Resources mentioned in this episode:

👉 Start The Profitable Practice Free Course Here

👉 Register For The Free 5 Day Training Here

Episode Summary:

If you aren’t making the consistent income each month that you want to be in your practice, I'm 99.9% sure you're undercharging for your services and you’re experiencing a lot of scarcity and uncertainty about money.

(And you’re in good company because many of my clients have the same patterns until they intentionally put some work into changing their money and pricing mindset.)

When you realize the REAL key to pricing and why your clients will buy from you, you realize that it’s actually easier to sell more expensive offers than cheap ones, and you STOP UNDERCHARGING. Your business is so much more successful and so are your clients.

Let’s talk about it.

Action Items from this episode:

Think of how much you have invested in your education at this point.

Seriously, add it all up: certifications, time spent reading and learning from books and podcasts, seminars, conferences, degrees, working with practice clients, or working with another practitioner...get a number.

Put a numerical value to your time and make sure you factor that in, as well.

Write it down. Ask yourself,  "What else?" 5 more times. EVERYTHING counts. Every single experience you’ve had that has gotten you to this point has been an expense for you, in actual money, or time or energy. So add it up. And write it down.

LOOK AT THIS NUMBER.

Now how does it compare to what your clients are paying you, or what you THINK they can/will be willing to pay you?

Do some thought work on this. Journal. Write about it.

Are you unintentionally shrinking them and their capabilities and potential by assuming they aren't resourceful enough to pay you? What comes up for you around that? 

Remember, YOU have to be sold on the value of their results and that it’s a worthwhile investment  before you can sell it to them. 

Transcript:

Note: The transcription below was provided for your convenience. Please excuse any typos or mistakes the automated service made in translation.

0:00
Not enough time or not enough money. These are the reasons most clients won't hire you. Or rather, that's what they say is the reason that they won't hire you. And the thing about that is that if you struggle with not having enough time or feeling like you don't have enough money, you will believe people, when they tell you this, it'll make sense to you, you won't question it. Remember, your clients will always be a mirror for your beliefs right now. Okay, we have lots to say about this. But before we get into it, I have to tell you about a free training I'm hosting next week where we are taking everything here in this episode to the next level, and we are workshopping it together live, the training is called Create 10 perfect clients in the next 60 days. And that's exactly what you're going to learn how to do over the course of our five days together. But a perfect client is not a discount or a cheap clients. So pay attention to everything we're going to talk about in this episode. And if you can see how you're under charging, or shrinking your clients potential with your price, you absolutely want to sign up for this training at Build a Profitable practice.com forward slash clients. And if you could really use 10 perfect clients over the next 60 days, and you don't know how to create that result for sure, consistently that you can bank on that you need to save your seat for this training as well. Again, it's build a profitable practice.com forward slash clients. And we are starting on December 6. I can't wait. I love this topic. So client objections like I started the episode client objections are so interesting to think about, specifically, time and money. These are the biggies for you as the practitioner and for your clients. Because if you're believing their story about not having enough time or not having enough money, you're going to use it as a reason to undercharge. So we have to dig into it. And when you deeply understand both of these objections, and why people use them, and what they really mean most of the time. And then, of course, how they're already showing up in your business and how you're believing them as well, you're going to be able to help so many more people, and your business will be consistently profitable beyond all expectations that you have right now,

2:17
really, I am living proof of this. I had made all of these mistakes that I'm going to tell you about and come out on the other side, understood why they were happening and fix the problem, continue to fix the problem get better and better and better at this. And my business just keeps growing and growing and growing at a level I never could have dreamed of. So this is available for you too, I promise. Another beautiful thing that happens when you question your own money stories and you quit undercharging in your practice is you won't feel uncomfortable in sales conversations with potential clients, because you can calmly navigate this topic from a really clean, unattached place. And of course, your business bank account will show the results of this growth in black and white. So without further ado, I hope I've gotten you all excited, we are going to start talking about money, your pricing, and likely undercharging in particular in this conversation. I am 99.9% sure that you're under charging for your services right now. Or and or you're having a lot of scarcity when it comes to money. If you aren't making the consistent income that you want each month in your business. I know this and you're in good company because many of my clients have the same problem until they intentionally put some work into changing their money and pricing mindset. And nobody teaches us how to price things in our business. So don't feel bad one bit as you listen to this episode if you realize that you've making some of these mistakes, right? If you're offering one on one packages with clients, but there is absolutely no way that you could make a full time living even if you're fully booked without running yourself ragged, you are definitely undercharging. That's Red flag number one. Another is if you're offering a group program or an online course or a membership of any sort, and you're pouring your heart and soul into it, but it isn't equaling a full time living, you're probably undercharging. In fact, you're for sure undercharging. In that second scenario, you're probably selling this program or course or membership or whatever it is for you at a discounted rate. And then still treating these participants basically like their one on one clients out of desperation to keep them engaged and keep them moving forward, which is probably having the opposite effect. Ask me how I know this. Because I've done it myself. I understand. So let's talk about it. Here's why this happens. Your pricing decision was made with the belief that clients won't value what you're offering enough to pay a premium price for it. Ultimately, that's what it boils down to. People won't pay a premium price for what I'm offering. That could be a variation of they don't want it or I'm not offering enough for I can't guarantee either results or I'm not sure if I can help them. And I can charge enough. There's lots of it's it's a gradient scale here, lots of different possibilities on the spectrum. But we're going to talk about all of it today. Regardless of what your exact brand of insufficiency is in there, it will always show up in your copy, and your messaging and your client discovery calls, and what you say on your website or don't say, on your website, and in your copy, the way that you explain what you do, and talk about your business when you meet someone new, or don't explain what you do. And don't talk about your business, when you meet someone new. Whatever these beliefs are about why you shouldn't be charging more or why people won't get results or why they don't or can't afford to work with you, is always going to show up in how you talk about your business. And if you don't think the results your clients get are valuable enough to charge a premium price for them, neither will they because of the way you talk about it. So this will show up in everything for you in your business. If these are your beliefs, everything you say or don't say about your offer, or your business in general. It's why you really need to pay attention to this and clean it up. This is you. If you think you have to convince people to work with you. The way that you talk about your offer and the results that people get when they work with you. It's going to be really salesy and desperate,

6:20
because guess what? What's gonna happen at that point is less people are going to work with you because people don't want to work with a salesy and desperate practitioner, to be have to look at these thoughts about money and charging. When people are under charging, sometimes what I see is that they will frame it as a discount. It's like a really sneaky way that our brain makes this seem like a savvy business decision instead of a capo, like a limited time discount, or there are only a few spots left at this price. That's one that we see you fill in the blanks. This is also totally undercharging. And here's what happens when you discount the people that show up and are interested in knowing more about what you do and how you can help them. But they came in because of the discount, they will inevitably tell you that they can't afford to work with you, at your already discounted rate, they're still going to say it's too much money. And it's because you marketed your business and this offer with the belief that people can't or won't pay premium rates to work with you. That's what your belief was. So what you said Drew in those people, those people showed up, you call them in with a megaphone, if that's what you were thinking, plain and simple. As always, the people that your marketing attracts are going to mirror the belief and what you're telling yourself. So if you're telling yourself that they can't afford to work with you, the people that can't afford to work with you are the ones that are going to be knocking on your door. And then the real clunker here is that it further confirms your belief that people can't afford it, and you need to discount your rates even more. And then the cycle continues. I see this all the time. I've seen it in myself, but I see it in my clients now so much. It's the equivalent of wanting to sell total life transformation at Walmart. I don't know exactly what you offer to your clients. But if you're listening to this podcast, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that you're a holistic nutritionist or health coach of some sort. And I do know that if that's you, the results your clients want and what they're coming to you for and what you help them achieve will change their entire life. That's why people are coming to you, they want something so bad for themselves because it is going to change one aspect or multiple aspects of their entire life. Most of the time, even those results will also have a ripple effect on the lives of their family, maybe for generations to come even. That's a big deal. Do you know anyone who shops at Walmart for that kind of total life transformation? No. No, you don't. And I don't either. So why do so many people in the health and wellness field want to be selling at Walmart, instead of an exclusive high end? Individualized boutique? Like really think about this, put yourself in the shoes of your best prospective clients. I like to use clothing as an example here. Let's use jeans. Where do your dreamiest perfect most ideal clients shop for jeans? Seriously, think about this. You might be your ideal client or you two years ago might be your ideal client or you 10 years ago, or you can conjure up the perfect person that you want to work with 100 of them. Maybe you have clients that you work with right now and you're like if I could just clone you if I could have 20 of you on my books right now. I'd be so happy think about that person. What is her habit? When she shops for jeans? Where does she look for them? Does she just grab a pair as an impulse purchase in Walmart? She's probably not in Walmart. But if she was if she was cruisin through what she just grab a pair of jeans on the end cap because it was a good deal. Think about it, or is she on the hunt for the perfect pair of jeans, I bet she's on the hunt for the perfect pair. She's not just grabbing them off the endcap. I'm thinking about my best clients, as I'm saying this to you. Here's what I know about them, they asked their friends for recommendations, there may be searching on Instagram, maybe even thinking about getting a pair custom made, that's just the right length and fits perfectly, maybe willing to pay a little more for just the right pair that's a really high quality it's going to last and makes their butt look real good. And I'm willing to bet that your dreamiest most perfect clients just like mine would rather pay a premium for the perfect jeans. Rather than have a closet full of cheap pairs that don't fit very well look kind of weird, the pockets are too high in the butt looks frumpy and they never get worn. I for one have one pair of jeans. One. That's it. And they sure as hell didn't come from the end cap at Walmart.

11:13
Side note, guess how I found those jeans. A friend of mine who knows me very well said oh my gosh, she called me she said oh my gosh, you are going to love these jeans I tried on. They don't work for me. But they are going to be perfect for you. You're going to love them. You need them right now. Sold, I got them they are perfect. personal recommendations are very important specially to our ideal clients. And I talked about this. And I point this out even though it really doesn't have a ton to do with undercharging in this episode in particular, but just think about that. Think about how your ideal client gets recommendations for the products, services and investments that she makes. Think about that she probably really loves a personal recommendation from a trusted friend, just like I do on my jeans, I'm in the market for some more jeans, but I just haven't found the perfect ones yet. And I'm in no hurry. I'm really picky about what I keep around. In fact, this is something you should know about me. I don't like extra stuff at all. I'm very protective of my space and very protective of my bandwidth and my time, and I don't want to waste any of it. I'm shit that doesn't work or that I don't love. It just don't I don't, I don't like it. I don't want to collect stuff not interested in collecting things that I'm just going to donate to Goodwill in a few months. That's nope, I've been there done that not interested. Also not interested in collecting investments that I'm not going to go all in on. Because I know myself I know when I'm going to be all in and really maximize something that I'm paying attention to. And when I'm never going to get to it. And it's always going to be best of intentions, but it's on the back burner, and I'm never gonna pay attention. I know myself and your best dreamiest most perfect clients, they're probably protective like that with their investments and their time to they know themselves. They don't want extra things or extra commitments that aren't going to get them results or they're never going to pay attention to. They want results. They want to change their life. They want that they don't want to waste more time trying to get there. And here's the thing, when you're under charging for your results, the ones that you facilitate with the clients that they're going to get when they work with you. If you're under charging for that they are going to undervalue those results. They're going they're not they're not going to pay attention. The phrase that comes to mind is when you pay you pay attention. How true is that, especially now when there's so much overwhelming amount of information circling at all times, we can't just be tuning in only to the free things. In fact, we don't tune in to the free things anymore, right? When you pay you pay attention. Same with your clients. They don't really believe that their entire life in multiple areas and how they feel and how they approach the next 20 years or more is going to be completely different. With an investment of 500 bucks, for example. No, it's not believable to them, which means they don't make time or allocate money for it. Because that's what we do. If we value something if we think it's important, we make time for it. We make money to invest in it, you do the same thing. I do the same thing. So to your clients. Now the even bigger downstream result that's created for your business. When you undercharged we need to talk about is the clients who do work with you probably don't value that investment in higher quality food in the supplements that you're going to suggest to them that are really going to help them get results better and faster. They are not probably going to be able to afford or value the testing and the other tools that will be really beneficial to them that you may suggest. It's not found on a Walmart end cap. It's just not so if you're approaching your business and your clients by hugely undercharging, like you're in the bargain bin at Walmart, then you can't totally take 180 degree turn on those poor people and tell them them that they need to go find a local source of grass fed beef and pastured eggs and all of the most nutrient dense foods and spend hundreds of dollars on supplements because that's not what they signed up for. That's not what they thought they were getting. It's a total disconnect, huge. And it isn't because people can't or won't afford supplements, or because they don't understand the value of high quality food. It's because you basically filtered those people out right off the bat by undercharging in the first place. See what I'm saying? Don't try to sell people that total life transformation that you facilitate, like you're selling at Walmart just doesn't work. You want to be the high end, custom, personalized boutique that makes your clients but look fantastic.

15:43
literally, and figuratively. It might sound really triggering what I'm saying, as I'm saying I'm seeing this too. It might sound really elitist, although I freaking hate that word so much. But I don't know what else to say. It might sound like that. Because of course, we want to help everyone, I want to help everyone you want to help everyone, of course. But you can't do that unless you have a business. Truly, you don't have a business until you are paying clients and you're making money. For example, I think of this podcast, when I think of an example for this, I freakin love doing this podcast. But I didn't start the podcast until I was at the level of income in my business that I decided I need to be at using math to comfortably take on a project like this, Hey, I knew I wanted to do this podcast for two years before I actually did it. And now the way that I'm able to spend so much time and attention on creating this free resource that's available to anybody who wants to listen, is because my business is profitable. And I'm basically getting paid to create this podcast, I'm getting paid to help people already I'm working with clients, my clients are getting great results. And that means I have real time data. And I have a process and I have a lot of information and getting for my paying clients to continue to make better and better content for this podcast. It's a circle, it's great.

17:03
That's where the content of this podcast comes from in the first place. It comes from me working with actual clients. And it's a great resource for people who can't afford to hire me or can't afford to hire me right now and join my program. And that's fantastic. But it didn't start. At the very beginning. I couldn't start this podcast. First I had to start working with clients first and have a profitable business. So if you're under charging right now thinking that it's in the best interest of your clients, because it makes it an easier decision for them to say yes, please, rethink that you're not doing a service to them or your business, that's for sure. If you can't afford to stay in business, you can't help anyone. You will never have a podcast or email list or free resources that impact 1000s of people. If you can't make money, and have experience actually helping people and stay in business. That's why I feel so strongly about this. I promise you, just please take my word for it, it is so much easier to sell expensive things in high end boutique to people that already want the help than to try to convince people to buy cheap or free things. At the end cap at Walmart. I promise. If your brain just cannot get on board with this yet. That's okay. Stick with me, I have one more thing to say. One more turns into five more we know how this goes. But when you're having lots of doubts about how to create a more premium offer, and you might be as I talked about this, you might be thinking I can see that I'm I'm discounting and I'm under charging, but I don't know what premium would be or I just don't know. I don't even know how that's possible, right? I don't even I'm stressing like your your brain might be giving you a lot of reasons why that's a terrible idea. Your brain might be telling you first of all, what happens if I charge premium prices and get clients and then they don't get the results that they wanted. They're gonna hate me they're gonna want a refund, right? Your brain spins out on this. What if their situation is out of the scope of my practice? This is another one or and this is a biggie. If they pay me that much, they're going to expect me to be available 24/7 And everything else in my life is going to suffer. I'll never see my family. I'll be a slave to my business. Oh my gosh, I can't do that. Nope, nope. Nope, can't do it. shuts it down. It's one of those things happening in your brain. It's protecting about premium offers. I'm sure it is. It's totally normal. These are totally normal thoughts. Very common doubts. By the way, nothing has gone wrong. Having some real head trash thoughts come up and your brain trying to talk you out of moving to the next level is expected. It's just part of the deal. talked about that on a previous episode about expectations versus reality once you just to expect the reality which is to let a crappy thoughts come up and your brain will try to talk you out of it every time. Those thoughts and doubts totally normal, but pay attention to where they're coming from. That's the important part we want to look for. It's usually from some sort of belief you're having that you won't be able to deliver high enough value to them or that you don't have enough time. It's the exact same objections that you think that they're having that they tell you that they're having not enough time, not enough money. If you're freaking out about this, you're having those exact same thoughts. But the solution is not to lower your price or to undercharge. It's not to throw a discount in the mix. And also, we know this doesn't work because you have to sell your free stuff, I bet you have something free that you've offered a free consultation, a free assessment of some sort of freebie on your website. And people don't just flock to that you have to sell that even though it's free. So we know that price is not the only consideration here. That's why I say that the solution is to step up your game and show people the value instead of talking about the how cheap it is, or the discount, or how inexpensive or how free, show them the value. That's what people want. They want to know, can you help me? One way to do this is with some actual math. What?

20:55
Yeah, yes, Matt, here's how to do it. If you're especially if you're really spinning on this and thinking there's no way I can raise my prices, there's no way okay. Think about how much you have invested in your education at this point. To get to where you are today. Seriously, add it all up. This is going to require sitting down with a pen and paper and thinking for 15 minutes. Add it all up your certifications, your time, time spent reading and learning from books and podcasts and seminars, and workshops and conferences and retreats and degrees that you have or and or working with practice clients or working with another practitioner. A lot of people will apprentice or intern or work in another office, have another practitioner factor that all in get a number, how much have you invested, put a numerical value to your time make sure that you're factoring in your time and add it up? How much have you invested to get to where you are right now, to get the knowledge and expertise that you have? Write it down? And then I want you to ask yourself at least five more times. What else? What else? What else, because you probably forgetting some things and everything counts here. Every single experience that you've had, that has gotten you to this point has been an expense for you, either an actual money, or in time or an energy. So add it up and then write it down. Look at this number. I hope you're excited by this number. By the way, how does that compare to what your clients are paying you? Or what you think they can or will be willing to pay you do some thought work on this? This is why I said you need to write it out. Use your pen and paper do some thought work? What comes up? Are you unintentionally shrinking them and their capabilities and their potential by assuming that they aren't resourceful enough to pay you? That happens a lot, by the way, happens a lot. But just unintentionally shrink our clients and think No, I mean, I, I can invest in this. But other people won't. Or they don't have the time or they're not smart enough, or they'll never figure it out. Who that's juicy, isn't it? Are you unintentionally shrinking your clients and your potential clients and their potential by assuming that they aren't resourceful enough to pay you for your expertise? What comes up for you around that, because you have to be sold on the value of their results, and that it's a worthwhile investment before you can sell it to them. That's the big takeaway here you have to be sold, you have to understand why it makes the most sense for you to charge more for your services and stay in business and have a profitable practice that you love. You need to sell yourself on that before you can sell it to them. This is your work. If you're under charging, this is your work. Find out what's going on in your brain when it comes to your pricing. And if you're not under charging, but you're not making the money you want to be it's probably because you don't have a high belief in your clients and their resourcefulness and willingness to be able to pay you to be able to pay your price to be showing up right now to be ready right now. Something is probably coming up for you about how you're shrinking them and their capabilities. But you have to know what that is. So we're going to dig into those thoughts of yours. Anything that's coming up for you figure out what it is What is the stopping point. And if you are under charging, like most practitioners do by default, it's time to stop right now. Because when you do that, when you set the bar so low, you're actually minimizing and devaluing the results that your clients so deeply want to get. And even bigger than that it devalues the whole industry. It devalues everything that other practitioners are creating in their businesses when we discount like really think about that. And your clients, it devalues the results that they want to get when they see what they want to invest in and they wonder Can you help me with that but then they see the price. It's just a few 100 bucks, like, I don't know, doesn't seem like that's going to be helpful. That's probably not exactly what I need. Hmm, because that's what they're investing in. They're investing in their results. People aren't buying your time by the hour, they don't care how much time you're putting in, they aren't buying your course or access to your group. Just to be with you, they're not buying you at all. No, they're buying the results that they want to get. It's keeping them up at night. What do they really want? What's the perfect, perfect paradise, that they just want so bad when it comes to their health? That's it. That's what they want to know. Can you help them get there? Can you help me? Me, me? Me? They're thinking, Can you help me get results, and they might not believe that they can get results. That's the thing, too, they might not have enough confidence in themselves. So I have compassion for that. That's okay. When people have an objection, when you have a client that is seems like the perfect client, they really want to work with you. They ask all the right questions, it seems like a great fit. And then they have an objection. That's okay. It doesn't have to mean anything about you. It just might mean, and we'll talk about this on an upcoming episode about the real reasons people don't buy. But it might mean that they just don't have the confidence in themselves that they can do it, that they can get results this time. Okay, so help them process the truth of their objection by agreeing with them. Here's what I wanted to, to add here. Agree with people, when they have an objection, agree with them, don't argue, don't try to justify why I say this, especially right now. Because I see a lot, especially when people are discounting. They want to get really convincing about why it's like why you should buy now why it makes the most sense. And so when someone has an objection, which is typically not a time or money objection, even though that's what comes up what they're typically objecting to is like, I don't really see if this can help me. I don't really see if I'll get the value. I don't know if I believe in myself that I could do it. So usually some version of that. So agree with them. Don't argue with the objection and create any sort of debate. That's terrible, absolutely terrible. always agree with someone's objections. Don't argue. This applies to conversations and sales calls in person. And your copywriting don't fight. I mean, look at your copy, sometimes don't argue with people and their objections in your emails or in your social media. But just don't do that. Here's, here's what this can sound like. I want to give an example. If someone does have a money objection, they say this is this is pretty expensive. This is more expensive. I thought it would be you agree with them? You say? Yes, it is. Pa pause. And isn't it true that it's also expensive to stay where you're at, open up a conversation about how it's already expensive? What they're doing that isn't working is already expensive in some way? Open up a conversation about that. Just let it hang there. Let them process the truth of that statement. I always think about this in sales. Just don't argue. Don't argue with someone's objection, acknowledge it, it's probably true. And that's okay. Still, maybe not even an objection, right. People also say I don't have enough time. So agree with them. If someone tells you I just don't think I have enough time. See, I can see that. It's true. You're super busy. But isn't it also true that it's costing you a lot more time by not figuring this out? And not moving past it? Let that hang there. Just as questions, be curious, but always agree with people if they have an objection, I always agree with them because it is true. It just might not be the only truth. Right? So good. Okay, I have one more cliche salesy little line for you. I couldn't possibly do this episode without throwing it in there. So we're gonna do it. Now as we land this plane. On undercharging. This episode, I will say that this particular phrase stuck out for me, I don't know who to give credit to I don't even know when I heard it. But I wrote it down in a notebook and then came back to it months later, and it jumped out at me just at the right time when I needed to see it. Like, oh my gosh, I'm undercharging so bad. And this was a very pivotal moment for me. So I'll give you the phrase, their transformation begins with the transaction. That's the phrase, this may land for you like it did for me at just the right time when I needed to see it and realized, oh my gosh, I need to charge more so that people take their own results more seriously, and focus so that I give them an opportunity to start transforming right away when they enter their credit card number. I need to do this for them was such a pivotal moment to really give my clients a chance to step up and go after what they want. Because they were more invested, literally and figuratively, more invested instead of of what we've talked about this episode instead of shrinking them, and shrinking their potential and their capabilities and shrinking myself with more discounts and nonsense, cheap prices that didn't make any sense at all. In light of the the transformation that people were getting when they worked with me, it didn't make any sense and it probably doesn't make sense for you. All right, so you aren't doing anyone any favors by undercharging. Keep that in mind. Have a wonderful, wonderful week, my friend.