In this blog post, I will introduce you to Sally, my imaginary friend, who can help you with improving your mindset around pricing
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Let me tell you about Sally.
Sally is my lovely imaginary friend. Only joking. Sally is my lovely imaginary client that I talk to in my copy, my messages etc. Oh okay, if you want to go all technical on me, then she’s my ideal client avatar.
Sally sometimes has d
ays when she feels really confident about what she does and other days when it’s just not happening. Let me get her to tell you in her words (no, I haven’t gone completely nuts – stay with me) Here’s Sally…
“I get really great testimonials and people love my free offerings but it’s hard work converting them. I swing from wanting to offer low-end price point offerings to really high ones. I get annoyed at myself sometimes where I keep offering discounts or giving away everything for nothing. I wouldn’t do that if I was working for someone else.
Some days I value what I offer, other days I think nobody will want to pay me for what I do. After all, loads of people must know what I know already, and can figure it out for themselves.”
Do you resonate with any of Sally’s story in your business? If so, we need to talk.
Let’s break down it down a bit.
So Sally says she gets really great testimonials and that people love her free offerings but it’s hard work converting them.
When you get testimonials, cherish them, post them on your website and even say thank you publicly for the fabulous testimonial if you want to. When I say cherish them, though, I mean go back to them if you’re having a day when it feels like you’re not good enough at what you do, they’re a great reminder of how fabulous you are!
Now let’s talk free – Freebies in Sally’s case could mean a specific freebie that she’s offering, i.e. a checklist or video series, or she might mean free offerings like discovery calls that she’s holding with people.
Freebies are a way to build relationships, to showcase your expertise and to invite people onto your mailing list. The same applies to free conversations with clients where you share one or two nuggets with them to help them with their specific problem.
There can be this whole icky thing around giving away things, you know – “If I give away my stuff I won’t have anything to sell”, “People won’t want to work with me”, that kind of thing. It’s not true. I bet you know an awful lot more than you’re sharing in a free download or in a blog post!
Conversely,
If you’re giving everything away for free you have a hobby, not a business! Just sayin’
The thing with free is that there is a time and a place for it. Free is great for helping people to connect with you, for giving you the chance to share snippets of what you do and encourage people to take that next step with you, but here’s the rub. You have to invite them to take that next step with you, it doesn’t just magically happen. It’s not going to be that with a wave of a magic wand they’re one of your high-end clients. It just doesn’t work like that.
It’s fine being visible by sharing good content, it’s then about getting people to take that next step so that you stay in business. Don’t let fear be the thing that stands in your way.
Converting clients to work with you is a skill. I have spent endless hours trying to figure out how to sell without being sleasy. I hated that whole money conversation, but once you’ve got your offerings sorted and you’re completely clear on how you can help people, selling becomes a lot easier.Yes, there are things you can learn, specific things you want to say, but ultimately, come from a place 
of service and how you can help, and then selling isn’t even a ‘thing’ anymore. You’re just having a conversation with someone about how you can help and then you share your prices.
Keep practising your sales conversations, learn what works and what doesn’t reflect on every one, and tweak and adapt. It will get easier. I’m still a work in progress on mine, but having done the work now I convert many, many more clients than I ever did before.
Back to Sally – Sally was switching from low-end to high-end offerings, and couldn’t quite make her mind up. As your expertise grows alongside your business you will have incremental price increases. I currently have a high-end 1:1 package at £5,000 and my lowest price point to work with me in a group capacity is in a masterclass at £35.
You can still be of service without giving everything away for free. It’s about valuing what you do, not valuing what you think you’re worth. Don’t get into that whole thing that people talk about with pricing, this whole “Charge what you’re worth”. It’s not about charging what you’re worth, it’s about charging what your services are worth – two completely different things. If you have someone who says they can’t afford you and you’re charging what you’re worth, then that makes you worthless or worth-less, which is complete nonsense!
Sally said she wouldn’t discount in the way that she does if she worked for someone else. One strategy I work on with clients when they find it challengi
ng to sell their services is to think about themselves and their business as two different entities. When you treat yourself as an ’employee’ of your company when you’re stepping into the selling arena, it makes it all about the service, not all about you.
She then went on to say that some days she values what she offers, other days she doesn’t. This is where working on your mindset really pays off dividends, and those testimonials can help here too.
Working on your mindset is a HUGE part of being visible in your business.
Sally thinks that people know what she knows already. Maybe they do, but her ideal clients won’t, or they might still need reminding. Some people can take free content and figure it out for themselves, but more often people need support to implement and make it happen.They might be able to do it on their own, but want someone else to help them, they might want to draw on someone else’s expertise. I could cut my own hair, but let’s see how that would work out for me! Okay, maybe not!
So what key things can we learn from Sally:
- Cherish your testimonials, go back and read them from time to time
- Free is okay, but you need to help your clients take that next step, it might be to join your mailing list or to have a conversation with them
- Build relationships and learn how to convert potential clients into paying clients
- If you find selling icky, become an ’employee’ of your business
- Work on your mindset DAILY
I hope you’ve learned a few things from my imaginary friend Sally, umm, I mean imaginary client, today.
Your call to action this week: Dig out your testimonials, have a read through and celebrate your great work, and then start thinking about what you can do to boost your mindset on a daily basis.
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