Therapists, raise your fees!
Premium pricing WORKS and here’s why!
If you are looking for a sign about whether or not you should raise your fees…
Consider this your sign.
I woke up this morning to an email from a client of mine who I worked with a while back, and she said:
“Thank you so much for encouraging me to raise my fees!”
She had jumped her fees up by $25 an hour after we worked together, and she said that all this did was increase the flow of clients.
Now, she is so full that she is having to raise her rates AGAIN to stem the flow of clients coming in.
So what is premium pricing and why does it work so well and why are we all afraid to use it?
I was like this for years.
I was TERRIFIED to raise my fees because I thought…
“If I’m the cheapest person in town, I’ll get the most clients.”
Of course it doesn’t work that way because when you go looking for a service provider or a therapist, are you only thinking of the cheapest person in town?
Of course not.
You want somebody good and you are more than willing to pay that premium price to get a really good person as opposed to wondering,
“Why is this person so cheap?” Are they not good? Is that why their prices are so low?”
This client of mine who had raised her fees was not sitting at the bottom of the market in her area. In fact, she said…
“Well, I already charge more than my friends. What do you mean raise my fees?”
And I still told her to do it.
When you raise your fees, you get people who are paying a pretty penny for your service. Therefore, they’re hanging on your every word.
They want to get it done.
They want this transformation.
They are so much more invested because writing that check every week to you is a little bit painful, so they are careful and serious about their work with you.
At one point I rant a $497 program. A lot of people were struggling with raising their own fees and charging a premium price for their own work.
We all have imposter syndrome. We all have a scarcity mindset. I so get it.
But I asked them…
“What if I had priced this program $29 or even $77? What would your response be? Would you be getting as much out of this program?”
And of course they said no!
One woman said,
“If I had paid 29 bucks, I probably would have never thought about it again. I would have paid the money, MAYBE shown up the first week and then just forgotten about it.”
It would have been the same program.
They would have gotten all the same materials.
But because the amount they paid wouldn’t have been a little bit painful, they wouldn’t have made the commitment to come every week, to show up, be a part of it and to actively get the most they possibly could out of it.
And this is also what happens when you raise your fees…
You get more committed clients.
You get people that you’re excited to work with because they’re actually doing the work.
They’re actually changing their lives.
And you feel better because you know that now you (like my client) can afford the things you’ve always wanted which makes you happier and more confident.
My client’s email said,
By the way, I am writing to you from Istanbul where I’m on a two-week trip with my girlfriends, which I can afford now because of you teaching me how to raise my fees….
So yes, the psychology of premium pricing feels weird in the beginning,
But trust the process and go for it.
Consider this your sign, and RAISE YOUR FEES.
Then write to me from Istanbul.
I’ll be waiting…
