Want To Attract Higher Value Consulting Clients? Women Consultants Need To Read This
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How do you set the prices for your consulting business? Is there a right way and a wrong way to do it?
Taking control of pricing can be a scary thing to do.
For a lot of us, our consulting business started after we left the relative security of a corporate career.
In our old jobs we were part of a bigger organisation, with salary bands.
Although we may have had some role in negotiating what we were paid, it didn’t happen often, and there were clear lower and upper limits our salary needed to fall between.
We had a sense of what we were allowed to ask for.
But then when it comes to launching your own consultancy – it can feel like suddenly everything feels a lot more personal.
There’s no visibility about what everyone else is being paid, or what you can expect to receive for the role you will perform.
Nobody tells you what the lower and upper limits are, so setting pricing can feel like a shot in the dark.
And pricing negotiations can be made even more complex when we start equating our prices to ‘what I am perceived as being worth’.
We may pitch too low because we don’t want to be seen as ‘in it for the money’ or aggressive.
We may pitch low because we fear being rejected, being told we’re not worth that price.
It’s a real frustration for me, when I speak to amazing women who more than have the skill set they need, but they just aren’t yet confident enough to set prices that reflect that.
I’ve done a lot of personal development work in this area and I’ve got to a point where I feel confident in my pricing and the value I can bring for my clients.
If you can push through that pain barrier, and get to this place too, it becomes a lot easier to make the shift in your business from ‘what am I allowed to charge’, to ‘what adequately compensates me for the value I bring to my clients’.
Can you see the difference there?
You’re no longer seeking permission to work with high value clients.
You are deciding that you will be fairly rewarded for the value you bring, and this frees you up to work with high value clients.
Everything slots into place when you can stop giving the money element of your business more significance, and probably more emotional significance, than it actually merits.
I talk more about this in this week’s episode of the Seven Figure Consultant Podcast.
A recent survey of my email subscribers revealed the #1 topic they wanted to hear more on was ‘how to attract higher value clients to your business’.
This is a drum that I want to keep on banging, because it is so important for women to raise their ambitions, and not opt for the small and safe path forward.
So in this episode I discuss:
- How to move away from equating money with your personal worth
- How to have those hard pricing conversations with clients (new and existing)
- What needs to change about your business before you change your pricing
- Why saying ‘no’ to current clients is often the best place to start.
Once you really get your head around attracting these clients – your business will never quite look the same again.
🎧 You can listen to this week’s episode here – 023 Attracting Higher Value Consulting Clients
And tell me – did your salary negotiations in your previous career prepare you for negotiating prices in your consulting business? Or have you been learning on the go?
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It’s the framework that helps consultant women like you find their feet and get back to leading the business, rather than being buried in client work and back-end business operations.
Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear your feedback and future topics you’d like me to feature.