How To Price Your Programs

Have you been struggling with how to price your programs?

Are you worried about charging too much and losing potential clients?

Are you worried that you’re losing money because you’re not charging enough?

It’s tricky, because you want to find the sweet spot where people are willing to invest in your offerings AND you’re making good money.

After 10 years in business, pricing lots of different offerings, I’ve made some mistakes and learned a lot along the way.

Today I’m going to share my thoughts and strategies around pricing.

The Psychology of Pricing

First, I want to talk about the psychology of pricing.

While it’s easy to think that the lower the price, the more people will buy, that’s not necessarily the case.

Whether we realize it or not, research has shown that services or products that have a higher price also have a higher perceived value.

Think about it…

Imagine that you were shopping around for a personal trainer. You got the names of 2 people. One charged $40 per hour and the other charged $60 per hour.

While you may love the $40/hour price, you’d probably wonder why she wasn’t charging more. You’d assume that the $60/hour trainer had more experience, was more skilled, and would get you better results.

You can certainly set your rates too high, but you can also set them too low.

When you charge a higher amount, you’ll find that people have more confidence in you, they take working with you more seriously, and you’ll attract ideal clients who are ready to take action.

What are people willing to pay?

This is the million dollar question, isn’t it? If you knew the maximum people were willing to pay, you would charge it (or close to it!).

While you can’t read people’s minds, there is an easy way to figure this out.

When I was a brand new health coach, I decided that I would gradually raise my prices over time.

At the time, I was offering a 6 month one-on-one coaching program. When I started seeing clients I was still in school, so I started charging $75 per month.

I generally do NOT recommend such a low investment, but for me it was a way to easily sign on clients and gain experience. After I signed on 2 clients, I went up to $95 per month. After 2 more clients, I went up to $125. I kept going until I reached $297.

While my rates were pretty low, remember this was several years ago.

I still love the approach of gradually raising your rates because it allows you to charge more as you gain more experience and confidence.

There are lots of coaches who will advise you to charge $3,000 or more for your private coaching program. I think it’s great to charge that amount, but you have to be able to OWN whatever price you charge.

If you currently charge $900 for your program, going up to $3,000 is a BIG leap. You may not be convinced that you’re worth it or that people will pay that amount. If you’re not convinced you can “own” the number, your potential clients will pick that up and likely won’t sign up.

By gradually raising your rates, you’re able to see how your pricing impacts people’s willingness to sign-up.

How do you know when your rates are too high?

I used to think that I was failing if I wasn’t “closing the deal” with every potential client I spoke to.

I then learned from a wise marketer (Rob Scott) that if I was closing the deal 100% of the time (or close to that), that it meant my pricing was too low.

What an eye opener!

As Rob shared with me, I shouldn’t be closing the deal more than 80% of the time.

What can you learn from this?

As you gradually raise your rates, you’ll start to see where you get resistance.

If you’re accustomed to closing the deal 90% or 100% of the time, you might notice that you start closing only 70% or 80% of the time.

This is a great place to be. But if your closing rate dips below 70%, that’s when you’ll may want to slightly reduce your pricing.

Offer Different Levels of Support

I don’t believe in overwhelming potential clients with too many options, but it’s always great to give clients at least two options to choose from.

When I was a health coach, I offered 3 different one-on-one coaching packages. My highest end program was called “Total Support” and it was by far the most popular.

You will find that most clients will choose your top offering. This is because they’re serious about feeling better and they don’t want to mess around with a program that doesn’t give them everything they need.

Of course, some potential clients will be price sensitive, so it’s great to have a lower-priced offering. This lower-priced offering should have significantly less value than the higher-end offering.

Nailing down the numbers

When you offer a service (such as 1:1 coaching or a group program), you’re providing your energy in exchange for your clients’ monetary investment. When determining your pricing, I think it’s important to consider what that energy exchange is worth to you.

The numbers will change over time, as you grow and evolve. But when creating your pricing, check in with yourself on what you feel it’s WORTH to you.

Sample Pricing

Feel free to use this chart as a starting point as you think through your pricing. But remember, your specific pricing will be based on what stage you’re at in your business, the demand for your services, the types of clients you work with, and what’s included in your programs.

Experiment to find the “sweet spot” where you’re enrolling clients at a good rate and you feel the investment level is a good exchange for the time and energy you put into your programs.

 
Now I’d love to hear from you!
If you have pricing you feel really good about, share it below. If you have questions about pricing your programs, post those questions below so I can support you.