It’s okay to lower your prices

In a recent conversation in my coaching group, one of my clients was looking to fill up her own client schedule. She had had a bunch of conversations with potential clients, but not as many became clients as she had hoped.

However, many had said they really wanted to be her client, but there were money issues.

The common teaching to avoid.

Many teachers and coaches will advise you, “Never lower your price!” “Charge what you’re worth!”

Now, there is some value to this teaching, and it’s very applicable in certain situations. Sometimes someone who has been in business for awhile is collapsing around their price. If they learned how to hold their price with strength and integrity, they could get paid significantly more.

However, this is not always true. More often it’s not a collapse around the price, but instead not following this rule that I often repeat to my clients:

“Never do more than one difficult thing at a time.”

Many times people are trying to both charge the highest price they’ve ever set AND trying to fill an empty schedule that has never been full.

Charging a price that makes you feel shaky inside while facing an empty schedule can really undermine your confidence. In these situations I almost always prioritize a full schedule over a top price.

Lowering your price to one that feels really open and easy can remove a stumbling block for you in filling your schedule with paying clients.

Here’s what I didn’t say.

I didn’t say charge the lowest price possible. I didn’t say give yourself away at a price that feels horrible. I also didn’t say to let yourself be taken advantage of.

My advice for my client was that she could lower her price somewhat. It wasn’t cutting it in half. It was just letting it be negotiable, and less of a stretch.

The result? She started smiling! There was an ease that came in that suddenly made it feel like fun to approach clients.

I remember when I left a coaching business I had been working within, and I could finally set my own price. It was much lower than the other coach was making me charge, and it felt so good to my heart. Clients can flooding in.

Beware: Price is not the only factor.

I don’t suggest people drop their prices as the first thing to troubleshoot an empty schedule. I want my clients to make sure they know how to hold an enrollment conversation with integrity and focus. I want to make sure they have a clear offer, a clear audience, something that feels solid to everyone.

I also want to see them reaching out and successfully having at least the “let’s see” conversation with potential clients.

Then, given those things, if people are wanting to enroll, but aren’t, then yes, maybe the price is too high.

Even a price that feels good when you’re by yourself in your office, may feel too high and make you stumble and stutter when you are actually facing people and telling it to them.

The bottom line, so-to-speak?

Don’t get stuck on charging “what you’re worth” or so intellectual ideal of your price. Let your pricing, like all of your business, be a little flexible, fluid, when you’re in the earlier stages.

The highest priority is getting your client schedule full. Then, from there, with some momentum, your price will naturally climb in a way that feels great and easy.

What’s your experience?

I’d love to know how this lands with you, if it brings relief and compassion to the process of pricing yourself and enrolling clients.

With love,

Mark Silver, M.Div. Heart of Business, Inc. www.heartcenteredbusinessbook.com/ Every act of business can be an act of love.