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Are You Struggling With Your Pricing?

Guest post by: Jeanna Gabellini

Article Overview: When you’re a heart-centered CEO you want your customers to feel like they received great value from your products and services, but you also need to put a roof over your head. I’m going to tell you right now, the only one who knows what the best model to use for your pricing is you. I’ll prove it right here and now.

Are You Struggling With Your Pricing?

The experts say, “Raise your prices. Slash your prices. Follow this model. Give it away for free. Jack up your price and then put in on sale or give huge commissions to those selling it.”

When you’re a heart-centered CEO you want your customers to feel like they received great value from your products and services, but you also need to put a roof over your head, send the kids to college and take a vacation or two a year.

What’s an entrepreneur to do?!

I’m going to tell you right now, the only one who knows what the best model to use for your pricing is you. I’ll prove it right here and now.

Think about one service or product that you currently offer. Think about the cost, time and energy it took to create. And what it takes to market it. Think about the value it creates in the customer’s life.

Now, think about the price tag on that product or service. Forget for the moment, what your competitors charge for something similar. How does it feel?

Too low?

Too high?

Just right?

Do you need to change what’s included for that price?

If your mental mind didn’t interfere, your Business Expert']);"> Inner Business Expert just told you what you need to know about the pricing of that particular offering.

You see, you are the one that creates the ideal pricing for your ideal market by choosing a price that feels aligned with your heart. If it’s too low, you feel resentful and ripped off. If it’s too high you feel like you’re not giving enough and that you are ripping off the consumer.

Either way, profits don’t increase until the pricing feels just right for right now. You can always change your mind later. If your pricing needs to change, do it when you feel ready…if you do it before then, resistance will rear its ugly head.

I recently created a new product for entrepreneurs. It took many hours for my team and I to create. My audio editor told me how much value I was giving in this product. She thought it should be at least $500. My gut told me to price it around $200. I know the value that it will bring to my customers. It will be worth thousands to them, yet why did I price it so low?

It just feels right. It supports the vision I had for this product being a great kick start for a struggling business owner. Also at the lower price point, it’s a no-brainer for someone new to my work to say HELL YES and they risk little investment. Then they fall in love with the product, get results and become a raving fan wanting more of whatever I got. ;-)

This is exactly what you want for your pricing…it feels good in your heart and lines up with your overall business model.

There are some prices I will negotiate on. Some I won’t. I never come down on my coaching fees. What’s the logic behind it? There is none. I just don’t want to budge. I’m very clear about the value of my time and energy and that’s that.

If you haven’t done it lately, it’s good for you to do a gut-price check on everything you offer. If you shift any of your pricing you don’t have to tell a soul or you can announce it to your database so they can grab it before the pricing goes up or get it at its new lower pricing. Either way, everyone wins.

If you feel great about what you charge, you’ll be a happier business owner. And being happy is very attractive.

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Article Tags: business, Inner Business Expert, Jeanna Gabellini, Price, pricing, value



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Re: need pricing help please - [quote="lovesangel":32mmx3yi]Where would courses fall into this pricing mix? Either/and online, downloadable, or the hardcopy kind you can order and hold in your hands?[/quote:32mmx3yi] Nancy, could you define "courses" with as much detail as you can? I ask because every person reading this post has a different "picture" in their minds of what a "course" is. For me a "Course" can fit in any of the delivery methods I disclosed in the Pricing Ladder. That is.. it can be an ebook, autoresponder sequence, teleseminar or webinar (recorded or live over the phone/internet), a workshop (live-in-person-face-to-face) or a one-on-one session. So let us know how you are defining "courses". thanks
Happy Worker as of Dec 31 2007 - Here's mine... I'm now off to make an offering to the business planning gods for their help in getting to these goals & beyond. To the combined success of Prophets 2 Profits! ----------------------------------------- 1) Corporate a) Retail - Sales reps covering all major markets (1M or more) - Retail product launch plan - 1 more retail release (TBD) b) The Toy Agency - Systems for: o Creative process o Pricing o Manufacturing o Logistics - Marketing agency strategy in place - 1 new customer every 2nd month (5 new customers); 1 of which will be rev of >= 500K/year c) Business - Creative talent pool management strategy & process - Outsourced and/or weekly bookkeeping - Monthly budgeting & forecasting - Better banking organization (Line of Credit, CCs, automate billing for appropriate vendors) - Team total of 5 - Larger office d) Web site - Daily updates - Start of separation of Blog/TTA/Retail 2) Personal - Most weekends “off”! - Entirely separate personal finances; basic personal financing plan - Family….?
Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succ - Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed Ronna Lichtenberg 2005 From the inside cover: "As a woman, you probably feel uncomfortable when it comes to promoting yourself and asking for what you want." WHAT IN THE HECK IS THIS, I asked myself when I read that. Women are the fastest growing business owners in the US and Canada, there are t housands of women executives and CEOs - though not as many as might be expected, admittedly, yet the book opens with this surely out of date stereotype. However, as she continued to give examples of women who had high paying jobs but were routinely not paid as much as men because it hadn't occurred to them to ask for raises, etc., I decided it was probably true for a majority of businesswomen... Anyway, more of the info from the jacket: "Other books have told you how to get what you want by being more like a guy. Pitch Like A Girl tells you why its an advantage to be who you are and how to do better by bringing more of yourself to work." The TOC: 1. Pink and Blue 2. The Quck-dry Chapter 3. What's In your head that's not in his 4. The Me, Inc Mindset 5. Visioning: Discover What You Really Want 6. Identifying Prospects 7. Pre-pitch homework and heartwork 8. Crafting the pitch 9. Pricing the pitch 10. Packaging the pitch 11. Delivering the pitch 12. Closing Conclusion A Word to the guys The Empathy Quotient The Systemizing Quotient Bibliography And on a side note - non-fiction books without indexes - of which this is one, annoy me.
Why women don't charge more - I just read a chapter in Pitch Like A Girl: How a Woman Can Be Herself and Still Succeed, by Ronna Lichtenberg that deals with this. THe chapter is called Pricing the Pitch. "In a WAll Street Journal article about what might be holding women back from corporate success, Terry Dal, a former vice president at Wells Fargo bank, said, "Good girls don't advertise; only prostitutes advertise. We feel dirty promoting ourselves." The author's advice: The first step in getting the money you desserve is to understand the market rate for your offering. Not what you think you need, not what they're willing to pay, but the going rate for similar goods and services offered in your area by someone with your skills and experience. Then, seek expert advice. "Men routinely consult lawyers, financial advisers, exxecutive recruiters and any other paid counselors to help them assess what constitutes a fair fee." Your research into going rates should not lead you to a single price for your pitch but rather a range of prices - both a market range and a personal range, which should overlap but won't necessarily be identical. In pricing, one size does not fit all. The final step in determining your price is to consider what you think you'd be paid for the same job if you were a man. The author also discusses why women usually discount their prices (must'n't appear too over-confident), the difference between discounting and "giving a discount", and other issues. I'd advise every woman wondering about what to charge to read at least this chapter of the book.


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