5 Pitfalls When Raising Your Fees To Premium

Raising your fees is one of the best ways to grow fast.

But…

One of the first things that come to mind for a lot of independent service professionals, consultants, coaches and trainers is…

“What if I mess up and my clients leave?”

So…

Let’s look at a couple of things to avoid when raising your fees.

PITFALL # 1 – Existing Clients

Don’t start by raising your fees to your existing clients. (I’ll show you exactly where to start, don’t worry).

PITFALL # 2 – You’re Too Expensive

Don’t make it about time for money. (This means not charging per hour or session because it’s difficult for people to see the value of a unit of time).

As soon as you make it about time, you invite people to compare what they earn per hour. You’re hiding the real value you bring to the table.

This is my definition of adding value so we’re crystal clear. It means to take people closer to the outcome they desire.

Let me give you a real example of my first foreign language, translation and communication business. One part of that business was foreign language training. So let’s say that an executive wanted to learn Spanish. I started charging monthly for training sessions. (And there was a point that no matter how happy they were with the sessions I could not go on raising my fees).

I shifted to the value model I’m talking about and one of my offerings was Spanish Travel Ready For Busy Executives. I started to charge much more for helping them achieve that outcome.

So I went from charging for foreign language classes to a program that, in this particular example, allowed my students to be able to enjoy a business trip in a Spanish-speaking country.

Another example. A client of mine was trying to raise her fees for Sports Psychology sessions. She was already perceived as “too expensive”.

The solution? 

We created a program to help tennis players confidently win more by overcoming the most challenging moments during a match. 

So now her clients were working towards the outcome they wanted (to win more) instead of paying per session.

PITFALL # 3 – Offering Too Much

One of our first impulses is to try to include a lot to “justify” the fees.

The problem is that potential clients feel there are elements of your offer that they don’t need (so they feel they’re wasting their money paying for things they don’t need).

PITFALL # 4 – The Communication Pitfall

Don’t focus your communication on processes or formats. Communicate value.

It’s not enough to have something valuable to offer, you need to communicate it so that potential clients see it.

The fastest shift you can make today is to concentrate your communication on what’s valuable to your ideal client instead of distracting them with the process involved or the format you chose for delivery.

PITFALL # 5 – Making Excuses For Speed

Don’t dismiss the power of speed, highlight it.

If you’re able to take your clients to the outcomes they desire faster, that’s a great way of adding value. (And it’s a good idea to emphasize it).

Example: An NLP Master Practitioner has the ability to help people stop emotional eating fast so that they can lose weight. Concentrating on the result of eliminating emotional eating to lose weight, she can include how fast it can happen as added value to her offer. (Nobody wants to be stuck with something longer than necessary, right?).

Till next time remember…
Your awesomeness is portable. You can take it with you everywhere (including raising your fees).

With love,
Ana