Here is Why You Shouldn’t Be Afraid of Raising Your Prices
Let me tell you something you already know:
When you are working as a consultant or freelancer, your product is:
- Your expertise
- Your time
The better you become at what you do, the better the results you can get for your clients.
And, the better the results, the more you can (hypothetically) charge for your services.
Why is it though that so many agency owners, consultants, or freelancers struggle to charge more for their services?
Is there something wrong about their clients, or maybe about the market and the services they provide?
Let’s Take It From the Beginning
When I first got into marketing, I used to take jobs even for $3 per hour.
Why was I doing that?
- I wanted to learn
- I really needed that money
As I was moving forward, I realized that this model couldn’t work in the long-term.
Clients that paid that kind of money were (usually) clients that wanted more and more work for free.
But, free work is bad work.
Why?
Because people do not value what they don’t pay for.
This is why — most of the times — when you give advice for free people don’t take your advice.
You do the best you can to help them, but in the end, they are not going to use it.
In order for your work to be appreciated, it has to be paid.
You will notice that when you start charging more for your consultation, people will start paying attention.
You value your time, and you show prospects and clients that you value their time, too.
This way, you have a good business relationship that is based on mutual respect for the other person’s time and overall working process.
This realization made me raise my price. And, made me raise my price again, and again, and again.
Something that seemed really scary at the time was one of the best decisions I ever got.
How did it help me move forward? Let’s see…
3 Things that Happen When You Raise Your Prices
Throughout this process of trial and error, I realized that three things happen when you raise your prices:
1) Your clients expect less work
I had this discussion many times with many of my friends and partners, and (ironically) we all came to the same conclusion:
When you raise your prices, your clients expect less work from you.
This is happening because raising your prices is a great way to qualify your prospects.
Clients who are willing to invest more in your services are more likely clients who appreciate good work, and who don’t ask for free work.
I’ve seen this happening time and time again; the more clients pay, the less the work they expect from you.
Just to be clear: I am NOT saying that raising your prices overnight will get a dozen of dream clients at your door. It is going to help, though, especially if you improve your skills and get better results for your clients.
2) Perceived value is higher
When you charge more for your prices, your perceived value is higher.
You should know that most clients expect to pay a certain amount of money — per hour or per project — to hire talent.
This means that if the client knows that a trustworthy analytics consultant is charging somewhere between $125 and $180 per hour for her services, they are not going to trust someone who is charging something around $25 per hour.
Note: This is just an example. The prices of an analytics consultant may vary depending on the country, the currency, and the complexity of the project.
Why?
Because the perceived value is low.
I’ve noticed many times that the more the client pays, the higher the perceived value of your product (time and expertise) is.
3) You land better clients
When you charge more, you start getting better clients. Period.
You don’t want to play the price game.
Clients who are interested in price and price alone are usually clients you want to avoid.
Some of the best clients I had (and still have) over the years are the ones who never asked for a lower price.
The price is one of the most underrated factors when it comes to the qualification of a prospective client.
However, the more you charge, the better clients you will get.
The best part?
That these clients are most of the times not interested only in getting results.
They put trust in you, and they are interested in building a long-term relationship with you.
Now Over to You
Raising your prices won’t (and shouldn’t) happen overnight.
Also, you don’t need to be overly obsessed with it.
Raising your prices is something that takes time and needs to be communicated in a human-first way.
As I explained, I believe that raising your prices is a way to:
- Do less — and more meaningful — work
- Increase your perceived value
- Get better clients
Now I’d like to hear from you.
How often do you raise your prices and what are the obstacles you come across when you want to raise your prices?
Let me know by leaving a comment below!
