I was at a networking meeting recently and the conversation starter question was “What sets you apart from your competitors” When it was my turn to speak I said “My prices. I’m really fucking expensive”. Nobody in that room was particularly surprised because apparently I’m known for being expensive. 5 years ago that would have upset me. My imposter syndrome would have got the big shame stick out and started clubbing me while at the same time asking “Just. Who. Do. you. Think. You. Are. Young. Lady?” Other mind monkeys would have whispered “No-one is going to pay that” “People won’t like you for that” “You’re a greedy bum” and “It’ll be really hard to get work”
I have come up against judgement of my prices. I’ve had one person tell me that what I was offering sounded exactly like what they needed and then when I told them the price, they abruptly ended the zoom call. I’ve had people tell me that I’m “way, way above” what they had budgeted. Someone even told me once that I needed to be more “realistic” about my prices. But here’s why I’m happy to be reassuringly expensive;
- I’ve never been disrespected by someone who had paid me a lot of money. I’ve never been mistreated or disrespected by someone who was investing a large amount of money with me. It has always been the people who paid the least who expected the most and were the unreasonable or demanding. My prices are now a barrier to entry to those people. People who have invested large amounts of money in my services respect my time and their own. They aren’t shopping around for second opinions or second guessing my advice. They show up and listen and most importantly they trust me.
- Value starts with me. Imagine rocking up to a restaurant where the head Chef thought their own food was shit. Because they had no faith in their work they didn’t invest in the best or freshest produce. They didn’t take care to prepare the food so that it retained its taste. They wouldn’t present it in a way that made it look appetising or appealing. If the Chef thought their own food was shit, it wouldn’t give you much confidence to eat it. I invest in my own knowledge and skills. I spend a lot of money every year making sure that I’m giving the best information and advice to my clients. I’m proud of my work. If I don’t value my own time, skills and resources I can’t reasonably expect anybody else to.
- It’s easier for me to find my people. I’m not looking to work with people who don’t want to part with their cash. I don’t have to waste time persuading people that they need my services. I’m not looking for people who are searching for “reasonably priced” services. I’m looking for people who are ready to take action to solve their problems. They already know they have a problem, they already know they want a solution and my marketing is a lot easier because my prices are a qualifier.
- I attract people who are committed to taking action. Two years ago I paid £30 for an online course and I’ve still not even opened the welcome email. I recently invested £6k in a business course and you can bet your arse that I’m on 99% of those weekly calls and I’m doing every workbook. Prices are a way of motivating people to take action. People who don’t, don’t get the results. People who do the work, get results and then those people are more likely to rave about you and do a lot of your marketing for you.
There’s no moral judgement for me around pricing. I don’t think that a client who pays more is a better person or that someone who can’t afford to pay for a service is a worse person. And I’m also not naive enough to think that expensive guarantees quality. I’ve personally been in a position where I really valued someone and I knew how much I could learn from them but I just couldn’t afford to work with them. But what I didn’t do was make that mean something it didn’t. It didn’t mean I wasn’t good enough to work with them and it didn’t mean that they were “too expensive”. I’ve also worked with people for free. A few years ago I sold 5 coaching spaces and awarded one space to someone I knew would appreciate it but couldn’t afford it. Having full fee paying clients allows me that flexibility.
On a personal note, something I did when I started out in business and something I know a lot of freelancers and consultants do now is charge for time. And in the writing of this article I’ve asked myself what value I attach to time. Recently I increased the price of my power hour from £99 to £275. It took me a long time to do it because I had all sorts of feelings around not being good enough and who was I to ask for that much money for 60 minutes. And it made me think about how we attach value to time. I lost someone a few years ago and I asked myself, how much would I pay to spend another hour with her. You aren’t paying for someone’s time. You’re not paying for the minutes. People aren’t paying you for the minutes. It’s what you do WITH the time. The value of something goes deeper and wider than that. Someone much cleverer than me said recently “Stop treating time like it’s unlimited and money like it’s scarce. It’s the other way around”
So if your time is limited – what work is really important to you? Who are the people that are important to you that you want to spend your precious time with. And if your time is limited and precious, charge accordingly – because time is the one thing you can’t and won’t get back.
I’m Clair Stevenson and I teach people how to write better content and copy. If you own your own business or you are responsible for writing the content in your organisation and you feel you could do with some support, email me at clair@upwriteonline.co.uk and let’s have a chat.