If average consultancy and coaching fees are $£100 per hour, how do you charge more for your services?
1. Value and price are subjective.
What’s the price of yoga leggings? Ask Tesco, Lululemon or Balenciaga. They all have a different answer based on their ideal client. Tesco provides great yoga leggings but are they 1000x less good than Lululemon or Balenciaga in terms of quality of production?
Truth is, you can put the most expensive label-less leggings in a scabby old shop in the grotty part of town and people wouldn’t notice the difference.
There was a famous food experiment done years ago. A 5* chef created a cordon bleu chicken feast that he usually made in his 5* restaurant in London. They served it up in a high street restaurant, a motorway cafe, a greasy spoon and a prison and asked guests to rate the food.
Answer? They all rated it according to the environment in which it was served. Nobody discerned that it came from a 5* chef or anything like it.
What does that mean for your business? Your branding, positioning, packaging and messaging need to be significantly better than the average consultant. There’s a reason why KPMG, Thorntons and Savilles spend a lot of money investing in their brand equity. Why? Because if you can’t showcase the superior value, you cannot convince anyone of your superior quality service and thereby pricing.
2. You may very well say so. I couldn’t possibly comment!
Do you have tonnes of case studies, transformations, testimonials and track record? These marketing assets will set you head and shoulders above the pack. You can crow all day and all night about how fantastic your business is and the transformation you can bring. But if you haven’t got 100s of screaming fans prepared to speak louder than you to testify to the validity of your claims, nobody will believe the hype.
Therefore, when it comes to online marketing, make sure every 8th or 10th post is a client case study / testimonial plus get them sprinkled all over the website too. Otherwise, it’s all a load of self-agrandising hype.
3. You may be a leader but …
You may be a leader in your field but are you a leend? Do you get to talk or be quoted on the BBC, conferences and magazines? All these are external validations that this expert is objectively great.
When was the last time you did a guest blog or a TED talk? Have you been invited into Podcasts? Panel discussions? If this is not happening at least once per month, your standing needs significantly revved up.
Again, much like the Case Studies and Testimonials, these are all 3rd parties willing to vouch for you by hosting your brand and expertise on their platform that they have spent years nurturing. If you don’t have 3rd parties knocking on your door to add value to their offerings, then how on earth is the customer to discern and trust you can provide value for them?
You can sit in your comfy office chair staring at the computer that doesn’t ping and the phone that doesn’t ring all day long but they won’t ring by themselves. A solid and persistent strategy is required to get the news out to all the possible 3rd parties to book you now before it’s too late.
4. An expert without a book
Do you have a book? Are you an author in your specialised space? Can you see the impact this book will have on how you are positioned?
It really doesn’t matter if you are published by traditional publishers or self-published (except of course that the publishers will take the lion’s share of the revenue). Having 10-12 chapters on your specialist area of expertise instantly puts your brand and expertise head and shoulders above the rest.
What’s more, once you have a book under your belt, guess how much easier it becomes to pitch you to podcasters as a guest, or large magazines and journals as a guest blogger, or news outlets as a thought leader for an opinion piece of talking head? Or conferences, events and speaker opportunities? Sooooo much easier. It’s a no-brainer.
What’s the plan?
Now that you know the four main ways to charge more as a coach or consultant, what are you going to do? What are your action steps? How will you guarantee success? How will you capitalise on these incredible opportunities to stand out and charge more? The answers are simple.
Firstly, you can get a marketing firm to do it all for you so you pay a retainer to make sure your social media, podcasting, book writing, PR, Youtube videos and ads are all done, scheduled and amplified professionally.
Secondly, you can hire a marketing coach to keep you accountable and prioritise the low-hanging fruit while working on the premium opportunities. This will usually be a 1 or 2 hour meeting per month to keep you on track and ensure the work gets done while also helping you to outsource a lot of the labour-intensive parts like editing, scheduling, pitching, etc.
Thirdly, you join a weekly marketing accountability group that’s focused on getting everyone to do the work while supporting them on the journey with efficiency and productivity tools, tips and techniques to lift the load and deliver bigger and faster results.
What’s it going to be? Will you take action now or forever live in coulda, shoulda, woulda land?
