The Red Flags of Inadequate Pricing
In a discovery call I had with a videographer, he revealed that his pricing was inadequate before he disclosed what his prices were. What are those “red flags?” Do any of them apply to your practice? The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX®.
TRANSCRIPT
John Ray: [00:00:00] And hello again. I’m John Ray on The Price and Value Journey. Recently, I was on a discovery call with a videographer. This man had been in business for about five years, and he felt like he needed to make some major changes to his business if he was going to achieve the goals he had set for himself.
John Ray: [00:00:21] About 15 or 20 minutes into the conversation, I told him, “You know, I can tell your pricing is too low.” “How do you know that?” he asked. “I haven’t told you my prices yet.”
John Ray: [00:00:35] In no particular order, I responded, there are several reasons. First, you price by the hour. By definition, a professional services provider, like you, who prices by the hour is underpricing their services. Second, you tell me that all clients are paying the same price. The problem there is that not all clients have the same values. Different clients value your services differently. You’re probably going the extra mile for clients who don’t value that added care you’re giving them and you’re not charging for it.
John Ray: [00:01:10] Third, you’re not offering options. Options are a powerful way to tailor your services to your best fit clients who love what you accomplish for them, and they’re willing to pay you a good price for that. Fourth, you complain that you feel like you’re working too hard for too little money. For professional services providers, like you, that’s always a sign of a pricing problem.
John Ray: [00:01:38] Fifth, you seem to be taking on most projects which come your way. More prospects should be turning you down because of price. Finally, I said, you’re talking a lot about what and how you do what you do instead of the challenges clients have that you solve. What that tells me is that you’re not having solid value conversations with clients at all. A value conversation is the dialogue you must have with a prospective client to understand the difficulties you’ll be helping them overcome. If you understand how your solution to their problems moves the needle for their business, then you’ll be able to set better prices.
John Ray: [00:02:25] He paused and said, “You’re exactly right. I need to work on my pricing.” In about 15 minutes, this videographer had run through just about every red flag I look for when assessing the pricing of professional services providers. If any of these red flags are flying over your practice, you have a pricing problem and your pricing is too low.
John Ray: [00:02:53] I’m John Ray on The Price and Value Journey. If you’d like to know more, go to johnray.co or connect with me directly, email me, john@johnray.co.
About The Price and Value Journey
The title of this show describes the journey all professional services providers are on: building a services practice by seeking to convince the world of the value we offer, helping clients achieve the outcomes they desire, and trying to do all that at pricing which reflects the value we deliver.
If you feel like you’re working too hard for too little money in your solo or small firm practice, this show is for you. Even if you’re reasonably happy with your practice, you’ll hear ways to improve both your bottom line as well as the mindset you bring to your business.
The show is produced by the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® and can be found on all the major podcast apps. The complete show archive is here.
John Ray, Host of The Price and Value Journey
John Ray is the host of The Price and Value Journey.
John owns Ray Business Advisors, a business advisory practice. John’s services include advising solopreneur and small professional services firms on their pricing. John is passionate about the power of pricing for business owners, as changing pricing is the fastest way to change the profitability of a business. His clients are professionals who are selling their “grey matter,” such as attorneys, CPAs, accountants and bookkeepers, consultants, marketing professionals, and other professional services practitioners.
In his other business, John a Studio Owner, Producer, and Show Host with Business RadioX®, and works with business owners who want to do their own podcast. As a veteran B2B services provider, John’s special sauce is coaching B2B professionals to use a podcast to build relationships in a non-salesy way which translate into revenue.
John is the host of North Fulton Business Radio, Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Radio, Nashville Business Radio, Alpharetta Tech Talk, and Business Leaders Radio. house shows which feature a wide range of business leaders and companies. John has hosted and/or produced over 1,100 podcast episodes.
