I received a question posted in the Women Taking the Leap Facebook group about how to sell your services effectively, set prices for your services, and really believe in your prices.

This topic about how to sell your services effectively is going to be a two-part series because it comes down to two things in the beginning:

Believing in your prices
Your sales conversation

In this post, I want to focus on pricing, money mindset, and believing in yourself.

When you're offering a service, it feels all about you, and it makes us all so nervous to talk about what we are worth and what we think somebody else should pay us.

I'll give you some mindset shifts and tactics that will hopefully take you all the way home!

My backstory . . .

I used to feel seriously handicapped by this.

I grew up in a military community, and there’s a really strong value system there about altruism, selfless service, and not doing it for the money. My dad was a pilot, and there were so many people that would get out of the military and fly for commercial airlines where, obviously, they'd make a lot more money with a lot less risk and hardship.

At the time that seemed, “So, so terrible! How could they do that? How could they chase the money rather than doing the good and honorable thing?”

I grew up with ideas in my head that charging money or even being interested in money was bad.

When I started taking business courses, I quickly gobbled up some sales courses because I thought, “How in the world am I ever going to do this?”

(Now, let me know if you are like me and you’ve wished you could skip straight ahead to creating and selling courses. It's like, “Please can I just sell courses where I have a landing page and it's all anonymous and I don't actually have to talk to people?!”

But, I gotta tell you…it is SO great working with clients one-to-one. You get such motivation and immediate feedback from people when you can be really invested and partner with them. You actually SEE those results and hear them thank you for those results. It’s a totally different kind of gratification than when you're selling an information product.)

Long story short, I’ve come to a better place now.

Now when I get on a sales-type conversation, it's nothing! I don't wake up that morning going, “Oh my God! I have a sales conversation.” Because, to me, it's market research. It's a way for me to tap into my market and get to know people. I don't have those jitters the way that I used to.

Okay, time to dive into two things - believing in your initial pricing and raising your prices later.

Believing in Your Initial Pricing

When setting your initial price, you want to think about two things:

The lifetime value for your client
Your specific value as a service provider

LIFETIME VALUE FOR YOUR CLIENT

Your service can affect your client’s whole life!

The value for the client may not be just the result they get from you over the next month, or three months, that you’re working together. It can continue contributing to their well-being for LIFE.

What happens for them? Do they feel more self-assured? Do they leave their job and have less stress? Do they feel the confidence, ease, and peace of mind? What is it really that is going to continue to grow for them over time?

I've had clients say to me, “Well Jenna, it's fine if you're selling a business service. But, what about me? I wouldn't know how to quantify that lifetime value. Would my clients even think about that?”

But here's an example for you. People will pay premium bucks for a good mattress. Is that $3,000 mattress really any better than the $500 or $750 mattress? I don't know. But maybe it is. And maybe it's giving them that better night’s sleep for the next 10 years (or maybe even 20 years if you’re going to throw that mattress into a guest room or something)!

People will pay more money for things that they perceive will improve their daily life over time.

That's something that's really worth thinking about - and later, talking about with prospective clients - in terms of pricing your services.

YOUR VALUE AS A SERVICE PROVIDER

There is a lot of value in being a beginner.

People completely undersell themselves when they’re starting out! Think about the extra time you will be able to spend with your clients precisely because you don't have that many clients. Think about the investment you will put into them because you want those results almost even more badly than they do! Those great testimonials are going to mean EVERYTHING to you!All of that is really valuable . . .

Here's an example. Say you wanted to learn to shoot some hoops. Would you run off to Michael Jordan and ask him to be your coach? Probably not. Right?

One, you'd be so intimidated you’d be shaky and probably wouldn't even make the goal anyway. Two, he'd probably charge you a gazillion dollars. Three, he's so far ahead! He’d probably be like, “Girl, I don't know how to teach you how to shoot a hoop. It's all muscle memory for me at this point. I put in my ten thousand hours. I can't even tell you what it was like to start out.”

Chances are instead of going to Michael Jordan, you’d go to someone like your nephew or a coach at a local gym. That coach would be closer to your beginner status and able to remember the steps they had to go through when they were at your starting point. And, you really don't care about the fact that they're not of Michael Jordan!

( Meanwhile they may be suffering from imposter syndrome thinking, “Oh my God! I'm not Michael Jordan. How could I ever even take money for teaching this person how to play basketball?” But you know what you're thinking? “Well you're many steps ahead of me, so teach me what you know, and I’ll be better than I am now. That's the result I want.”)

The same thing goes when you’re starting out with done-for-you services, like designing websites. You’ll probably allow more revisions than somebody with a more robust client load would be able to offer.

And when you think about the long-term value to their lifestyle, what if they're converting even one extra client? One extra client a month. That's money! What is that worth?

Also, what about the fact that whenever they go to a business conference, or they're out with friends, they're meeting people that may ask about their work? They can say, 'Check out my site!' and feel really good about it. That means something; that's worth something.

Raising Your Prices for New Clients

It's okay to start out low when you're setting your pricing.

I know there's a lot of hype out there about how you need to set this premium pricing and you need to position yourself strategically in the market. But my thought on that is, if you start out that high then you may not actually sell what you're trying to sell. (Chances are it’s because they're picking up on your doubt.)

And then you think, ‘They're not buying it so maybe I'm not worth that pricing.’

It becomes this circle, this self-fulfilling prophecy, and you just don't want to go there.

Start with pricing that feels reasonable for you to sell, and then you can discipline yourself later to raise your prices.

So now let's talk raising your prices!

1) Baby steps!

First thing I recommend is to start with baby steps. Raise your prices like $500 at a time. In your mind, you'll be able to say, “Okay, $1,500 and $2,000… That's not really that different!”

2) Practice in front of a mirror

Practice it over and over so that it comes out naturally.

3) Get ready

Change all your payment links. Make it real, where you're not going back.

4) Do the mindset work

This is SO important! Work through those stories!

Why have you really been holding back from charging higher prices? What does money mean to you? What has money meant to your family? What stories have you picked up from the past? What are you ready to change, and why?

Really get yourself primed for having a conversation where you can sit down, and if you're on Zoom, look somebody straight in the eye and tell them what your prices are. You won’t have to babble nervously after you give your prices. You can just state your prices, close your mouth, and wait for them to process and come back with an answer.

Here's something people have asked me over the years, “Why did I lose my first client when I raised my prices?” This is usually because you don't quite believe in it yet. That doubt is getting transmitted to your customer on the other end of the phone or video call.

That’s why they may say, “no.” But that's okay! You are moving forward so you just gotta persevere. Persevere with that next person. Don’t rush back and lower your prices. Wait until it becomes more comfortable, more natural for you, and it will happen.

Raising Your Prices for Current Clients

As for raising prices for your current clients, it’s a completely personal thing.

I choose to let them know as far in advance as possible. If somebody is, for example, on their first contract with me, I like to allow them to maintain the same price if they want to continue for the next month or maybe for the next three-month contract. I really believe when someone invests with you in the beginning and they make that leap, they're projecting that amount over time. I want to give them time to settle in to the benefits they're getting.

When the time comes to raise your prices, here's what I suggest.

Go back through your notes and make a list of all their wins, all the benefits that you've helped them achieve. Then, let them know in a call that you're going to review everything with them.

That's really powerful. We as humans tend to be so negative and always think about what we're NOT doing rather than what we ARE doing and what we have accomplished or learned.

So it's very helpful, especially if you're in coaching but also if you are a service provider, when you can come back with analytics and statistics to let them soak in all their wins and the results they've accomplished (that also will help you with a testimonial!).

Get that fresh in their mind and then you’ll be able to say, “I'm so happy you’ve achieved these great results. You've really done the work and it’s paid off! I'm so excited to think about what would happen in the next three months, if we continue working together.” Just like that, right? No shame in your game. It's just an offer!

Unfortunately not everybody is going to say, “yes,” and that's one of the big fears you need to release when you're having conversations and believing in your prices. At some point it's a numbers game. Some people are going to say “yes!” Some people are going to say, “no.” If it’s a “no,” ‘meh,' right? That's what it all comes down to. It's a big, old meh.

You just need to know that you're moving forward, and you have value. Over time you are getting greater and greater wins for your clients and becoming more and more self-assured.

But you’ve got to be bad before you can be good and good before you can be great.

Here’s to setting, and raising, your prices like the confident boss you are,

Jenna

P.S. If you’d like my support in helping you and your business grow so much more quickly and easily than if you were to do it on your own, go ahead and schedule a FREE call with me. Together we’ll map out a personalized roadmap that will help you build the right business for YOU.