Raise Your Prices AND Get Better Clients- Valutrics

Have you ever noticed there are some businesses that are always “liquidating” or having their final “going out of business” sale? It’s because over the past decade we have become obsessed with getting a good deal, being savvy shoppers, and getting more bang for our buck. This trend has put us in a perpetual cycle of Sale! Sale! Sale! Now, data and buyer trends allows us a great amount of insight into what motivates clients to buy and the amount of value they place on each purchase. In the world of business, being the best deal is not always the winning path. Your client directly relates the amount they pay for your services to the amount of value you can bring to the table.

What Is Your Knowledge and Experience Worth?

When you are talking about creative work, or service based businesses, it can be difficult to accurately price these because you aren’t necessarily offering anything tangible. It’s not an easy answer when someone asks you what your knowledge and experience is worth. But Russ Ruffino, Founder and CEO of Clients On Demand, believes that there is a certain amount of psychology attached to purchasing, and you can use that information to charge what you’re worth.

As Russ so wisely points out, “You don’t have to be on the NYT bestselling list to charge more than you are right now. You just need to prove to your client that you can help them fix their problem.” It’s not about yelling from the rooftops how great you are, it’s always about them, their problem, and whether or not you can help them solve it. Period. When someone can describe your problems better than you can, you automatically assume they also know the answer or solution to that problem, and in turn, we are willing to pay more.

Prices Should Be Consistent With the Outcome

If you position yourself as the authority in your area of business, the outcome you provide should match that, along with your rates. In other words, it’s better to under promise and over deliver rather than the opposite. You have to be able to walk-the-walk and deliver on what you’ve promised so the money doesn’t even matter at the end, because you’ve solved a pain point for your client.

There are 3 things you will see shift once you start charging more for your services:

• Commitment: You will notice that your client is more committed. Because they have put more money in, they are already attaching a higher value to what you can offer, so they are going to make sure they take it seriously.
• Respect: Not only have they attached a higher value to what you can bring to the table, but they have also attached a higher value to you, as an individual, and because of this, they have a tremendous amount of respect for you. In a working relationship, respect goes a long way, and this will only mean better communication, and a stronger connection all the way around.
• Results: Your higher rates will allow you to work with less clients. The clients you are working with will get more of your time, you will have less distraction so you will be able to focus more, and because of that, you will be able to deliver more. Your results will improve for each client based on this model.

We can all take a lesson from marketing consultant, Ian Wynne of Chasing Limitless, as well. Ian raised his rates for his marketing/branding services recently because he noticed that his outcomes were great but the rates were not expressing that value. He realized, “The more money you charge, the greater value people perceive. When you increase the value you perceive in yourself, then you can do more.” The result of his price increase has been that he has had more people interested in his services and has increased the overall sales volume of his business too.

Just as Ian learned, and as Russ has pointed out, adopting a premium price model will set you apart from the rest, by allowing you to commit, over-deliver, and charge your worth.