Resources mentioned in this episode:

👉 Start The Profitable Practice Free Course Here

👉 Learn About The Profitable Nutritionist Program

👉 Apply for The Mastermind

Episode Summary:

Let's talk about best practices for publishing prices on your website.

Should you publicly post your rates? That is the question.

And this is probably the shortest episode we’ve ever done because there’s a very easy and short answer to that question.

Let’s answer once and for all.  

Transcript:

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

Andrea Nordling 0:00
Happy podcast month my friend. Like I said last week, October is the birth month of the profitable nutritionist podcast. So we are celebrating around here these days. In fact, next week, I'm going to do an entire episode on how to know if you should start a podcast, very juicy stuff coming your way next week because I know that this is a big question a lot of people have you might be having this question. Podcasting is obviously really popular, it's a great way to get in front of new potential clients and to help people. So should you be starting a podcast, we're gonna talk about it next week. And of course, in that episode, we'll be talking about some of the nuances of podcasting and some of the considerations there. One of which is reviews, reviews are key in the podcast world. So if you want the almighty Apple podcast platform, to suggest your podcast to potential listeners, you have to have solid five star ratings and reviews that tell that algorithm that your show is valuable, which is exactly what I would love your help with for this show. So if you would please leave a review, I would be so grateful, it really does help so much every single review counts a lot, and helps the show get in front of more people. It helps us expand, it helps us help more people that are struggling in their practices, so they can help more clients to have better health as well. The ripple effect is very real, and is very exciting. But every little review counts. So this is my plea. If you haven't already, I would be forever grateful, if you would take a minute and leave a review for the show. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So now, let's dive in to talking about your rates, specifically, publicly posting your rates? Is this something that you stress about? If you're anything like a lot of the students in my program, and a lot of people that I coach, you might have a bit of drama around whether or not to put your prices on your website or to publicly send them in emails or post them on social media? Or basically the question is, Should I be telling people what my rates are, before we have a one on one conversation together, it's a topic that we coach about a lot inside the program, people bring it up a lot, because it is just one of those things where our brains make a really big deal out of something that isn't actually a big deal. And it can keep us in indecision, and spinning our wheels for a long time, which if you are a longtime listener of the podcast, you know this already, but if you're new, I'm going to give you a 32nd version here. Our brains love, love, love to pretend that they're confused, when really, they just don't want to do something new and uncomfortable. And in business, everything is new and uncomfortable. So our human brains that have evolved to keep us safe and away from predators and to never alienate us from the herd. And the tribe, our brains are really good at that. They try to keep us out of any situation that's going to feel uncomfortable and welcome you entrepreneur, you, you're going to be uncomfortable a lot of the time, because that is what we're doing around here. So don't have a decision about putting your prices on your website, although your very human brain is probably going to tell you otherwise, that this is a huge decision. And it's all very confusing. And there's a right and a wrong answer. And you have to figure out what the right one is. None of that is actually true. Okay, to put the prices on the internet or not? That is the question, it's probably going to be a pretty short episode, because this is a very easy and short answer. It doesn't matter. That's the answer. It does not matter if you put your prices on your website, or if you don't put them on your website, if you send them in emails, or if you don't send them in emails. If you tell everybody on social media, what your prices are, you don't it does not matter. And here's why. For every person, that would be turned off by seeing your premium pricing. And so they wouldn't even book a call with you. Because they would tell themselves they can't afford it or it's too much or whatever the story would be there. For every person that's turned off. There's someone else who wouldn't book a call, or wouldn't explore the option without first knowing the price range. Do you see what I'm saying? For every person that would be turned off? There's someone who wouldn't even move forward without knowing what the price is or what the price range is. So it's always 5050? There's no right answer here that's going to appeal to everyone. I'm so sorry to tell you, there isn't a universal right answer. So don't belabor this decision or stress about it at all. What I want you to do instead is to find out what underlying thoughts you do have in your brain that are making this seem like it is a complicated decision. And I do want to say some people don't struggle with this at all. It's like this is what I'm doing. Boom, boom, boom, make the decision move forward. Never second guess it. But there is a significant group of people. I know this because I coach a lot of health and wellness professionals that really feel like this is a big deal. So we're going to talk about it. Here's what I want you to do instead don't make this complicated decision. You're going to get out a piece of paper and you're going to take five to 10 minutes to do the following exercise. Seriously. Yes paper yes pencil So don't do this when you're driving. And yes, actually do this because this five minute ordeal is going to probably save you a month or more of spinning your wheels in indecision about whether or not to post your prices. And then once you post them, and you're almost ready to put publish on the page, then you second guess your pricing again, and you want to discount it, and you change it and so that you go back into that spiral for a month. Believe me, I've seen it all, we're not going to do that, you're going to take five minutes and do this instead. First of all, I want you to answer this question and answer it honestly, why wouldn't you put your prices on your website? Write down all the reasons? Why wouldn't you put your prices on there, your brain has reasons, there are reasons that these thoughts are circulating on a loop in your mind about all of the terrible things that are going to happen if you put your prices on your website, so write them down, let's look at them in black and white, what are they, it's probably going to sound something like this, this is kind of a starting point that I see a lot, my friends and family are gonna judge me if they see it, they're gonna wonder who the hell I think I am to be charging that nobody is going to pay that. Nobody's going to understand how valuable it is, unless I talk to them first. These are probably the thoughts that are coming up. So figure out what they are for you. Why wouldn't you put your prices on your website? Write down the reasons and then ask yourself, why else a few more times? Just when you think you're done? You have a couple of reasons on there go. Why else and try to get to the deep underlying concerns, like what will you feel? Will you feel judged? Will you feel rejected? Will you feel misunderstood? Are you feeling guilty or shameful about the price that you're charging? Let's really try to understand the thoughts behind any hesitation you would have and why you wouldn't want to put your prices on your website. Step one. Okay, so finding out that hold up for not publishing your prices is very, very important. You might be hesitant to do this, I just want to say this, before we move on, you might be hesitant to do this, because you feel like giving attention to these negative thoughts is going to be detrimental, almost like let's not look at those negative thoughts. Because if we give them any attention, then they're going to get worse or they're gonna come true or Yeah, I mean, I kind of see that sometimes. And I find that my brain does that sometimes to wants to gloss over these negative thoughts and not give them any airtime. But here's the deal, you're already having these thoughts. They're already there, your brain is already thinking them, you may as well be honest about it, write them down in black and white. And something magical happens when you do that, by the way. And you can actually see it as a line item on a piece of paper. All of a sudden, these things don't seem like such a big deal anymore. So that's why we do this analog, digital, not digital, analog is analog the right way. I don't know if that's really old school is what I really want to say old school pen and paper. Look at it. Okay, what are all the reasons you wouldn't want anyone and everyone to see your prices on the internet? Now, you probably can anticipate this this coming second step. After you're done with that. It's going to be making another list of why would you want to put your prices on your website? What are all of the reasons why you would want to do that? Same thing as before, you're going to write down all of those reasons. And then you're going to ask yourself, why else? Why else a few more times, because you want to give equal airtime to all the reasons that you would want to put your pricing up for any and all humans to see. What would those reasons be a starting point for a lot of my students something that they think about is like, my prospective clients won't be surprised by the investment on our console call if they've already seen it. So that might be a reason to kind of get you off on the right track here of reasons why it would be helpful for you to put your prices on your website. And then just like last time, you're going to ask yourself, why else? Why else? Why else?

Andrea Nordling 8:38
Huh? Why else just a few more times, to really dig up the deep reasons for each of these don't settle for the surface responses, of course, you're going to write those down. Let those be the starting point. But then dig deeper. Why else would I want to put my prices publicly on my website, dig deeper, make a comprehensive list here. Really stretch yourself, you'll be amazed at what you come up with. If you don't let yourself off the hook on the easy answers right? Now I want you to as the third part of this super simple, I want you to go through both of these lists. And critically look at an Ask yourself if you're considering your easiest, most perfect clients in each scenario. Be very honest, which of these would be best for your easiest clients, your dream clients, the ones that are resourceful and committed and motivated and you love working with them. You want to clone 100 of them and have them waiting in line to work with you those people. Okay, which is best for them to have access to your prices up front or not to have access to the prices up front? And this is not a leading question. I honestly don't know the answer for your business and for your clients right now. But you do if you're thinking about this and you're thinking about your easiest clients, which is the answer. And like I said before, here's the truth. There is no universal right answer here. There really isn't. But there is a right answer for your business. Right now, based on what you uncover when you do these three prompts, very simple prompts. And the best news of the day here is that this might change over time, the answer to this question might change. Which brings me to another thing that I want to say about pricing. Do not worry one bit about someone seeing one price of yours, and then having it be different later, I see so many people get into immense drama, in their minds about sharing their pricing on their website, and then thinking that they have a lifelong commitment to honoring that rate for anyone who ever saw it in the future. No, this is not a problem, it's your business, your pricing can change. And you don't need to explain yourself one bit about it. Because those people could have taken you up on your previous rate when it was active, right. You don't need to get any give anyone notice that things are changing. You don't need to explain yourself, there doesn't have to be a huge public announcement if your prices change. But I know that this is something that can be another one of those instances where our brains really want to loop on confusion and thinking that this decision is final and it's cemented, and we can never change it. But that's really just our brain saying I don't want to move forward because I'm uncomfortable with not knowing what we're doing here. Well, of course, you don't know what you're doing here. If you've never had a business before, or if you've never had a business at the next level of success that you're working towards which you haven't. Because if you're having Indecision is because you haven't gotten there yet. So if you have gotten there yet, you wouldn't be undecided about this, you would already know the answer that it doesn't matter. So if you're having a decision, it's because you haven't had that level of success before. And that's okay. This is just your brain saying we don't know what we're doing here. We're unsure, we're uncertain, feels unsafe, let's just be confused. But I propose we just don't be confused.

Andrea Nordling 11:48
Okay, let's not be confused at all. And don't let yourself be tucked into the notion that there is no way that you can change your prices. And if someone sees your prices, that you can never change them in the future, because they might have expectations around that. Now, first of all, let's be real and acknowledge that most people aren't paying that close of attention, they probably won't remember exactly what you were charging previously, or all of the details of your offer. And if they do remember that closely, that's great. They're obviously very engaged, they've been preparing to work with you. And that's why they remember all of the specifics, and they're ready to get started. Also not a problem. So if you do decide to publish your pricing on your website, or your emails, or social media or wherever, Do it confidently with no wishy washy fear that if or when it changes in the future, that you're going to get backlash from anyone, that's not going to happen, your easiest clients are not going to question changes in your pricing, they might internally kick themselves for not taking advantage of the previous rate, right. But that's a choice that they made, we all do. So is not a problem. And your prices will change. As your brain gets more valuable as your delivery to your clients gets more valuable as their results are more consistent. And as you are just trucking along, creating so much value in the world, your rate is going to increase that is going to happen. So don't make it a problem. Okay, that's not a reason to not publish your pricing is because it might change in the future. And people will be angry, that's for sure an indication that you are only considering your hardest clients and not your easiest clients, by the way. And if you decide not to publish your pricing publicly on your website, and you present it privately to prospective clients on console calls, for example, do that confidently with no wishy washy fear that they're going to be surprised, or they're going to have sticker shock, or whatever our objection is around that. Nope, don't do it. Okay, be confident with whichever decision you make, you're gonna have to sell yourself on your decision to either put your pricing publicly on your website and on the interwebs. Or not to do that, you're gonna have to sell yourself either way. And the way that you're going to do that is be very honest about why it is the best decision for your easiest clients that are dying to work with you. That's why we went through the prompts that we went through that I'm suggesting, which is to write down why you wouldn't want to put your prices on your website, then make a list of why you would want to put your prices on your website. And then go through and audit both of those lists and ask yourself if you're considering your easiest, most perfect, dreamy, dreamy clients and each scenario, one of the answers is going to pop out at you it's going to become very clear which decision you should make to put your prices publicly or to not put them publicly based on your easiest clients. Be honest with yourself about that, and then sell yourself on it of why it's the best decision. Don't go back on that decision. Just know that you had a 5050 chance you made the best choice and you're moving forward. Your brain is going to object about this. No matter which option you choose. You're going to have very persuasive thoughts that the other option would have been better. But that is a lie. That is a lie. Remember, this is just the truth. I promise you this is the truth for every person. Send that'll be turned off by seeing your pricing. There's someone else who would be turned off by not seeing your pricing, there's no option that's universally better. There's just the option that you pick that you sell yourself on. And that is best for you and your business along with your easiest, most perfect dream clients that are dying to work with you. Which option is that? Well, you're going to figure it out by listing out why you wouldn't want to why you would want to and then auditing that for your best clients. Choose your path, sell yourself on why it is the best decision for now and just go with that decision made few. Also one of the shortest podcast episodes probably that we've ever done. Because although this is something that is an issue that can really keep you stuck for a long time, it actually isn't an issue, actually not a big decision. And it's a very, very easy answer. Should you put your price on your website? Doesn't matter. Make the decision. Post or not post and move on. Have a wonderful wonderful week my friend