The right pricing always aligns with your brand.It communicates your value and reflects the results you deliver.It is an integral part of your market positioning and—done well—will perfectly match up with your clients’ experience.
The higher your price point, the more value your client needs to experience from working with you.
By definition, a service that looks like everyone else’s in your space is not going to fetch the highest price.Take executive coaching to large corporations for example—it’s a crowded space with little real differentiation.Most large organizations that hire coaches do so from a specialized “reseller” of services. These resellers sign up legions of solo coaches who agree to follow their pricing (and process) and then hook them into what’s essentially a beauty contest—client execs needing a coach get a lengthy list and typically talk to a handful before making a choice.
Two things happen.
One: to get on the list, you’ve had to agree to cut-rate pricing before you ever get in front of your client. (Sure you don’t have to market yourself, but your “partner” is taking anywhere from 20%-200% of your fee right to their bottom line.)And two, you’ve officially become a commodity. Your price is exactly the same as every other coach your client is evaluating which means your opportunity to connect your price to
the value you deliveris gone forever.Your price (and positioning) is announcing that you’re interchangeable with dozens of competitors.But if instead, you build yourself a niche that is very specific and value-driven—no one will be mistaking you for a commodity. Take a look at these examples: which one would you want to talk to if you’re a consumer products CIO in a Fortune 500 company?“I coach executives.”“I coach executives in Fortune 500 companies.”“I coach technology executives in Fortune 500 companies.”“I coach technology executives in consumer product Fortune 500 companies.”“I coach the CIO in consumer product Fortune 500 companies.”And that’s just for starters.Because we’ve only identified the guardrails of your niche (we’re still too me-focused vs. identifying the transformations clients care about).The critical question is what value are you actually delivering?Maybe you’re reducing time to market for big technology changes—what’s saving three months worth to your client’s bottom line?Or you’re bringing a newly minted CIO the benefit of your experience so she can get her team operating smoothly—how much is retaining existing staff and delivering on mission-critical promises worth?
When you position yourself to have that discussion, your client will tell you what it’s worth.
And I can guarantee you won’t be in a beauty contest with six other executive coaches trying to get paid like a commodity.You’ll be on a very short list.Want to make it even shorter?Keep publishing to and building authority within your niche and you just may be the proud occupant of a list of one.Related:
How To Build Trust (And Your Authority)
