In today’s episode, I’m going to walk you through the steps to increasing your prices.
If you sell services in your business (such as coaching, mentoring, one-to-one healing sessions, etc.) you’re going to find this one particularly helpful.
Let’s dive on in!
You might think that increasing your prices is exactly the wrong strategy for you right now… instead, you are out there trying to find ways to be more affordable and create more accessibility for people in your business.
But in most cases, the best thing that allows you to reach more and more people is to have more and more income in your business.
Increasing your prices is a really sexy way to achieve long-term income growth, AND bring in a good short-term cash injection.
I’m a big fan of incrementally increasing your price as a marketing strategy to:
- Get people off the fence if they’re fence-sitting about working with you
- Create capacity for you in your business so you’ve got more time to develop leveraged or passive income products
- Lift your game and lift the game of your clients when you’re coming along to sessions
These are my easy-to-follow steps for increasing your prices.
I’m going to start off by really getting clear on WHY to increase your prices…
I know that there are a lot of mentors and coaches out there who will tell you to increase your prices as part of their marketing strategy.
You may have had an experience on a sales call with someone where you want to join a program/mastermind or work one-on-one with something, and they know NOTHING about your service, NOTHING about your business, and NOTHING about your audience, yet they tell you that you need to at least double what you’re charging for your VIP package because you’re under-charging.
But they know nothing about you! They know nothing about your audience, and they know nothing about your business.
That’s a marketing strategy.
They’re trying to increase the perceived value of you paying them by making it seem like it’s a nothing thing for you to double your prices.
If you double your prices and get two clients, then that more than pays for working with them.
Now that you’ve heard me explain that as a marketing strategy, you might be able to see the matrix a little more when it’s used on you.
I actually don’t recommend big price increases like that for most businesses.
The reason being is that I see a lot of people get caught up in that belief that they want to be a premium in the market so therefore they need to increase their prices and offer a luxury VIP package only… so they go from charging $40 an hour to charging $200 an hour (if you work out an hourly rate from their package price).
These are the two instances that I see when someone does this:
Situation number one: They put that huge price increase in place, they don’t take their audience with them, and they don’t prepare themselves from a mindset perspective.
They don’t actually believe in the value proposition of their work at this new rate. Therefore they make zero sales.
They end up in deep regret that they put their prices up so far because now they’ve gone from one or two clients a month at a lower price, to increasing their prices so far that they now have no clients coming in.
They would have been better off staying where they were.
That’s definitely situation number one, and I see that happen a lot for people when they increase their prices.
Situation number two: Someone increases their prices significantly from $1,000 to $5,000 for their biggest package, they make one sale, they go and celebrate and feel like they’ve totally made it… and then they don’t make another sale.
They’re rocking in the corner full of regret feeling like they can’t decrease their prices because that would be disrespectful to the one client that paid them the full amount.
I think the second situation is the hardest one to overcome.
We definitely CAN overcome it, but I’ve seen so many people get caught in that situation.
Rather than doing this big, throw-everything-out price increase strategy, I love an incremental price increase strategy.
It means YOU get to energetically adjust as you go. It’s still a stretch, but it’s not a terror zone stretch.
It also means you can bring your audience with you.
That’s something that is underestimated by a lot of coaches and mentors out there.
You have spent a long time in your business growing your audience to its current size. If you go too big too soon with your price increase, you end up burning your entire audience.
It’s just too much of a leap for them to make.
You recruited them when you were an energetic match in the early stages… you want to move to a new energetic match.
It’s possible to bring your audience with you. But if you go too far too soon, you won’t be able to bring them with you.
You’re basically starting from scratch in terms of audience building. That can be the reason why so many people end up making far fewer sales or not enough sales to sustain it, and I wouldn’t want you to go there.
That’s why I love these steps to incrementally increasing your prices consistently.
You don’t have to only increase your prices by 10% per year… you can increase your prices by 25% per quarter.
I recommend reviewing your prices every 10 clients, and every 3 months.
For every 10 clients you bring in, AND every 3 months, review your prices and decide whether it’s time to increase them.
(I’ve made a little slide HERE on the key reasons to increase your prices for any visual learners that want to watch on video.)
These are the reasons why you should increase your prices:
Reason 1: It increases your income
When done well, you can increase your income not just in the long term, but also in the short term.
When I walk you through the steps to increasing your prices, I’m going to show you how to use your upcoming price increase as a way to get a bunch of people off the fence and create that short-term income growth.
Increasing your prices can increase your income in the short term, as well as in the long term.
Reason 2: Your service/product is presented as a premium in the market
There are times in our lives when we don’t want to buy the cheapest option.
That’s particularly true of services.
Whilst we may love finding ourselves a little bargain here and there, we also can associate the lower end of the market with an inferior delivery of service.
I am someone who walks straight past the $19.95 haircut.
There might be one or two of those $19.95 haircuts that are actually amazing and they do an amazing job. But that price point tells me that I’m probably not going to have the experience that I want.
It’s definitely a higher risk that I’m going to get a dodgy haircut.
It’s the same with online services.
If you’re going to go to a massage therapist for a back injury, are you going to be more excited by the $40 massage therapist who gets you in and out real quick because they’ve got to have lots of turnover? Or are you going to trust your back to someone who charges a premium?
There are definitely certain things that I’d rather invest in a premium. For example:
- Health and well-being
- My business
- The support that I get behind the scenes in my business
- People-building technology
- Websites
- Money stuff
I am looking for a premium in the market.
Increasing your prices moves you towards being a premium in the market, and can create a lot more trust and a better perception of what people are going to get from you.
Reason 3: Capacity
This is particularly important if you are looking to move into a leveraged model in your business.
If you are selling one-to-one services and you’d like to start creating and launching a group program/course/membership, the number one thing we need to develop and build into your business model is capacity.
Increasing your prices means you can have the same or more income while working with fewer one-to-one clients. You’re creating capacity in your business so you can be focused on creating that leveraged or passive income product.
Increasing your prices allows you to create that space.
You’ll have a natural drop off of clients, you will attract new clients at these higher prices, you need less of them in order to be achieving the same or better income result, and therefore you’re creating that capacity.
In order for it to create capacity, the price increase needs to be chunky enough that it is actually increasing your income with fewer clients.
If you’re currently working with 20 clients at $100 each (that’s $2,000 total), and then you increase your price to $110 but you half your client load, then it’s not necessarily achieving that capacity. It’s not enough of an increase.
We do need that increase to be chunky enough that a drop-off in clients won’t create a dip in your income.
Reason 4: You and your clients bring your A-game to those sessions
I definitely saw that for myself when I went from charging $97 a session, to $200 a session, to $500 a session, and so on.
I don’t often sell single sessions – it’s mostly a package – but it’s all calculated off a base hourly rate… and I noticed that when I got to the higher base hourly rate, I was bringing my A-game to those sessions and I also found my clients were as well.
When people were working with me in a package, and it worked out to be under $100 a session, more than 50% of my clients would turn up to sessions without doing all of their homework.
But nowadays at a $2,495 base hourly rate for my sessions, people definitely bring more of their A-game.
If they haven’t done their homework, they get in touch with me and ask to reschedule their session so that they have more time to finish their homework.
We are far more likely to be bringing our A-game to those sessions.
For me, there’s an energetic difference in what I’m showing up and doing with my clients as well.
I have far fewer VIP clients these days. They are paying far more to work with me, and I have more capacity to do the extra things that are going to help get them more results.
VIP clients will often have me sharing their services on my social media. I will be more likely to refer clients through to them, and I can actively go out and find joint venture/partnership opportunities for them.
I’m thinking about them outside of our session because there are far fewer of them, and I can bring more value to the table.
I also find ways to create speaking opportunities for my VIP clients.
When I run summits, or if I’m doing a Heart-Centered Business Conference virtual edition, my VIP clients are the first port of call for finding speakers if I think it’s a match for my audience.
I’m able to bring far more value to the table because I’m charging a far more premium price.
I also find that the more that I’ve increased my prices, the more I have available for me to invest in finding and learning new strategies that I can share with my clients.
The increased income that I’ve had from following these steps to increasing my prices means that I’m able to reinvest time and money in learning new skills, new strategies, new platforms, and new ways of growing my audience and conversion rates.
All that gets passed on to my VIP and group coaching clients.
It’s such a big return for that price increase.
It’s really good for me and it’s really good for my clients because I’ve done it incrementally, and I’ve been able to move my audience with me.
I have clients now who pay $2,495 a session every quarter to go over their quarterly planning, their business strategy, their launch mapping, and their launch planning. Some of them are the same clients who first started to work with me when I was charging $500 a session. But because their business has grown as my prices and business have grown, we’ve grown together and they don’t even blink an eye at paying that and investing in that to work with me.
Their business has grown as a result of working with me and they are increasing their prices to come on that journey with me.
Our businesses are improving, growing, and developing through that same process together.
We’ve traveled on that journey together.
That is so powerful and exciting for me to see.
Now that we’ve decided that increasing your prices is a good idea and there are a LOT of benefits… how do we actually do it?
Here are my four steps to increasing your prices:
Step 1: Plan
Get really clear on your price increase plan. Don’t just do it and not have a clear plan and strategy for it.
I think you’re leaving a lot of money on the table and aren’t necessarily getting that short-term and long-term income benefit if you don’t have a solid plan for this.
Your plan needs to include:
- Your current price
- What the price is going to be
- When you’re going to do that price increase
I generally recommend between a 10% and 25% price increase.
10% is the minimum, but I recommend trying to stretch as much as possible to a 25% price increase – especially for VIP one-to-one services.
If your current base hourly rate is calculated at around the $100 mark, then $125+ is where we would want to get to.
Have a think about: What is your current base hourly rate that your packages are calculated on? And can you increase that by at least 25%?
Let’s nudge it up to that 25%.
If that creates lots of wobbles for you, and it feels like far too much of a stretch for you, then you can come back to something that feels a little bit more comfortable.
But as I said, at least a 10% increase. My desire would be to push towards that more 25% mark, especially if you’re under $500/hour a session.
If you’re under $500 an hour in your session, then you can push by 25% each time.
Remember: I’m getting you to review this every quarter AND every 10 clients.
It’s consistent that that price is going to increase.
Get a plan around what the new price point is going to be, and then be clear on your deadline.
I recommend giving at least two weeks’ notice to your audience that you’re going to be increasing your prices.
I would even recommend going a little longer.
A month’s notice gives you time to adjust, share the price in advance, and tell as many people as possible,
It also gives your audience time to jump in and grab their package or pre-purchase their sessions well before that price increase happens.
In your plan, you also want to be clear on what the plan is for existing clients versus new clients coming in.
Whenever I increased my prices for my VIP one-to-one services, for existing clients who wanted to renew, I would have an extended window for them, or they’d have an opportunity to jump in at a slightly lower price.
I could give that offer on a one-to-one basis.
There were clients who had been renewing with me every three months for two years, so their price increase might not be as much as the general public price increase.
It’s totally up to you whether you want to look after existing clients, or whether you want to have the same blanket price for everyone.
Usually, when I’m working with my VIP clients or clients inside my group programs, we will have a conversation about what feels like it’s the right fit for them for particular clients, and we come up with a plan for existing clients and a plan for their new clients coming in.
One of the things that we do in the second of my steps to increasing your prices (which is communicate) is we communicate to existing and renewing clients FIRST and let them know that they’ll see us on social media saying the new price is $2,000, but for them as a renewing client, it will only be $1,800.
It makes them feel really special, as well as communicating with your hottest audience first and warning them that they’re going to see news about this out there on the internet, but they’ve got a special deal just for them.
There are some really cool things that you can do for your existing clients in the way that you communicate.
The first of my steps to increasing your prices is to get really clear on your plan.
What is the price increase, and the different prices for different people? Or is everyone the same?
And when is that deadline going to be for people to jump in and commit before the price increase happens?
Step 2: Communicate
This is where I see a lot of people let themselves down with a price increase – mostly because they don’t support their mindset.
They’re feeling wobbly about the new prices, so they whisper about their new prices, they tell people here and there, they don’t really do a thorough job of communicating that price increase, then the deadline comes, they’re questioning whether they should do it, and then they start offering discounts and it just gets really messy.
I want you to have a thorough communication plan and really nail telling all of your different audiences about that price increase.
Remember that you want to talk to:
- Your mailing list
- People on your social channels
- Warm leads that you’ve had sales conversations with in the last six months
- Existing clients
Every single one of those warm leads should receive a personalised email/message to let them know about your price increase. You want to send them a message like: “Hey, we talked about working together a few months ago, and I know that it wasn’t the right time for you then. I just wanted to let you know that my prices are increasing in four weeks’ time. If now is the time for us to work together then make sure to join before this date, and you’ll get it at the current pricing.”
It’s a really good way to get old leads re-warmed up and convert some of them into paying clients.
You also need to get in touch with your existing clients.
If you’ve got clients due to renew soon, you’re doing them a service by letting them know that the price increase is coming, and providing them the opportunity to prepare for and pay before the price increase.
You’re going to bring in that short-term cash injection as well.
Something I love to do for a price increase is run a webinar.
Hosting a webinar – steps to increasing prices for scaling and growth
Consider hosting a webinar that brings a bunch of your hottest leads in and lets them know about your paid service and the deadline for the price increase coming soon.
I love running a webinar right before a price increase because it’s going to get those last conversions happening before the price increase happens as well.
If you are worried that in doing all of this, you’re going to bring in far too many clients and you won’t have capacity for them, then have your price increase deadline include a number.
‘The price increase is happening on the 30th of next month. There are only eight spaces available at this price. If I sell the eight spaces before the 30th, then I’ll be taking people on a waitlist, but there’ll be no further spaces available at the current price.’
You can put a time limit as well as a number limit on it.
Think about how much that might incentivise people who are on the fence to jump in and work with you.
By now, if you’re looking through these steps to increasing your prices, you can see how this would be a really big momentum shift in your business, to make the decision to increase your prices and go on a mission to let people know far and wide that that price increase is happening.
All of a sudden, you’re not only snowballing your income and creating that income growth, but you’re also snowballing your reach, your list growth, and the hot leads that you’re generating in your business.
This is a really great business growth strategy.
Step 3: Mindset
Make sure you have that mindset support.
When most people embark upon a price increase strategy, they are let down by their mindset wobbles.
They start to:
- Second guess whether it’s worth it
- Connect the price of their product or service with their value as a person (that’s not a thing)
- Get wobbly about being affordable
- Think they need to pivot and change their pricing and messaging because ONE person said they couldn’t afford to work with them
A lot of mindset stuff can come up when you’re going through these steps to increasing your prices.
You’re going to have increased visibility when you go through that communication strategy. You may hit some upper limits about what you believe you’re able to charge or what you’re allowed to bring into your business.
Make sure you’ve got that appropriate mindset support.
Pay attention to your mindset around this. You’ve probably heard me say this hundreds of times, but just know that there’s a mindset solution and a strategy solution for every challenge that comes up.
If you’re getting wobbly around affordability, then the mindset solution is to really focus on the mindset around being able to grow your capacity.
There’s some mindset stuff around worthiness and allowing it to be easy. You might even have some impostor syndrome that comes up.
There’s lots of mindset stuff that you can work on there…
But there’s also a strategy in it.
If people can’t afford your paid service, then be a prolific freebie creator.
That’s one of the things that I do. I have my 30-Day Business Blast which is usually available for under AUD $20.
If people can’t afford to work with me as a VIP or in my high-touch group programs, I’ve got an alternative for them.
I also have a bunch of free stuff.
I am prolific at creating the Heart-Centred Business Podcast. People can come and get started, and get this advice and strategies and really practical support in my free podcasts.
If someone says to me that they want to work with me but they can’t afford it yet, I can direct them to the 30-Day Business Blast or to a couple of podcast episodes that will move them forward and give them the information that they need.
It will help them get to the space where they do feel like they’re ready to invest.
As I said, if the mindset stuff comes up, there are definitely some mindset solutions, but there are also strategy solutions.
That’s the third of my steps to increasing your prices – make sure you have that mindset support!
Step 4: Follow through
This is where people can let themselves down.
They are actively communicating their price increase, they have people reach out, they have people that are interested, and they have people that they have sales conversations with… and then they don’t follow up with them.
They don’t send the invoice or they send the invoice and they don’t follow up on the invoice…
Or they don’t follow through on the price increase at all.
They said they were going to increase their prices on the 30th of the next month, and then when it comes to the 30th, they didn’t necessarily get as many clients through as they thought they would, or they get a bit wobbly about increasing their prices. They say that they have new prices, but anytime they talk to someone, they discount the price.
The fastest way to erode trust in your audience is to not follow through.
What does it say to your audience if you tell them the price increase is coming, and then you fault on the price increase?
You say that the price is going up, but you never actually put it up. You say that you’re going to be increasing, but then you just keep offering discounts.
This means the next time the price increase comes, people might be a little less excited or a little less motivated, because they know that you’ll just discount it later.
Are you training your audience that the price is the price? Or are you training your audience that the price is always going to be discounted somewhere somehow?
Think about how you can be really solid in that price increase and follow through on that price increase.
Follow up with the people you need to follow up with, and follow through and stick to your guns around that price increase.
You are worthy of increasing your prices.
Your services deserve to be priced at a premium in the market.
By using these four steps to increasing your prices, you’re taking your audience with you, you’re not leaving them behind, and you’re setting yourself up for success because you’re getting there incrementally, but you’re doing it consistently.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this four-step process!
The four steps to increasing your prices are:
If you’ve got any questions about these steps to increasing your prices, make sure that you come over and slide into my direct messages on Instagram or on Facebook, because I love having conversations about price increases.
If you are looking for some more support – particularly with the mindset and strategy piece of increasing your prices – then the 30-Day Business Blast is normally available for under $20.
The 30-Day Business Blast is a self-study program with a Facebook community so that you’ve got a space to ask me questions.
It’s a beautiful opportunity for you to go through that process of bringing in an increase in your income – a short-term injection of income whilst looking after long-term sustainability.
It’s a program that you follow over a 30-day period of time on Udemy, so you’ve got lifetime access and can redo the program over and over again without having to buy it again.
Check out the 30-Day Business Blast here: CLICK ME
Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of the Heart-Centered Business Podcast.
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
