Hello there, wellness entrepreneur. Welcome back!
In today’s blog, we’re talking about the permission prescription, how to overcome guilt when raising your rates or in your wellness business. All because this is an update to blog entitled the Perfect Pricing Guide. You can also click this link <LINK> and get the Free Perfect Pricing Guide where I have a matrix to walk you through creating the perfect price as well as a meditation.
So it’s the perfect complement for the former blog and this week’s blog, which I wanted to update because of the economy, the way it is where inflation seems to be sticking around and there’s some uncertainty with the economy, with the change in presidency. And I just want to acknowledge that for you and still know that you can still hit your highest revenue months. You can still set pricing so that you feel confident, you feel it’s a win-win, an exceptional deal for your clients and it’s a rate that you’re not going to resent working with people.
So in this blog, we’ll go over the true cost of undercharging, how to know when to raise your rates, finding the sweet spot in your pricing and rates, how to use social media to pre-qualify your clients so that you’re not getting a bunch of people that are just shopping around for the lowest rate, and how to build your price confidence to ensure that you are setting it at a rate that works with your numbers and not just this esoteric phrase of charging what you’re worth. What does that truly mean? How do you even know how to quantify that?
So we’re going to bring in some practical steps today. Also, you can have a confident rate that you love, that you’re excited about because you’ll market it to more people, you’ll show up, you won’t be a weirdo on consultation calls and it’ll be an easy hell yes for that ideal client that really wants to work with you.
Truth About Rates and Prices
Here’s the truth. Right now, with my clients, I have rates and prices of all degrees. I have people that are focusing one-to-one in-person and have a low rate. I’ll say lower on the lower side for a one-to-one in-person for the level of expertise and credibility and experience and knowledge they have. For example, $85 for a session in-person in their brick and mortar, but it is a feeder into their online program.
I also have practitioners still working in brick and mortar and their focus is their brick and mortar and they have much higher rates, $300 an hour for example. I have clients that are focusing on launching a group and that group is six weeks long and $299 for that group cohort.
I have other entrepreneurs that have higher ticket price for their group program. I have some clients that are charging a subscription rate for their online program and have a higher price for their one-to-one services online.
So there is truly no perfect rate in the wellness industry. It’s not the price that will incentivize and entice your clients to work with you. It’s the price that you make right and then that is what excites your clients because you’re excited and confident about the rate that you’re charging no matter what the structure of your program is or how you deliver it.
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And you really want to be careful if you’re multi-certified that you’re not having too many different price points and too many offers.
So for example, I have a client that I just started working with. She has a brick mortar practice and as well as works online virtually with her clients and there were several different rates. For example, physical therapy was one rate, Pilates was another rate, Pilates online was even a lower rate, yoga was another rate. There was all these different rates and now this is very common. I highly recommend, if you’re working one-to-one, just set a price and we’ll go over the strategy here in the blog across the board for you because your practitioner brain, all that knowledge doesn’t leave whether you’re working with someone to do Reiki or coaching or physical therapy or rehab. It’s all the same. Your brain is all the same. So just charge one flat rate and that makes it easier.
And then it also makes it easier to bundle those sessions into a program or a package and add some bonus value adds to that which will incentivize your clients to get out of paying as they go or session by session to now purchasing packages and or a program.
And if you’re doing one-to-one and an actual cohort group program or an on-demand or subscription type one-to-many model, you have to make sure that your messaging clearly discerns who your group program is for or your subscriptions for and who your one-to-one services are for and then know when you’re marketing your one-to-one services and when you’re marketing your group program because it’s really hard to market two things or three things at the same time unless there’s a difference like a low ticket workshop for $35 and then working with you one-to-one or a low ticket workshop and then working in that group program. There’s a much bigger price difference and the actual product or service that you’re delivering is much different as well.
So you want to consider all of this as you’re looking at your overall structure of the business model that you’re choosing right now. And read past blogs as well because on the signature offer, I help you to really clarify what is the best business model or offer or program or how many offers and programs to offer right now based upon your audience size and your goals and the money you need to bring into your business. You want to really know your expenses in your business and in your personal life so you can strategize the best way to pay the bills, get profitable with the audience size and the business skills you have right now.
And this blog is to help you price that program in a way so you feel excited, confident that it’s a no-brainer, yes, and your clients feel that way too so they do become an easier yes.
Must Read: Get Health Coaching Clients Blueprint
What’s Happening When You’re Undercharging: Signs and Symptoms You’re Undercharging
So sometimes clients come to me and they are undercharging. So let’s talk about what’s happening.
If you’re undercharging, what are the signs or symptoms of that? How do you know? And number one is I start to see many practitioners exhausted from seeing a certain number of clients a day or maybe they’re a lot of work to market a group program and they get a few people in the door but it’s only a few hundred dollars.
So if you are very exhausted for the amount of work that you’re doing and you feel like you’re working 40, 60 hours a week but you’re not able to pay the bills, then that might be a sign that you’re undercharging.
Or if you’re starting to work with people and you’re starting to resent them when you show up to a session or really dread a session, that might be another sign that you’re undercharging.
And I know you might have a lot of guilt or fear about raising your rates and what your clients might think. And here’s the thing, some clients might have pushback but are they really your ideal client or best client if you’re to raise your rate? That really is something to consider.
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This is because if you’re thinking about your ideal client and the health transformation that they’re really desiring, what you help them with in terms of their wellness, when you charge a rate that you feel really excited about to deliver on a service and know that you’re going to get paid well, and if you’re providing a life-changing health transformation, I mean even if you were in your brain you’re just like, “Well I’m just helping with their low back pain,” or, “I’m just helping them to lose weight.” You have to think into the ripple effect that this happens for their life, for even generations to come.
For example, if a mom gets more confident in her body and now she’s able to get back to working out because she’s not having those embarrassing leaks anymore, and now because she’s working out she feels stronger, she has more energy, she’s going to play with her kids more. She might have daughters, so now she’s showing them the importance of self-care and prioritizing self-care and having a strong body and showing up energetically and present and playing with her kids and embodying confidence with the clothes she wears and how she carries herself. That is going to pay it forward for generations for that mom, so that for sure is worth thousands of dollars.
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So you have to consider often when I feel that someone is undercharging, they have a lot of clients that are paying session by session, so in the practitioner’s mind they’re valuing the session for the session, not for the big picture health transformations that are possible. So you have to think big here and you have to think of the ripple effect and that should get you very excited and passionate about your work. Think of all the lives that you’ll change.
If you’re undercharging you might be just thinking of session to session and not the big picture transformations that are possible for your wellness clients, and if you’re thinking about that big picture and that encourages you to raise your rate, think about it from the client perspective. Now they’re paying more so they have more skin in the game. They’re probably going to value your sessions more. They’re going to cancel less, especially if you have a cancel policy and they might get dinged a whole session if they miss out on their session or cancel last minute. Because they are paying more, they might unconsciously value that program or that package more and put in more effort and do the homework or do the uncomfortable daily habit changes that are needed to get that health transformation, and that leads to more clients getting better results which has a huge trickle effect into your business.
So you really want to consider all of these when setting your rates.
The Sweet Spot in Pricing Your Offers or Programs
But there is a pricing sweet spot because the sweet spot in your rates isn’t about just picking the highest number that you can think of or the highest number maybe in your area that’s kind of with other practitioners in your area.
It’s just not about going high. It’s finding a number where you feel genuinely excited to show up and serve. You know that your clients are getting the better end of the deal because of that life-changing health transformation and that ripple effect in their life, but it’s also a rate you feel confident with.
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Here’s A Test To Know If You’re Pricing Is Right
You can come back to this, but if you’re not, grab a piece of paper and a pen right now and write down your current rate and think about if you were delivering a package of 8 or 10 or 12 and put that rate together so you have a program and all that you could offer in the program. If you have a video library or any other bonuses that you could offer, an exercise if you offer virtual classes, maybe you can throw those in for people that purchase programs. Think about that end result that you’re getting them and now close your eyes.
Imagine yourself showing up to a consultation and you have someone on the other end of the phone or maybe in the Zoom room or if you do discovery visits in your clinic and they’re describing their problems and you know in your body through your heart that you can help them. You are the person to help them and now you’re going to say, “Yes, I can for sure help you with XYZ.”
You’re really repeating back to them their specific problem. What we’re going to do is work together for this many sessions and cover and go over this XYZ. The price is this. What happens when you’re imagining saying the price right there in a consultation? Do you shrink? Do you have hesitations? Do you have a feeling sinking in your gut? That might be a sign that the price is too high or if you feel that you’re able to confidently deliver the price, you’re taking up space, you’re sitting up tall, you feel it proud, a proudness in your chest, a certainty, then those are all clues that you’re on to the right price.
So when I’m going over this one-to-one with my clients, I often look at their body language as they’re telling me their price. I’m looking at their energetics and their facial expression. You can tell right off the bat if it’s the sweet spot pricing for them based upon all that or if we need to change the rate.
As I hinted to before, your rate is not just based upon that confidence and energetics. You also want to base upon it your monthly business and personal expenses. So everything from your mortgage, your rent, to continuing education, grams that you pay for like business coaching, like mastermind software that you have. What about personal expenses, your kids’ activity lessons, vacations, all of that, you want to include and make sure that your schedule will be sustainable to hit that number.
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Now for a lot of my clients, it is a five figure a month rate, like 10k months, 12k months, 20k months. And so if you’re breaking it down that way, and you’re doing one-to-one, how many sessions would you need to see a week at the rate that you hope charge? Is that sustainable? Is 15 sessions a week sustainable for you? Group program, how many students would you need to get in there? If it’s 20, okay. How big is your audience size? What’s your willingness to really get behind the scenes and do a lot of marketing for that group program? Could you fill it? Yes, for one round. But how about for multiple rounds in the next quarter? Or later in the year? Would you be able to get that number of people in the group again?
All of these also go into setting your rate. And that’s what makes this standout. Again, you can get it in the link here <LINK> and it’s so helpful because I write it all down in a matrix formula where you’re really taking into consideration your audience size, how much time you have to market, your marketing skills, your monthly expenses for your business and personal, your desires, where your confidence level is at.
All of these go into setting the rate. You don’t want to deliberate here on a lot of these factors where you’re spinning in confusion for weeks and weeks and weeks, because that will really slow you down. Really, this can be done in one hour maximum. So set a timer for yourself, set a day and then just decide and know that you can change it at any time.
But the only way to know if you do need to change it is to get out there and try it. Do a consultation and be like, “Oh God, that pricing, it felt awful. I was way too hesitant. It didn’t feel right.” Then go a little bit lower. Or it was a home run out of the park. That means that you hit upon the right pricing for now. In a few months, it might change. If you’re newer or bringing in a newer program, I suggest you start on the lower end and maybe just get a handful of people in there or two or three clients in there at that rate. Get some confidence, get some testimonials, and then raise your rate.
What To Do When You Decide To Raise Your Rate
And if you are deciding to raise your rate, please, please don’t just send an e-mail out to everyone before personally talking to those clients that have been with you for a while or that are currently working with you. I always give my clients a heads up. It’s worked very well both in my brick and mortar and in business coaching. I always give them time, sometimes an additional round or two at their current rate, especially those clients that have been working with me for a long time. I consider them VIP.
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I’m not just going to shock them and raise their rates and have them come to their last call or be ready to book a new package and then have the price change. I want them prepared. I want them to feel like they have the option to buy a few or go another round at their current rate so they can budget it and mentally prepare. And I can also bring in new clients and start at that new rate for the new clients right now. I’ve done that kind of hybrid and that has worked really well and my clients have really loved it and felt supported and taken care of.
So I always send an e-mail out about a price range after I’ve informed my existing clients. Now, if you are on the higher end of picking your rate, especially if there’s a lot of other practitioners online doing similar work than you or in your area, your local community doing similar work than you and your pricing is on the higher end.
So for example, here in San Diego, I am on the higher end, 300 to 350 an hour for my brick and mortar services. I don’t market those services anymore. But even when I was back in the day and that was my primary work was on the higher end. So you have to use your marketing like social media to really distinguish and discern your services and the results that you offer and your specialization so that people don’t shop around just for the lower because obviously you’re not going to fit into that category anymore.
You want them to want to work with you because of your specializations. So I have had people that are with me in my brick and mortar for now 10, 12, 15 years. And obviously they could go to a lot of other cheaper practitioners, but they don’t because I’m the only one that can give them the specialized care that combines very specific myofascial release techniques, the yoga wall, energetics, mindset work, all of this and more in one session, in one place where they don’t have to go around to different practitioners to get all these services to achieve the result that they want.
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The Role Of Marketing and Social Media
In your marketing, you want to be aware it is a lead with affordable rates or commenting on pricing and how it’s such a steal because that will keep you on the lower pricing range forever. Instead, you want to use your marketing and social media. And this is where I really help people in the Instagram Message Makeover to showcase and highlight their specific experience. So all their certifications and modalities that they use to help people with their programs, their frameworks, their intellectual properties, as well as their life experience. What are their own wellness and health transformations and how does that connect to the work that they do?
I have many people that come to me for business coaching because of my health story that I talk about a lot about managing a sustainable schedule while growing a profitable business and dealing with scary health diagnoses. I have a lot of people coming to me being like, “I’m a mom. I have some health stuff going on, but I really want to have a business that brings in money and pays the bills, but also allows time for me to live my life, spend time with my family, and care for myself.”
That’s all based upon my life experience and my story about how I do business coaching a little bit different than other business coaches out there. Or my story of how I grew into six-figure plus business with a smaller audience on Instagram and how I sign many clients on Instagram and how I help my clients to do the same. It’s really using your e-mails and social media to highlight both your expertise and your experience, as well as showcasing client transformation stories, specifically talking about the before and the after. You want to demonstrate your unique approach.
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Also, when you’re specific, talking to one person in each e-mail or social media post, they will come to you. I just did a consultation the other day with someone who had interviewed other business coaches, and she told me that she wants to work with me specifically because I help wellness entrepreneurs build an online business, even when they have experience or are currently working in their brick and mortar. She had goals that really needed an online business, the freedom and flexibility of an online business, but she was currently working as a brick and mortar practitioner, as a physical therapist. She wanted to work with me specifically because of that messaging.
Now, don’t let the niche confusion allow you to spin here and, again, not move forward or not make decisions. You can have a broader niche right now if that ideal client, that specific messaging hasn’t come out yet. For me, this took a bit of time. You can narrow down your messaging just in every post or e-mail. Just speak to one person and one problem.
My client, Katie, was able to more than double her revenue when she got clear on her messaging this way because she offers a lot of services online, in-person, wellness cooking classes, to mobility classes. There were a lot of different areas and ways that she could work with people, but she figured out each time she would show up, she would be specific. She even has two Instagram handles, one for mobility and one for cooking. Now, you don’t necessarily need that. That is an advanced skill to be able to handle two different channels and two different messaging, but it works for her. So now it’s putting all of this together to determine your sweet spot pricing with confidence.
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So you can do the pricing meditation. You can practice saying the pricing, knowing how it feels in your body. I also teach my clients the evidence list and the belief scale, which are ways to build your belief and build your confidence so that even if you are on the lower end right now, you can work towards raising your rate over time.
And then it’s also being prepared for in consultation. You might hear, and knowing them that that’s normal, especially if you’re selling thousand dollar packages or programs, it’s normal for people to ask a lot of questions and have hesitations or say things like that was more than I was expected to spend or I can find someone cheaper or can you give me a discount? All of that is all normal. And you just have to be prepared for all of that knowing what you’re going to say and how you’re going to guide someone through your consultation process.
Worrying About Your Local Community and Market When Wanting To Raise Rates?
Now, if you’re really wanting to raise your rates, but you’re worried about your local community and how the market won’t support the higher rates, I want to stop you right there. I work with many practitioners from small towns, two major cities all over the world. I have someone in Canada in a very small town. I have someone in Colorado. Don’t let the local community or a saturated marketplace make you small and start resenting or have you “leave money on the table” because you’re not setting the rate in what’s really your fullest potential.
The key is knowing and believing that there are clients out there who will all pay a higher price to get your specific expertise. They will choose results over the price when they value those results. And if you’re working one-to-one right now and that pricing is getting high and not accessible to everyone and you really that is a value of yours, making sure to help more people know that as your marketing skills and as your audience grows, then you’ll be able to bring in lower ticket offers as well. But it starts with making sure that you can pay the bills first because if you can’t pay the bills, then there won’t be a business to serve all those people.
So often that is why I teach and promote ethical high-ticket wellness offer first and get revenue and momentum in the door and then we can always add in a lower ticket offer as well.
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Another Hesitation You Might Have When Wanting To Raise Prices
Another hesitation you might have is that you don’t have enough experience yet. I hear this a lot especially from practitioners who’ve been certified in just the last year or a couple of years. But here’s the truth. I found that with the majority of clients I work with or people that send me DMs have invested thousands of hours and thousands of dollars in education and certifications and trainings. And many of them have also worked with people for free to get experience. So every client you work with, whether it is free or paying, is going to teach you something new. You’ve spent a lot of time learning. You don’t need 20 years of experience to create that valuable transformation in their health. You can do it right now. And remembering that’s what they’re paying for.
That’s the rate you’re charging, not your length of time of being a practitioner. They’re paying for the result. And again, remember if you are thinking of raising your rates, you want to do it in a strategic way that really supports your existing clients. So you don’t anger them and make them mad, but you can also start charging that higher rate just for new clients. And then you can slowly strategically work on raising the rate for your current clients.
And you don’t have to be a pushy salesperson to charge a higher rate. When you’re truly confident in your rates, you’ll naturally just get out there and spread the word more about it. You’ll be more confident on consultations, and you’ll be excited to get people in the door and work with them.
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Things To Do This Week
So here’s some things to do this week.
· Go download the free guide.
· Read blog 201 and the pricing meditation.
· Audit your last 10 social media posts or social media posts and e-mails. Are they speaking to one person, specifically about the health transformation that you can help with? So are you speaking to one problem and that one specific desire that they wanting? Or are you just marking in a way that is talking about how low your price is or how affordable your price is? And are you attracting price shoppers and value seekers? Are you always discounting?
· Practice saying your rates and using the belief scale and list to build your confidence so they feel very natural. Then you know that is the sweet spot every day or meditate every day on why that rate is the perfect rate, how you’re the perfect person to help them at that rate and write down evidence as to why.
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Conclusion
So just remember your pricing isn’t only about you. It’s about creating a sustainable practice that allows you to fully show up for your clients and makes it an easy yes for them as well. When you charge rates that energize you, you become a better practitioner, you have more energy and your clients will get better results when they’re all in, when they’re committed. So it’s truly a win-win.
If this blog resonated with you, I’d love to hear it. You can leave me a review or comment below. Let me know your biggest takeaway or DM me on Instagram and tag me in a post. I will reshare it, which gives you exposure to my audience or share this blog with a friend that is really struggling with their price.
And of course, if you want one-to-one help with this, then just reach out to me. I’m happy to schedule your free consultation call to talk more about it.
All right. I’ll see you next week. Have a great week. Bye for now!
Important Links to Visit:
Grow Your Wellness Business to Six Figures Without Burning Out
How to Attract and Convert Your Invisible Audience as a Wellness Entrepreneur
How to Build a Legitimate Online Wellness Business | Overcoming Fears and Getting Results
