In theory, raising your fees should be easy. Take your current fees, increase them by a certain %, announce them to your customers, and collect money.
In reality, raising your fees is far from easy. It has been my experience that the difficulty in raising your fees has very little to do with what your competitors charge, your customers ability to pay, or the state of the economy. The true difficulty takes place within your mind and the lies you tell yourself.
Full disclosure: I struggled with this issue for years and my businesses were not as success as they could have been (and my personal financial position suffered as well). To put it bluntly, I regularly gave deals to rich people for years (even though they could more than afford my services). Deep inside, I knew it wasn’t right, but I justified it as being the nature of the service industry. If I was really honest with myself, I was being ruled by fear in this area and desperately needed to mindset change.
I see too many passionate digital marketing consultants working too hard for so little pay because their fees are too low relative to the value they provide. This is not ok with me and I want do something about it. Its time to start shifting your mindset. Below are the most common lies we tell ourselves and how to overcome them…
The 3 Most Common Lies We Tell Ourselves About Raising Our Fees
#1 “I will lose most of my clients”-as with any fee raise, there may be an outside chance that a few clients could drop off. But the reality is most of them will not leave you as long as your fee increases are concurrent with the value you provide. Even if you lose a client or two, you fee increases should be more than enough to make up for the loss. I feel the underlying fear here is really the fear of rejection. I think in a lot of cases, we would rather avoid a couple of rejections than experience the benefits of raising our fees.
#2 “People will think I’m greedy”-if you increase the amount of value you give to your clients, you can ethically charge more. Simply put, Value = Dollars. I have found that most digital marketing consultants are far from greedy and get into the business because they want to help people. I believe the opposite is probably more common. Digital marketing consultants severely undercharge and would give away their services for free if they could (I was one of them). The bottom line is that to create a business worth owning and the life style you want, your fees need to be in proportion to the value you provide.
#3 “Am I really worth it?”– I think believing that you are worth it is the biggest hurdle for many of us. I think the key here is to remember that most digital marketing consultants fail to realize how valuable their skills and expertise really are to their clients. When digital marketing consultants do what they do best it may seem common to them, but extremely valuable to their clients.
3 Tips To Overcome The Lies & Start Raise Your Fees
#1 Stop listening to other voices other than the voices of your inner circle. Your inner circle is made up of the people you trust, those you respect, and the ones looking out for your best interest. Examples include a seasoned mentor in your field, other entrepreneurs you respect, or members of your mastermind group. Any advice or feedback from those outside the inner circle needs to be filtered prior to influencing your decision making.
#2 Start listening to your heart-if you are committed to continually improving your skills and level of service, you can be confident that you’re providing more value and are worthy of commanding higher fees. If you are not yet committed to improving and providing more value, now is the time to raise your game!
#3 Meet with a trust mentor, coach, or mastermind group member- they can help you assess your current fees structure, share their own wisdom and experience with fees, can help you strategize an increase and hold you accountable when the going gets tough.
If you would like raise your fees with boldness and integrity, my 6-Figure Freedom program may be just the thing for you. It’s the signature program that I created to help smart, successful digital marketing consultants get to 6-figures, fast, and spend more time with their family.
If you would like to find out if 6-Figure Freedom is a good fit for you, be sure to book a 15 minute Readiness Audit, click here
Chris Rudolph is a husband, father of 3, and a Freedom Business Coach for Digital Marketers. He specializes in working with those who are underpaid, hustling around the clock or missing out on valuable family time build their own Freedom Agency. He helps them grow their income, scale with a team and enjoy more time with their family.
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