Are you wanting to implement a price increase but not sure how to tell your clients?

Perhaps you’re struggling to find the right words…

Or maybe asking for more money makes you feel a little icky or uneasy?

Well, you’re not alone.

A common challenge for service-based business owners is figuring out how to communicate a price increase (without losing clients).

However, you can take some simple steps to make implementing a price rise so much easier.

And when you’ve got a plan for raising your prices, you’ll feel a whole lot more confident too.

So, where do you start?

First, you’ll need to decide on the level of your price increase and the date it will happen.

Once you’ve decided how much you will increase your prices and when it’s time to let your clients know.

To help you develop and implement your communications plan, I’ve outlined my top five price increase tips in the blog post below:

Tip #1: Detach your pricing from your self-worth

Unfortunately, it’s common for service-based business owners to question whether their services are worth what they’re charging.

And to worry about what other people may think of them if they were to charge a higher amount.

However, it’s important to remember that your prices are not a reflection your self-worth.

Your prices should actually be set based on the value you provide and the outcomes you can help your clients achieve.

So, as your business grows and your skills and experience increase, so too will the value and results you’ll help your clients achieve.

Once you separate and detach your pricing from what you believe you are worthy of receiving, you’ll communicate with more confidence.

And your clients will pick up on this and have more confidence to invest with you.

Not sure where to start when it comes to marketing your service-based small business? That’s where I can help. Get started by downloading my free Ultimate Marketing Checklist by clicking the button below: 

TIP #2: Get clear on your communications timeframe

It’s always a good idea to announce a price increase in advance and to communicate directly with your clients and leads.

This way, you’ll allow your existing clients and followers to act before the price rise is effective.

You’ll also reduce the risk of potential disappointment or complaints from clients who may have been considering working with you.

I recommend giving people a price increase notice of around four weeks or so.

This advance notice will also create urgency around your offer, which is an effective way to get people sitting on the fence to take action and reach out to you.

An example to include in a price increase email would be to say something along the lines of:

Book (your service) before 30 June 2022, and you’ll lock in my current pricing before my rates increase.

If you have clients who are on standard or contracted rates (depending on what your contract terms say), you may want to allow them an additional grace period and say something like:

The prices for my (service) are increasing on 1 July 2022. However, as a thank you to my existing clients, I’d like to offer you a transition period where you’ll continue my current rate for an extra (30-90 days). My new rate will be effective from (1 August 2022).

When communicating with your clients, it’s also a good idea to do it more than once.

People can get busy and miss notifications from time to time.

So, you’ll also want to communicate a reminder closer to when your new rates come into effect.

In addition to announcing a price increase in advance, you’ll also want to consider how you’ll communicate why you’re increasing your prices.

TIP #3: Highlight the value in your offer and any updates

It’s quite a standard business practice to increase your prices, so you don’t need to apologise or justify why you are doing it.

However, explaining why your price is going up will help lessen any impact and negate the potential risk of losing clients.

If you fail to give any reason, it can appear as though you may be hiding something.

Or that you are just putting your prices up because everyone else is.

So, to reiterate, I recommend focusing on explaining your price rise, not justifying it or trying to hide it.

The best way to explain your price rise is to focus on the value in your offer, which has likely increased from when you initially set your prices.

You may have several more resources available for clients than you previously had.

Or perhaps the quality of your expert advice and knowledge has increased as you’ve worked with more clients.

You may have also spent time implementing a few updates to your services which now makes them more valuable.

So, call out all the fantastic value your clients will receive in your price increase letters and notices.

Tip #4 Communicate across all your marketing channels

As mentioned above, sometimes people get busy and accidentally miss reading communications.

So, you’ll want to ensure that you communicate your price rise across all your marketing channels.

Your plan may include a price increase email to your list, a post on your social media platforms, and perhaps even a note on your website sales pages to let people know a price increase is coming soon.

If you have a physical premise such as a salon or clinic, you should display a price increase sign to communicate the price increase to your regular clients.

If you’re using your price rise to create urgency around your offer, this tip is even more critical as you’ll want people to see this message as often as possible.

Not sure where to start when it comes to marketing your service-based small business? That’s where I can help. Get started by downloading my free Ultimate Marketing Checklist by clicking the button below: 

Tip #5 Be sure to follow through on your price increase

This is perhaps not a tip but a bit of encouragement to ensure that you follow through and implement your price rise.

There can be a lot of fear associated with a price increase as you may be worried that your clients will think you’re too expensive at the new rate.

Or that the price increase will impact your sales volume, and you’ll lose sales revenue.

However, if you have a solid plan for raising your prices and communicating it effectively with your clients, I can tell you from experience that you’ll have nothing to worry about.

I’ve increased the price of my Business Breakthrough Coaching Program every year, and the number of clients I’ve helped has only continued to grow.

BONUS TIP: If you feel you may back out of increasing your prices, I recommend writing and scheduling your communications in advance.

It will remove any stress you feel about pressing send on the price increase email and then any worry about the response.

And, when you schedule the email to go out in a few days, chances are you’ll probably not even realise that it’s gone out, and you won’t have those worries top of mind when it does.

So, there you have my top five tips for communicating a price increase to your clients.

As mentioned above, when you have a solid plan to increase your prices and grow your service business effectively, you’ll find that the impact and risk of losing revenue and clients will be significantly reduced.

And you’ll feel much more confident about announcing your price increase too.

Tired of trying to figure out what you’re missing when it comes to finding clients and making sales in your service business?

Break through the barriers that are holding you back with the support of an MBA-qualified Marketing Coach and Business Mentor who will tailor a 1:1 program specifically for you.

BUSINESS BREAKTHROUGH is a 3 or 6-month 1:1 Coaching Program for service-based business owners who want to develop the strategy, systems, and structure they need to find clients and make sales, so they can stop feeling stuck and start gaining massive momentum in their business.

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