Early in my consulting career, I noticed I worked very hard every day but did not make as much money as I wanted to. Not a great place to be on any level – especially as a single Dad raising children!
So I took a day away from the business to think about this problem. One of the questions I challenged myself to answer was,
“Would I do this work even if no one paid me? If I won the lottery would I keep doing this?”
After some self-reflection, I decided that I would, but I would make some changes to how things ran.
If no one paid me I’d only want to work for the clients who had really big problems, challenges they couldn’t overcome without my help. Plus, I wanted to work with clients who had a high level of commitment to the engagement (something that several of my current clients lacked).
I realized that I didn’t have to win the lottery to make those changes. I could do it right now with one simple change — I could simply charge more for my services!
If I charged more, then only people who REALLY needed my help would agree to work with me. Sure, I may have fewer clients, but I’d make more money per client. (Sounds like a good deal.) Not only that, I’d be able to spend more time and make a bigger difference for each client. So, for my next prospect, I doubled my fees. I kept charging higher rates and closed more business in the next quarter than I had in the year prior.
I’ve been doing this 18 years now. I’ve found that the more I charge the more committed the clients are to the solution and the happier I am as a consultant.
And it isn’t just me. Nearly every client I’ve had has needed to raise their prices. Once they do, they start closing more clients, have more balance, and become much happier about their business.
What would happen if you raised your prices on your next sales call with a potential client? What would happen if you doubled your prices?
To help you execute this flawlessly, start by working through this free guide with my proven step-by-step process to raising your prices. It’s totally free: Raising Your Prices without Losing Clients.
