If You Raised Your Prices and Sales Slowed Down, Fix These 3 Things Before Lowering Them
If you recently raised your prices and suddenly feel like you can’t close a single client, this one is for you.
Raising your prices usually looks something like this: Your clients are very happy. They’re getting great results. Maybe some of them even told you that they are shocked that you aren’t charging more. Because you are that good.
And if we're being honest, it makes sense. The value is there, your clients are getting wayyy more than their money's worth. So why shouldn't you be fairly compensated?
So you decided to raise your rates- even though it was scary and you weren't 100% confident that people would buy - but you took the swing and bet on yourself. Which is really hard and I take my metaphorical hat off to you.
The problem is that all of a sudden every lead that seemed like a guaranteed sale is now saying “I want to work with you, but it's just too expensive…”
And that's when the doubt creeps in, you start wondering if you made a mistake…
“Did I raise them too high?“
“Would anyone be willing to pay this much?”
“Maybe I should just lower my prices?”
Before every sales call you find yourself asking “should I pitch the old price or the new?” especially if you can’t really afford to lose another sale- and you really start to question if lowering your price is the right move.
And I get it - because even though you know you create so much value and you deserve to be paid more - financially it feels so much safer to just go with the old price, even if it means you are being undercompensated.
But hold your horses, before you decide to lower your prices back to your old rate, I think you should read this blog post first. Because I know that you can definitely close clients at a higher rate - you just need to make them crystal clear on the value before they ever get on the discovery call.
And you can do that by stacking three simple strategies:
Learn how to communicate the value you know you’re worth
Help people see your value before the discovery call
Qualify leads before they get on your calendar
Let’s dive right into the first one.
Strategy 1: Learn how to communicate why you are worth a higher price
You didn’t raise your prices on a whim. You know you’re good at what you do. Your clients get really good results, and you know that there are some people who would rather pay more money for more value.
The hard part is explaining that value to someone who has never worked with you before.
Communicating your value clearly means thinking beyond the service you provide and looking at the problem you solve.
What are your potential clients struggling with right now? What do they want instead? And what would their life look like - if they do decide to hire you and you deliver 10/10 experience?
Those questions help you get past the “oh I just want your service” answer and understand why someone actually wants to hire you.
At first, you might come up with problems like:
A time management coach: My clients have poor time management skills.
A marketing consultant: My clients need social media graphics and emails.
A parenting coach: My clients struggle with parenting skills.
A CPA: My clients don’t know how to file their taxes.
And don’t get me wrong these are real problems. But they aren’t problems worth paying thousands of dollars to solve.
You might think the answer is to find a different more painful problem- but the truth is so much simpler. You need to go so much deeper on the problems you already have.
For Example:
A time management coach isn’t just helping someone with poor time management skills. He is helping a client who spends all day, every day, putting out fires. Then at the end of the month, he looks back and realizes none of the work that actually matters has moved forward.
A marketing consultant isn’t just helping someone who needs social media posts or emails. She is helping a business owner who has no idea how to bring in leads. She posts when she remembers, tries random things, and never really knows what is bringing in clients. Marketing feels like a gamble instead of something she can count on.
A parenting coach isn’t just helping a mom improve her parenting skills. She is helping a mom who ends another hard day wondering why she keeps losing her patience. She sees other parents who seem to have it figured out and starts asking herself, “Why am I such a bad mom?”
A CPA isn’t just helping someone file their taxes. He can be helping a business owner who already knows he is leaving money on the table every year, but has no freaking clue which legal write-offs or tax strategies could save him tens-of-thousands of dollars.
See the difference?
The trick is to take the first problem you come up with and ask, “Why is that actually a problem?”
And then go even deeper by asking, “How does this actually show up in their day-to-day life?”
Keep going until you can picture the moment your client is actually living through.
Once you understand the problem at that level, you can also start looking at the upside of solving it.
What happens if the client gets the result they wanted? What if getting to that result is easier because they have an expert (you!) helping them? Which mistakes are they going to avoid because they hired you instead of figuring it out alone?
This helps you understand the value of your work beyond the service itself.
So when you think about what your work is worth, do not just look at the service you provide. Look at how much the result matters, how likely you are to help them get it, and how much time and effort you can save them.
This is the strategy work I take clients through inside The Authority Engine. We get specific about the problem they solve, what their client really wants, and what makes their approach different.
Because once you understand your value at that level, you stop being the person who “knows their worth” and instead become someone who can communicate why they are worth it.
Now, just because you can explain why your work is better doesn't mean everyone is going to instantly recognize it. That's what the next strategy is all about - packaging your value into an online presence that makes your expertise undeniable.
Strategy 2: Help people see your value before the discovery call
The reality is that before someone even considers booking a call, they are already forming an opinion about you. They’re looking at your website, your brand, your photos, your content, and what other people say about you.
And if you want to be seen as the best, you need to show up looking like the best. And no, that doesn't mean having the fanciest logo or spending $20,000 on a website.
But you need to look like someone who takes their business seriously. Someone who is a professional in their space and a leader in their industry.
If you are asking someone to make a big investment, the way you show up online can affect how credible and professional you seem. Your work may be amazing, but someone who has never worked with you has to use the information they have to decide what they think.
Looking professional is only part of it. People also want reasons to believe you can actually deliver. That is where testimonials, reviews, and client results can help.
It’s not actually about the design itself, although I’m a huge nerd for a sexy website. It’s the combination of everything in your online presence that helps people answer the two questions they’re asking before they hire you:
Will hiring you actually solve my problem?
Do I trust you to deliver what you say you can?
That is really the job of a strong website. It helps a potential client answer those two questions before they ever talk to you.
Can you help with the problem they have? Do you understand what they are dealing with? Do you have a clear process? Have you helped people like them before? Do they feel comfortable trusting you with their money?
This is where the work from Strategy 1 starts to show up. Your website should make the real problem clear, show what your client wants instead, explain how you help them get there, and give them proof that you can actually do it.
Because if you want people to pay a premium, you don’t want the first time they understand what makes you better - to be halfway through a discovery call. You want them to start seeing it before the call even happens.
The thing is, just because someone sees the value doesn't mean that they're going to actually be a good fit for your high ticket offer. Which brings us to the next step: making sure the people who do get on your calendar are the people who need what you do and are willing to pay for it.
Strategy 3: Qualify leads before you get on a call
Just because someone wants to book a call doesn't mean they are going to become a client.
Even if you are crystal clear on your value and your online presence shows that you know what you are doing, there will still be plenty of people who are not a fit.
Maybe they do not think solving the problem is worth the investment. Maybe they simply cannot afford it right now. Or maybe they are just looking for some free advice.
Which is why I want you to add just a teensy bit of friction 🤏 to your sales process, so less people book calls with you.
And yes I can already hear it- “Schneur, I want to book more discovery calls- not less? I’ll take every lead I can possibly get!”
But more calls are not the answer. Better calls are.
And if you fill your calendar with people who don't have the problem you solve, are not ready to fix it, or were never willing to invest, you can spend hundreds and hundreds of hours talking to people who were never going to become a client in the first place.
This is where qualifying your leads can help.
The easiest place to start is the form someone fills out before booking a discovery call. A lot of people use the default Calendly form that asks for a name, email, and the default generic question: Please share anything that will help prepare for our meeting.
This is a huge mistake, if you want to actually pre-sell your leads and make sure you’re only attracting people who see you as valuable and are prepared to invest- you can ask very specific questions to qualify them before they get on the call.
You can ask questions like:
What’s your biggest challenge right now?
Why are you booking this call?
What would you like to change or achieve?
If this is a good fit, are you ready to invest in getting help?
The last question is important because it gets them to think about the investment before the call even starts.
Funnily enough, the day before I wrote this blog post my client Temima told me that ever since she implemented this into her Calendly form, the leads coming through her website were of a much higher quality.
These questions help in two ways.
They help you decide whether the call even makes sense. If someone’s answers show that you cannot really help them, or they are not in a place to invest, you do not have to take the call just because they booked it.
You get to control who makes it onto your calendar.
The questions get the potential client thinking before the call starts. They have already thought about the problem they want to solve, what they want instead, and whether they are willing to spend money to fix it.
So qualifying is not just about keeping the wrong people off your calendar. It also helps the right people come into the call already thinking about the problem, the result, and the value of working with you.
Inside The Authority Engine, my clients get a bonus training that helps them build this part of their sales process, so that when a potential client books a call through their website - they come in as a pre-qualified lead, so the people who book are much more likely to be a proper fit.
So now you have three things to look at before changing your price: 1. How well you understand and communicate your value. 2. How people understand the value before the call, 3. Who you are letting onto your calendar.
How do you know these fixes will actually help you close more deals?
Ask yourself this: if the right person came to you, fully understood what you do, trusted that you could help them, and was ready to invest in fixing their problem, would they still think your price was too high?
If the answer is no, then your price isn't the problem. Your ability to communicate the value is.
And while lowering your prices may feel safer in the short term, it can create a bigger problem. If you start charging less than you believe your work is worth, what happens next? Are you going to enjoy the work? Are you going to feel good about the clients you take on? Are you going to want to give them your best?
I know I wouldn’t.
When these three pieces are working together, selling becomes so much easier.
You’re no longer spending every call trying to prove your worth. People already understand the value, and the people who make it onto your calendar are more likely to be a good fit.
Which means closing more of the right clients, feeling better about the prices you charge, and making more money without feeling like you need to discount every time someone hesitates.
Want help putting this into place?
If you want to keep your prices where they are, or raise them without feeling like you have to fight for every sale, this is the work we do inside The Authority Engine.
We get clear on the value you create, how to talk about it, and how to show up online so the right people can see that value before they ever get on a call with you.
If that sounds like where you want your business to go, you can learn more about The Authority Engine at schneursmith.com/authority-engine.
