On July 1, I did something for the first time in two years:
I raised our prices.
I wrestled over the decision for more than a year before finally taking my own good advice that I give to members of The Upside community who question whether or not to raise their prices.
But even though it felt logical to raise our prices because…
I’ve re-invested hundreds of thousands into the community,
Members were reporting 5- and 6-figure gains as a direct result of membership,
We’ve built expensive, innovative tools and resources exclusively for members,
We consistently deliver a high-touch, high-caliber experience,
I’ve kept my promise to maintain an intimate environment and our values,
And other communities were charging more and delivering less…
Despite all of this–proof of ROI, logic, and confidence–I still hesitated.
It’s hard to know why and when to raise your prices, especially if you’re in a shaky economic year or have a thinner client pipeline than you’d like.
Especially when you find yourself in scarcity mode, here’s why you may want to raise your prices and when it may be the right time:
✔️ Sometimes a higher price actually leads to more clients, not fewer.
There’s a reason why people will pay $3,000 for a Louis Vuitton bag even though the $20 Target bag carries all their stuff just as well.
When you are confident about your pricing, regardless of how high it is, clients will have more confidence in your value.
✔️ For some consultants, it’s better to have fewer clients paying more.
For some (but not all), it’s better to have longer-term, higher-priced engagements. For example, if you want to make $500k per year, consider this:
Is it better for you to have five $100k clients or twenty $25k clients?
Ask yourself:
How much time, money and effort does it take to sign and onboard twenty clients vs. five?
What resources do you need to deliver twenty projects vs. five?
And how much energy does it take for you to project manage twenty clients per year vs. five?
✔️ If your prices are too low, you could lose opportunities.
When I was hiring an expert to design our new website, I was praying that the person I really liked would deliver a proposal with the right price.
Not the cheapest price. The right price.
Because if his pricing had been too low, I would have lost confidence in his ability to deliver the ROI I wanted.
He had already won me over and I already wanted to work with him. Luckily, he came in about 10% higher than I estimated. Well done, Martin.
✔️ Raising your prices will level-up your consultancy.
Sometimes, consultants hesitate to raise prices because they fear they will have to work harder to deliver more value to clients. They worry that their current work, ideas, and client ROI aren’t actually worth (or ready for) the higher price.
Instead, look at raising your prices as the motivation you need to level-up your consultancy, including sharpening your discovery process, onboarding process and client communications.
Raising prices may also give you the push you’ve needed to bring on additional support staff like a VA.
PSA: If you want to level-up your business, there’s nothing better than The Upside community to accelerate that for you.
✔️ There are others charging more for the same services and delivering less.
This may be the biggest motivator of them all.
✔️ Clients will pay more if they fully trust that you can deliver.
Sometimes raising your prices is as simple as sharpening your discovery process. After all, that first meeting with a potential client will most certainly make or break how they perceive your value.
Ask the right questions.
Help them define the problem.
Quantify how much the problem is costing them.
Demonstrate what they stand to gain by working with you.
Show them what they stand to lose if they continue as is.
Position yourself as a business-critical partner for reaching their goals.
Doing this will build trust–and trust immediately raises the pricing bar.
✔️ Your pricing should not necessarily yield an immediate yes.
If you’re getting lots of immediate YESSES on your proposals, then it’s probably time to shoot for something higher.
We’ve all bought something more expensive than we initially budgeted for:
A vacation.
A haircut.
A home.
Yet, we still moved forward with it after some consideration. When you reflect on why you chose these bigger-than-expected purchases, my guess is that it came down to feeling like they were responsible decisions and worth the investment.
For The Upside community, our new pricing options are $885 every 3 months or $3,000 per year (saves $540!).
I know The Upside isn’t the cheapest community. (Why would we be?)
I know people can sit on the decision for months, even years sometimes. (That’s ok, timing is everything.)
I know it’s an investment that deserves consideration. (And I’m confident I’ll earn your trust and exceed your expectations.)
I’ve seen the value and ROI we deliver and they far surpass the price of membership. That’s why I’m raising our prices.
Should you do the same?
