Transcripts
In this episode of The Pricing Lady,
we revisit an old episode called The
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:pricing Flinch, and I'm gonna share
with you what I see differently now.
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:Sit back, relax, and enjoy the episode.
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:Six years ago, I recorded an episode
about what I call the pricing flinch.
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:Now, this is one of my older episodes that
was only live streamed and never brought
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:onto the podcast directories, so I thought
this was a really appropriate and good
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:time to bring it back to the surface.
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:Now, the flinch is that moment when
someone asks you what you charge.
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:And something tightens, you hesitate.
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:You soften.
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:Maybe you overexplain, you justify
before you even really have a chance
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:to react or respond to the situation.
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:And back when I first recorded this
episode, I framed it as mostly a
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:preparation issue, but when I went back
and listened to it again, there were a few
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:other things that that came to me, that
I've understood since then, and I wanted
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:to make sure that I shared with you.
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:Working with founders, consultants,
boutique firms, startups, I've realized
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:that not all flinches are the same.
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:And if you fix the wrong layer,
the flinch doesn't go away.
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:It just keeps showing up again and again.
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:So today we're gonna revisit the pricing
flinch and we're gonna walk through the
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:three layers I now see that lie behind it.
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:Let's take a look.
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:Sometimes the flinch is simply not nerves.
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:It's your internal system, not actually
trusting the number that you've set.
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:In many cases when you don't feel
comfortable or you don't feel certain
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:about the prices that you have, it's
based on the fact that you either
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:didn't make or you delegated decisions.
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:So maybe you didn't make the decisions,
you delegated decisions or you the
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:decisions you made, you don't feel
very certain about or confident about.
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:For example, if you've copied
your prices from competitors.
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:If you've got no clear segmentation in
your pricing, so you have a price's,
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:a one size fits all, but you've got a
lot of different types of customers.
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:Maybe you never defined a clear
internal corridor for your pricing
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:or rationale behind that pricing.
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:Those types of decisions that
either haven't been made or haven't
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:clearly been made can show up as
you not feeling so sure or not
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:trusting the numbers that you set.
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:For example, you might.
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:Not be able to clearly explain
to yourself why you chose that
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:number or versus the other one.
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:Except for that, oh, I, that's what
everybody else is charging, right?
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:And the problem here is that when
you're asked what you charge, you
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:don't flinch because you don't know
in that case you actually flinch.
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:'cause you do know, and you know
that that's not something you'd
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:ever wanna share with the customer,
that you just kind of borrowed
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:those prices from elsewhere.
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:The confidence follows that
clarity that you have around why
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:you prices are what they are.
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:Preparation alone will not fix a
number that was never properly decided.
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:And that's where I see these different
layers coming in because the last time
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:I recorded this episode of focused on
if you just prepare yourself, then.
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:You won't have as much trouble.
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:But here what I'm saying is if you
haven't set that structure and don't
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:have that base on the decision making
on those prices, then preparation
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:clearly isn't gonna fix that.
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:The second layer I want to talk
about is a misalignment layer.
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:This is broader than just the decisions,
it's a bit more market facing in concept.
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:The core idea here is that the
flinch itself is telling you
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:your in the wrong conversation.
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:Of course we get requests for quotes.
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:We get customers who come our way, some
are gonna be a better fit than others.
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:If you're quoting someone for something
outside of your ideal segment, or maybe
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:you're quoting something that you don't
normally offer, that can be in this
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:misalignment layer, of course, you'll
feel less certain about what you're doing.
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:I get requests to do all kinds of
different things and I know that
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:when it's not something that I
normally do, there's always a little
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:bit more uncertainty behind it.
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:If you've overbuilt or
underbuilt the offer.
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:So maybe you try to put too much in it,
or it's not really super strong offer.
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:That's also a misalignment
layer, so you don't actually feel
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:uncertain about the price so much
as you do about the offer itself.
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:If the scope is unclear or fuzzy,
again, it creates this undercurrent of,
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:Hmm, something's not quite right here.
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:These are just a few examples of
where this misalignment shows up
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:and why that might then lead to, you
know, this flinch when someone says,
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:oh, what do you charge for that?
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:Or what do you offer for that?
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:Right.
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:If you feeling the tension
every time you're quoting.
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:In this case, it's not necessarily
the price could be the fit.
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:It could be that this isn't the
right kind of client for you.
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:I had this conversation recently
with a colleague of mine and she
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:was saying, she's like, yeah,
I have this client and it's.
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:Just so hard and difficult every time,
and she remembered when she first made
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:the offer, she didn't feel so great.
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:And the process around deciding
on the offer and the price
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:was much more complicated.
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:Those can be early signals
of this misalignment layer.
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:If the offer isn't clean, then the price
generally won't feel clean either, and
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:that's something to watch out for as
you're out there creating these offers
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:and having these discussions with clients.
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:Now let's go and look at the
third layer, which is this
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:preparation or performance layer.
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:Now, this is what I focused on a lot
in the original episode, but what I
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:like here is that, if you feel that
you have layers one and two, the
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:structural or the decision layer and
the misalignment layer, if you feel you
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:have, you know that those things are
in place for you and it's very good.
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:Then the issue could be the
performance or the preparation layer,
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:let's call it preparation layer.
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:And here the idea is about preparing or
being prepared for those conversations.
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:When you feel the pricing flinch,
oftentimes it's because you haven't
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:thought about how to answer that question.
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:Of course, you can't prepare to answer
every question, but your pricing can
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:be there to help you navigate those
discussions when you set it up in the
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:right way and when you prepare yourself.
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:And the idea here is that if you've
thought about how you would respond when
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:someone says, what do you charge for that?
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:Then you don't have to make it up in
the moment that they ask you, or if they
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:say, well, why is that so expensive?
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:Again, you don't have to make
up an answer in the moment.
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:If you've prepared, if you've even
thought about that in advance, in a, in
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:a somewhat structured way, then you'll
kind of have that information too.
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:Pull from your memory to, you
know, pull as a, a recall to
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:bring into the conversation.
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:It's not always, it's not like
memorizing things, but it is, you
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:know, with the number, say it out loud.
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:See what it feels like if you
find yourself tripping over or not
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:sticking, or you can never remember it.
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:I've had prices that I just, I always said
them wrong, so I just changed the price
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:and suddenly it clicked better for me.
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:It can be about thinking through
the objections and how you would
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:answer those in ideal situations.
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:There's always more than one way to
respond to a question, and having
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:to make it up on the fly, especially
when you might be feeling a little
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:bit triggered, is going to usually
lead to a less desirable outcome.
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:Getting clear on the scope is another
area before you make the offer.
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:Sometimes for bigger projects, what I'll
do is I only prepare scoping offers until
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:the very end, and I don't give a pricing
offer until we are clear on the scope.
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:And for me, I find that better.
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:Then I don't get into a lot
of pricing revisions one, but.
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:First the client and I can agree
on this is what they really need.
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:This is what they want, this is
how we're gonna work together.
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:And then I can give
them that pricing offer.
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:But setting these sort of.
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:Let's say preparations up for
yourself in advance can make
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:having those conversations in the
moment with clients much less or,
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:or more frictionless, let's say.
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:I don't wanna always say it's easier
because it may still feel challenging,
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:but you don't feel as triggered and
you generally will be able to have
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:those conversations from a place of
responding and being able to help the
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:client think it through as opposed
to just reacting to the situation.
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:The key here is that preparation
strengthens delivery.
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:It doesn't replace structural clarity.
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:Those first two points are important
that you look at what's going
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:on when you do feel that flinch
and understand what's behind it.
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:I'd like to leave you with a reflection
task, if you will, so the next time you
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:feel that flinch, or if you're feeling
it regularly, don't try to fix it first.
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:Instead ask yourself, is this
about the decision layer, is this
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:about my decisions and that I don't
feel so secure about my price?
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:Is this about the alignment with the
customer, or is this simply about
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:preparing for these conversations?
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:Diagnose the situation first and
then focus on fixing the right layer.
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:If you just focus on fixing preparation,
and the root of the problem is in
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:the decisions that you made earlier
when you were setting the prices,
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:then you're still going to find that
flinch causing wreaking havoc for you.
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:The pricing flinch isn't something
that you can eliminate completely.
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:We will always be thrown things
our way that force us to step
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:outside our comfort zone.
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:So the flinch is feedback.
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:That's an important point to remember.
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:It's only useful if you interpret it
correctly and use that information
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:to take corrective actions.
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:Sometimes you'll need rehearsal or
preparation, and other times you'll need
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:refinement and other times, and it could
be different case by case, you might need
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:to go back to the original decisions.
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:Strong pricing isn't about
pushing through the discomfort.
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:It's about building something solid
enough so that the discomfort fades.
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:And when your pricing decisions
are clear, aligned and intentional,
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:you don't feel that need to go into
defense mode or to justify, you can
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:actually lead the conversation, which
is precisely what I want for you.
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:That's all for today's episode.
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:I found it interesting to
go back to this old episode.
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:And see what I missed in the
early days and be able to bring
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:you something more robust.
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:If you are interested in
understanding pricing in your
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:business better, a great place to
start out is with a pricing review.
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:If you're interested in that, you can
contact me and I'll send you the details.
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:I wish you a wonderful day,
and as always, enjoy pricing.