Why Pricing Should be the Last Thing You Decide When Selling Courses

Oct 14

We’re gonna start this one out with a mega truth bomb: no one (literally, no one) cares about the price of what you offer. Yet so many of us let this stage of launching our latest products, services or courses hold us up. We learned very early on that the actual number behind what we offered (whether it was photography session, canvases, logo designs, or branding) was the lowest thing on the list of concerns for our buyer. So we put our focus elsewhere.

When you don’t focus on pricing, a lot of amazing things happen, including:

You’re less stressed about your product selling
You focus on adding value to your offer
You attract the right people who are so ready to buy what you’re selling
You launch things quicker and with more confidence

Why do these things happen?

Because you begin to focus on the experience instead of the price tag. When you truly step back and ask yourself what you can be providing your client or customer to make it a better process for them, you both win. So how can you do this?

PRE-EDUCATION

You have to remember that your clients and customers know nothing. They are not the expert in your industry. They don’t know how any of this works. And so it’s your job to tell them. There are a multitude of ways in which you can step in to provide a top-notch experience by educating your client on what you offer and why it’s amazing.

Consider these touch points:

Everywhere you can on your website. Consider walking your client through the process of working with you on your homepage or a “work with me” page. Maybe they need to schedule a consultation first before you create a custom quote for them? Maybe there’s a timeline you can walk them through so they know what’s happening at every stage? Consider creating an actual “experience” page that paints the picture of what it’s like to work with you.
In your FAQ’s. We know you probably get a ton of questions from current or past clients in-person or via email. Consider adding these to an FAQ page or guide to send to your potential clients or customers. This is also a great opportunity for you to set the tone or expectations - since you can form it as a question so it comes off more nicely. For example: as a photographer Emylee would only shoot during “the golden hour” (2 to 3 hours before sunset). We would pose this as a question in our FAQs so it would clear up anyone wanting to reach out who wanted a session in the middle of the day. If it can save you time so that you don’t have to email or answer clients individually, put it on a FAQ’s page.
In a digital or printed guide. This is one of our favorite ways to educate clients or customers. Sometimes there’s a lot you need to include about your process or you want to show off other items you sell that might not be on your website. Consider including an expanded “about me” section, a “how you work” section, any a la carte items you might have, and steps of the process. We love offering this as a guide instead of a page on our website because it seems more personal, and by using services like ISSUU you can make your guide readable, like a real magazine.
Through your blog. This is by far, hands down, absolutely our favorite way to educate. Not only does it help us provide quality blog content, but it also helps with getting traffic to our site by continuing to be active with new posts and pins. Whenever we worked 1:1 with clients we would take their questions or comments and formulate them into a blog post, because we know that if they had a question, then someone else had the same one too. This is also a fun way to sell the value of what you offer. For instance, as a photographer Emylee blogged about why people should invest in professional photography, why they should invest in tangible things beyond the disc of images, and the effect that photography in the home had on children’s confidence (hint: it’s a lot!). All of these posts hammered in that hiring a professional photographer was a good idea, so when it came time to the price they were already sold.

You might be wondering how none of these tie in directly with pricing, so how can they help you sell more? Well, let’s go back to our first point - the actual number of what you offer doesn’t matter. The experience does.

By providing pre-education and hand holding to your clients and customers you are creating an experience for them in which no question is left unanswered. This creates confidence in their buying decision and in your capabilities to fulfill their needs.

People buy because of how they feel. Period. If you painted an amazing picture of what their life could be like after hiring or buying from you and you made it clear how the buying process works, then they’re going to be happy campers.

ONCE THEY PURCHASE

We often think that getting the cha-ching of the sale is the end goal, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Once someone purchases from us it’s still in our realm of responsibilities to provide an experience for them. How is your follow through?

Consider these touch points:

Do they get a custom or generic “confirmation / thanks for purchasing” email once they buy? How can you make that super special?
Do they get any follow up from you a week after the purchase? How about 6 months later?
If they’re buying your time or service are you easily available for them once they commit?
Do they feel taken care of and attended to after they give you money, or do they feel like just another sale?

Consider asking your past clients and customers how you could improve this process. See where there are holes and add value. We’re not saying that you should throw free product at them, but how can you continue the relationship after the checkout so it feels like it can continue to grow?

POST PURCHASE

This is by far the most important part of the client experience and one that we admittedly need to work on. No matter your industry, it’s wayyyyyyyyyy easier to get a current client to buy more from you than it is to find a new client (it costs you less, too). So why aren’t we spending more time with the people who have already purchased from us?

How can we be there for them without any strings attached - just to be good people? Maybe there needs to be handwritten thank you notes added to the mix, or even a personal phone call (depending on your business). Maybe it’s as simple as knowing when their birthday is so that you can send out a card. Maybe it’s just about keeping up with them and their lives or businesses to see how you can serve them in the future.

All of the things discussed here are about serving our clients and customers better. There is no magic formula or secret sauce of pricing that’s going to guarantee you sales, so how about we just focus on the value? If we make sure we’re explaining what we offer well, who it’s for, why it’s amazing and how it all works, then we’re going to begin attracting the right people who totally love us.

If you’re stressing about pricing right now we encourage you to let it go. Use common sense and a pricing formula to spit out a number for you (we definitely don’t encourage shots in the dark when it comes to pricing), but make sure you have the best damn offer out there and run with it. Get it in front of people and brag on it like it’s your firstborn (heck, it may very well be). When you show up confident about the results and value of what you offer and you can convey that well you’re going to be seeing sales fly off the (digital) shelves in no time.

Still feeling super stuck on pricing and want a more hands on approach? We’d love you to check out our program, The Incubator, in which we teach you how to earn more, work less and turn your hustle into a crazy profitable business.