There’s plenty of research on salary negotiations in the workplace and salary comparisons that bear this out.

Back to pricing.

What makes it hard?

Why do women undercharge?

Here are some thoughts to consider:

Limiting beliefs get in the way.

  • What will they think of me?
  • Will I look greedy or arrogant?
  • They won’t be able to pay that.
  • That’s what everyone else is charging.

Do these sound familiar? If so it’s time to catch yourself and question your fears.

Another challenge is self-doubt or lack of confidence.

So you might think:

  • I’ll charge less than other people while I’m new.
  • I don’t feel confident so I’ll charge less.
  • Will people really pay that for my coaching?
  • It just sounds too much.

Undercutting “the market price” is a bad strategy. There’s an erroneous belief that charging less than others is a brilliant way to gain more clients.

Yes it may bring you clients but some say the ‘cheapskate’ client is often the most picky.

Your low price may communicate that you are inexperienced or not much good. Or that your business is struggling. None of these are helpful. Confidence is everything in business, as anyone who follows the stock market knows.

What to do instead

I recommend these as first steps:

  1. Get clear on your value to clients, what specific results clients achieve with you. Include so they can. For example: Increased confidence so they can ….
  2. Get comfortable with money and money conversations. If profit still feels like a dirty word, something needs to change urgently in your money thinking so you can let your business thrive.
  3. Work with the right people. You can’t serve everyone and charge specialist prices so choose carefully who you want to work with.

 

Alison Haill is an Executive Business Coach running her own coaching business for the last 25 years, Alison knows what works in business today. It worked for her coaching practice during COVID too, and for the women in her ‘Charge What You’re Worth And Get It’ groups. It wasn’t always like this though. At one point after years of struggle, she knew she had to give up or change. She chose to change and invested £££s to learn from business and marketing experts. Distilling the essence of that learning and combining it with her own practical business experience, Alison has created a system that works for her own business and works for other women coaches, consultants and trainers too.