Salutations friend and welcome to episode 6 of The Profit Scale! In this episode, we are going to talk about how charging more will actually allow you to offer a higher-level experience for your clients, and ultimately, serve them better! There are some great real-life examples int today's episode to help demonstrate this point, to turn up the volume and let's get started!
Salutations friend and welcome to episode 6 of The Profit Scale! In this episode, we are going to talk about how charging more will actually allow you to offer a higher-level experience for your clients, and ultimately, serve them better! There are some great real-life examples in today's conversation to help demonstrate this point. We're going to take a look at a Fortune 10 company  as an example to help me make my case that charging more will actually allow you to serve sour clients better.
I will also discuss three different areas where you can begin to elevate the experience for your clients:
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Salutations friend and welcome to an episode of The Profit Scale! This is the podcast for service-based coaches, consultants and creatives looking to stop living from paycheck to paycheck, pay themselves more, and scale their business beyond the 6-figure plateau without the overwhelm of 60+ hours work weeks.Â
I’m your host and Income Strategist, RJ Connell. If you are looking to collect more coins, stop dropping coins, and grow your business sustainably, then you, my friend, are in the right place! Turn up the volume and lean in because we are about to get started!
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Salutations, friend! It’s RJ Connell here. Friend, we are diving into it today! We are going to talk about why charging more for your services will allow you to serve your clients better. I put together this case study for you into a downloadable worksheet. I don’t just want you to take my word for it. I’m a visual person — visuals are always helpful for me, so you can find the case study in the worksheet using the link in the show notes or you can head over to rjconnell.ca/6 to access it.
Okay, so now that you got your worksheet in hand, let’s talk about this idea that charging more can allow you to serve your clients better. As you know, many companies offer the same products and services as other companies to their clients — from window repair services to nail salons, locksmiths, car companies, and even grocery stores. The products and services that these huge and widely successful stores sell and offer tend not to be very unique in itself, yet they still attract a specific and unique clientele.Â
How is that? While some businesses sell a product or a service, others sell experience. Well, guess what, the businesses that sell experience tend to charge a lot more.Â
The world of online business continues to grow and expand, hence, it is likely that the level of saturation we see today is still the lowest that it will ever be. There will be more health coaches, launch strategists, financial coaches, business or branding consultants, hairdressers, producers, videographers, and podcast producers. You will have even more competition online than you do right now.
The communities and audiences we want to serve online are looking for more than just a product or a service; they are looking for experience and connection. You must understand how to cultivate both the experience and connection that they are craving and position your business as the solution and not just a solution.
Have you noticed that they always have different levels of ticket prices or different packages at a business conference? There is usually a general admission ticket that may go from $1 to $300, a VIP ticket which is often around $1000, and sometimes a VIP plus or an even higher level than VIP which starts at $1500 or more, depending on the conference.Â
Now, understand that the person who pays for the general admission ticket and the person who buys the VIP plus ticket are both going to receive the same content at the conference. The keynote speaker who is going to give the same speech to the people sitting in the last row is also going to deliver to the people sitting in the reserved VIP section. Yet, the price of the VIP tickets tends to be magnitudes higher than the general admission. Why is that?
The same is true for first-class flights. I was looking up flights to London, England a few days ago, and found a great deal for a direct flight worth $550! Since it was remarkably cheap, I decided to compare it with the cost of flying business class — it is a business trip after all.Â
To my surprise, the first-class ticket to the same destination during the same dates was more than triple the price for business class. Again, why is that? The people in the back of the plane are all going to the same destination as the people in the first-class. The result of getting to the city of London is the same for both classes. However, the experience is different.Â
When you book a first-class flight, you are not paying for the result of the destination. You are paying for your experience on the way there. Even the confirmation email they send you is different from the person paying for an economy flight. You get to be among the first people boarding the plane. You get to sit close to the entrance doors so that you are also the first off the plane, and there is usually a lavatory in your section too. You get the first-class service — a flight attendant waits on you, your drinks and food are included with your ticket, and even free WiFi. On some flights, you even have access to better music and movie selections.Â
The same goes for live events. You are paying for the experience. Notice how the VIP or higher tickets tend to include more access and opportunities for you to connect with either the host or the guest speakers. You get to sit in front of the room where seating is usually reserved for you and often, you get to have extra or longer sessions with the guest speakers or hosts in a smaller setting that is more intimate.Â
A higher price point allows businesses to cultivate an elevated experience for customers. It is not solely about the results. When talking about higher price points, it is almost always about paying for the experience.
The same is true for real estate, which is why the better the location, the higher the price. It is because the location dictates the experience.Â
It is also the whole reason Starbucks can get away with charging five dollars for a small or Grande coffee. You are not paying for the coffee, you are paying for the experience of Starbucks.Â
By now, you should be starting to understand how valuable experience can be for your clientele. It is this exact reason why charging more for your services will allow you to serve your clients better.Â
You are probably only selling your service. Maybe you are offering a 12-week group coaching program, a private consulting program, or selling different packages and prices, but are focusing only on getting your clients more results rather than elevating their experience with you.
I want to challenge you to shift your perspective and focus on experience instead of results. They will get the results from you, regardless. You are an expert, and the results are what you do. However, they can probably get the same results from another business coach, copywriter, or social media manager, hence, you have to offer something unique — something that any coach, consultant or creative can’t just easily duplicate — and that is a curated experience with you.
When you begin to think about the experience of your clients, you focus more than just the deliverables. You will search for more areas to elevate their experience and to make it memorable. So let’s talk about 3 different areas where you can elevate your client’s experience with you.
1. Client Communication
The first area that is always great to start with is client communication. Is there a way to make communication with your clients more personal? Do you use their first names more frequently? Do you add an element of video or voice on a content? Can you draw on personal details that they have mentioned and use them to improve their experience?
2. Client onboarding and Offboarding
Another area is client onboarding and offboarding. We tend to make onboarding and offboarding processes automated for the sake of efficiency. Can you improve the experience for them here? It might mean calling your clients to welcome them on board or sending out special gifts to clients once you finish your work together.Â
One of my favorite ways to elevate the experience of my clients when they are offboarding is to send them a personalized gift. I pay attention to the things they mention they like during our sessions. I follow them on social media and learn what I can about them as a person, and not just their business so that I can hand-select a meaningful gift for them.Â
3. Client Support
The last area is client support. It is when your clients run into challenges in your business, whether that is a payment issue, a scheduling conflict, or an emergency. Is there a way for you to improve your response time and get back to them faster? Is there an easier way for them to reach out to you or your team, whether through apps like Voxer, Slack, or guaranteeing a 24-hour response time?Â
Think about the things you hate when you have to reach out to customer support — for your phone company or your bank — like being put on hold, constantly being transferred, or jumping through hoops to talk to an actual person.Â
Your business might not have these exact challenges, but how can you make sure to reduce the friction when it comes to client support and increase the ease for your clients to have their problems resolved?Â
Notice how none of these suggestions have anything to do with the results you are providing your client. Like I said earlier, you are an expert, and you are going to get the results for your clients no matter what. You can create something they will not find anywhere else — that is the experience you are offering. High-priced products and services are, more often than not, coupled with experience.Â
If you elevate the experience, you can charge more. The amazing thing is that your clients will be more than willing to pay you more as well.
In today’s society, convenience is the highest form of experience with which you can serve your clients. If you can make your results more convenient by making it faster, more easily accessible, or automated, you will dominate in your field.
Think about how often you pay for convenience. Do you use delivery services like SkipTheDishes or Uber Eats? You are paying for convenience. Do you pay for Spotify premium so you can skip the ads? You are paying for convenience. Do you order your groceries from Instacart, HelloFresh, or place your grocery order online at your local grocery store? Again, you are paying for convenience.
We cumulatively spend thousands, literally thousands of dollars a year, for simple conveniences in life. Knowing that in every one of those cases, we could get the same result of the groceries, freshly delivered pizza, or music, even if we did not pay for the delivery or the ad-free account, but as humans, we are happy to pay for convenience!
Whenever you are tempted to doubt your pricing and feel like you are currently underpriced, take a look at your client experience and see how you can elevate it; subsequently, your pricing as well.
One company that takes convenience to a whole new level is Amazon. If you have an Amazon Prime account, you would know what I’m talking about, and this case study will need no further explanation. In case you are not familiar with Amazon Prime, you can create an Amazon account for free.Â
Amazon Prime is a paid membership that costs $120 a year. It could give you access to Prime shipping that could have your items arrive within 2 days or earlier. Some items are slightly cheaper there too.
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What Amazon did was say, "Let’s be real. I know you do not want to wait for your package so pay $120 a year, and we will make sure to ship it to you in 2 days.” They are selling you the experience of convenience and it is working! It works for me because I do not know how people lived without Amazon.
In my free time, I find a corner in my house, grab a cup of tea, and ponder what life must have been like without Amazon Prime. It is not the life I want for myself. You get what I’m saying, so the reason I am making this comparison and putting so much emphasis on the experience is that, as entrepreneurs, we sell our clients our services, and not the experience of working with us.Â
When we hop on a sales call, we lead with the features of our program, course, or consulting. We talk about the hours of consulting they will get, the access to the Facebook group or online community, the downloadable workbooks, and so much more. We focus less on the benefits of the experience and on why they should choose you above the other coaches or consultants. Then, when clients do not purchase, we wonder why. The features of your service or program are only means for delivering the results, experience and transformation that your clients value.Â
When you are selling your services at a higher price point, you have to communicate the experience. In reality, that is a big portion of what they pay for. It is also part of why you charge the prices that you do, so you can deliver quality and memorable experiences for them while you get them results. That means you have to get clear for yourself on the experience you provide your clients, as well as the results, and start to practice communicating that in everything you do.Â
As part of your worksheet, I have included some exercises to help you start to outline the experience you offer and written some scripts that will also help you communicate with confidence during your sales calls and when you are speaking to potential clients.
If you have not downloaded the worksheet yet, you can click the link in the show notes to download it or head over to rjconnell.ca/6.
Let’s recap what we talked about in today’s conversation. We first talked about how charging a higher price point can allow you to deliver a higher quality service to your clients. Now, this was not only my opinion, but we also went through some common everyday examples where we see that people are willing to pay for the elevated experience.
Then, we discussed three different areas where you can begin to elevate the experience for your clients. Those areas wereÂ
Finally, the exercise and script in the worksheet will help you start to get clear on what you have to offer your clients when it comes to an elevated experience. It will help you communicate the value that you are adding when they choose to work with you, and allow you to raise your prices, or at the very least, allow your clients to feel confident paying your current rates.
Friend, I believe that if you download the worksheet and apply the material in today’s conversation, you will see a difference both in the way you show up and in the way your clients respond to your calls moving forward.
I am so grateful that we got the opportunity to chat today, and as always, I’m so excited to see you join the conversation on our Instagram page @rjconnellconsulting. Share this episode with a friend who needs to hear it. Let me know what resonated with you and which script from the worksheet you found to be the most helpful!
In next week’s conversation, we are going to talk about the one thing that you need to have to make sure your business grows. This is something that affects your business as a whole, you as the CEO, and all the clients who work with you, so you need to make sure you have it. Make sure you are subscribed to the podcast so that you will not miss it when next week’s episode drops!
I will see you at the same time and in the same place next week. Until then, I wish you coins, confidence, and all the bags!