Setting Prices That Reflect Your Expertise

𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 Imagine this scenario: A client asks for your hourly rate. Naturally, you tell them, and they calculate your total cost based on the hours you estimate for a project. Simple, right? But is it fair? Here’s the core issue: charging by the hour often punishes efficiency and skill. Think about it: If a skilled designer creates a stunning, effective logo in just 5 hours, is it worth less than another logo that takes someone 50 hours to make? Does faster work equate to less value? No! In fact, it could mean more value because you’re getting exceptional results in less time. This highlights a key flaw in hourly pricing: it rewards inefficiency and fails to align value with outcomes. 𝐒𝐨, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬? If you're a creative professional, service provider, or freelancer, consider these three steps to move away from hourly rates and align pricing with value: 1. 𝐒𝐡𝐢𝐟𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞-𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 Charge based on the result you deliver, not the time it takes. Ask yourself (and the client): What is this worth to them? How will this impact their business? 2. 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐂𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 Share why your experience, expertise, and efficiency lead to superior outcomes. Explain that time spent is only one aspect of delivering exceptional work. 3. 𝐑𝐞𝐟𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 If a client focuses on hourly rates, ask: “Do you value the time it takes or the results it delivers?” Help them understand that paying for speed, quality, and expertise is an investment in value. 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞 Imagine hiring a surgeon. Do you want the one who completes a successful operation in one hour or someone who takes five hours? You're paying for skill, precision, and outcomes—not just the time. The same logic applies to creative work, consulting, or any professional service. Remember: 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬; 𝐢𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬. What do you think? Are you ready to break free from the hourly mindset? Let’s discuss below! #Freelancing #BusinessTips #PricingStrategy #ValueOverTime

Want to raise your fees? Think like a renovator. Old commercial buildings are being renovated to meet the times. Maybe your professional or business services firm should think about renovating its outdated form. The “Old Building” ·       Hourly billing. Rates built up from costs plus profit. ·       Intense pressure to bill. ·       Clients are expected to pay whatever the invoice is. ·       Cash flow is often a struggle because you bill in arrears. ·       Competitors try to undercut your rates. ·       Anything not billable is deemed to have no value. After years, this building is looking shabby. New buildings look like this: ·       Clients pay for the IMPACTs the firm delivers. ·       Fees are proportional to the IMPACT + significance. ·       Cash flow is awesome. ·       Clients love being able to call/email and get quick answers to brief questions. ·       No competitor can take clients away. ·       Associates are encouraged to study, network, and bring in new clients. ·       The firm’s revenue and profits increase, and no one is exhausted due to overwork. Ready to renovate your firm? The foundation is your Pricing Strategy, or the rule that determines your fees. The new Pricing Strategy is that the firm is compensated for life changing differences it delivers for fees proportional to those differences. The pricing model is IMPACT Based Pricing. The firm builds on this foundation. Offers: Use the Choice Framework of IMPACT PLUS, IMPACT, and IMPACT Light options. Marketing: Review the language on your website and other collateral. Replace talk about inputs and tasks with language about IMPACTs, life changing differences, and proportional fees. Sales: Your sales processes and systems need to reflect IMPACT and the life changing differences you deliver. Use the Issue Chart to qualify prospects. Use the Continuum of IMPACT to learn about their high significance needs. Client Service: Deliver a higher level client of service. One of most effective is unlimited access to you during normal business hours. Acknowledge quickly, then follow up completely in a way the client loves. Retention: Retention is based on the fact that you are continually getting more capable of delivering higher value IMPACTs. Stay and GROW with them! Referrals: Happy clients will naturally tell their colleagues and refer them to you. Respond enthusiastically to all introductions and thank the client who made it. Let some people go Your renovations require that you let some people go. If you can, introduce them to another provider. If not, thank them and wish them well. Remember this… You can’t be both old and new at the same time. The old buyers won’t care if you try, but the new buyers will doubt your promises if they see the old side of the house. Thinking about a “renovation” and feeling tentative about how to start? DM me & let’s see if this is the time. #professionalservices #businessservices #fractionalexecutive

Think raising your prices will scare clients away? What if the opposite is true? On the latest episode of Stop the Noise, I spoke with Per Sjofors, founder of Sjöfors & Partners and author of The Price Whisperer. With over 750 client engagements under his belt, Per has helped businesses double their growth rates and boost margins by as much as 40%. He joined me to break down one of the trickiest parts of consulting: pricing your services. Per believes pricing isn’t just numbers—it’s a message. And if your prices don’t reflect your value, your clients will notice. Here are a few highlights from our conversation: ➡️Stop Selling Hours Charging hourly invites comparisons and can even penalize you for being efficient. Per argues that value-based pricing shifts the focus from time to tangible results. ➡️Presentation Matters A strong proposal builds confidence. By the time you reveal your price, your client should already see the value. ➡️Anchor High Per’s "Best, Better, Good" framework sets expectations by showing your top-tier offer first. ➡️Test Your Pricing with Two Key Questions Ask 25 potential clients: > What price feels too low to trust? > What price feels too high to afford? The goal isn’t just to charge more—it’s to build trust and position yourself as a premium choice. Curious to dive deeper into these strategies? Listen to the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/gsH7aHnp There’s already too much noise about chasing clients with low fees. The real win? Owning your worth and showing clients why you’re worth it.

The real cost of undervaluing your expertise. Let me guess: You’ve got solid skills - whether it’s coaching, design, marketing, or something else entirely - but you still charge “safe” prices, right? You tell yourself, “I’m just starting,” or “No one would pay more.” But here’s the truth: Every time you undercharge, you’re not just leaving money on the table. ❗ You’re reinforcing a belief that your skills are only worth the lowest dollar amount you can justify. ❗ That belief can linger for years, quietly sabotaging your growth. You are paying an invisible opportunity cost, my friend! ➡️ If you’re juggling five low-paying clients, you miss out on landing one or two higher-value clients who could triple your revenue with fewer headaches. ➡️ When you work with lower-paying customers, they often expect the world for pennies. ➡️ High-maintenance plus low revenue is the fastest route to burnout. ➡️ Underpricing can make potential clients wonder if you’re actually qualified. Ironically, raising prices can increase trust when you have the goods to back it up. You have to price for the transformation. ❗ Clients pay for outcomes, not hours. ❗ If you can double someone’s revenue or drastically improve their well-being, that’s worth way more than an hourly rate you’d bill for your time. Ask yourself: How drastically does my work improve my client’s life or business? That answer should guide your pricing, not a “comfort zone” figure. Yes, it’s scary to raise your fees. But staying in the “cheap and cheerful” lane is scarier. Because you’re silently telling the world (and yourself) that you’re not worth more. Start by asking what your clients really gain from working with you, then attach a price that respects both their ROI and your expertise. Because trust me, the people who need you most will step up to meet you where you’re worth. — Do you agree? How do you go about pricing your services in a way that benefits both you and your customers?

If the Highway to Hell is billing by the hour... Then, the Spaceship to Hell is selling buckets of hours Do you bill hourly? Do you sell buckets of hours?   IMO, billing by the hour is a broken business model. It’s a trap that punishes efficiency, erodes trust, and signals to your clients that your time, not your expertise, is the product. You’re incentivized to take longer. They’re incentivized to challenge your time. Everyone loses. Worse still? Selling buckets of hours. That’s just billing by the hour in a shiny box. You slap a price tag on 20, 40, or 100 hours and hand the burden of defining success over to your client. You’re no longer a strategic partner, you’re an open tab. You’ve just turned your professional services into an open tab at a bar with no menu and no bartender. Buckets of hours feel safe to you, but they create risk for your client. They don’t know what they’ll get. You don’t know what they’ll ask for. You’re both operating in a fog, and no one’s driving toward outcomes. If you're selling expertise, consulting, advisory, compliance, security, strategy, and transformation, then your business model should reflect that. Not time. Not activity. Results. Align your offers to real business outcomes. Productize your services with clear deliverables. Price for transformation, not transactions. You don’t get to be a trusted advisor while submitting a timesheet. You don’t scale impact by tracking hours.   Kill the clock. Burn the buckets. Build something better. #consulting #advisory #vciso #msp #fciso