So that's another consideration, obviously then when you've got less time at a different stage in your business, that can be a time that your pricing might increase. Supply and demand obviously really plays into this. If you have a lot of demand for your services, it's going to be a time where you are going to want to increase your rates.

I think this is a really good discussion to have with a friend. So, if you have a friend who maybe does or doesn't yet listen to the podcast, send them to this episode and then suggest you guys have a chat about it. Really do a bit of a workshop through this together. A bit of a brainstorm if need be. If you do want to get more aligned with your own pricing, I teach you how to do that in my align and attract course, you can find that over at alignandattract.com. Thank you so much for being here today. I hope you loved this episode. If you have, please feel free to do a little review on your podcast app! I can't wait to talk with you next time.