Transcripts
In this episode of The Pricing
Lady Podcast, we take a look at
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:doing a Q4 pricing check-in, what
to revisit before the year ends.
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:Sit back, relax, and enjoy the episode.
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:Hello and welcome to The
Pricing Lady podcast.
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:I'm Janene your hostess.
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:This is where smart business owners price
with purpose and profit with clarity.
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:I'm so happy to have you here with me
today, and we are going to be looking
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:at taking a Q4 pricing check-in.
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:What you should revisit as we
approach the end of the year.
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:Now here we are heading into the last few
months of the year, and it's the perfect
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:time to hit the pause button and reflect
on what's working and what's not working.
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:When it comes to your pricing.
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:The smartest thing you can do is to
stop at periodic times during the year
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:and take a fresh look at your pricing.
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:I call it a little bit of
strategic hygiene, if you will.
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:So why does this matter?
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:Q4 is often a time of year.
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:That's quite intense.
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:There's a lot of work sometimes
offers and work gets pushed around
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:and shuffled about and it can be
quite stressful, this time of year.
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:Often business owners are
focused on, am I hitting my year
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:end goals or my revenue goals?
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:They forget to take a look at
their pricing as well, which
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:in my opinion is a big mistake.
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:Because pricing can be a really
interesting lever, not just for your
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:revenue, but also for your profitability.
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:Often it gets overlooked or
forgotten in the process.
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:The reality is that your pricing
touches everything in your business,
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:and so it's important for you to have
those checkpoints throughout the year.
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:Definitely towards the end of the year.
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:You want to look at it as well, not just
to help you achieve your goals, but then
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:also to start planning for the next year.
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:We're not talking about fixing everything,
but we're really talking about for this
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:check-in, in the first step is alignment.
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:Is it aligned with and still
supporting the goals that you
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:want to meet for this year?
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:So let's take a look at five
questions that I think you can
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:use to do a quick check-in.
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:This are smart questions, I
guess you could say, high level
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:questions that you can use to
start doing this quick check-in.
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:Number one, has the market or
your customer shifted in some way?
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:Now, this is a great place to start
because as I always say, pricing is rooted
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:in a deep understanding of your customer.
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:And as your customers shift and evolve
and change, and they do and will,
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:you may need to adjust your prices.
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:It could create urgency.
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:It could be that you have new types
of clients that you're seeing popping
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:up, or you're shifting your market
a little bit and you're seeing
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:the results of that happening.
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:Your pricing should evolve
as your audience evolves.
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:It's not just if you make a change to your
offer that your pricing might change, but
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:if something happens with your customer
base or what they're looking for or the
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:problems they're having, then you may
need to adjust your pricing as well.
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:That's the first place you want to look.
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:Question number two,
has your offer changed?
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:This is the more obvious one.
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:If you've changed or adapted your offers
or shifted how you're delivering things,
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:then you may want to consider adjusting
or making adjustments to those prices.
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:Maybe you've shifted the
scope, made it include more,
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:or you've taken something out.
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:Maybe the format of
your offer is different.
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:You changed it from a group
program to a mastermind group.
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:You know, there are lots of different
ways that you could have shifted
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:your offer, whether it be a software
service or a product, right?
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:Maybe you removed features.
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:Whatever you've done in your offer,
you should check to make sure that
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:your price is still aligned with that.
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:Third question, how satisfied
are we you with how pricing
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:functions in your business?
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:This is a biggie and
it's often overlooked.
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:Do you feel more or less friction
in your sales conversations?
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:Are your propo, are there proposals
that you hesitate to send out or where
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:you find yourself kind of internally
haggling over the price before
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:you even sent it to the customer?
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:Your satisfaction with how your pricing
is working is actually a data point
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:that you should be paying attention to.
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:It's not just a feeling.
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:It's a very important part of your
pricing because you are the chief
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:executive officer of your pricing.
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:If you feel uncomfortable with it, then
that is going to be reflected in the
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:conversations and the results that you
have as you're working with your clients.
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:Question number four, have you
adjusted prices informally recently?
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:Since the last time you adjusted
your prices, have you been
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:informally making adjustments?
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:What do I mean by informal adjustments?
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:I mean discounting, throwing in extras.
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:Are you making reactive decisions
when customers say no or object.
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:or are you even making preemptive.
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:Strikes, taking preemptive strikes
by lowering the price preemptively.
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:You know, these are informal adjustments.
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:If I asked you what your price
was, you would say it's this.
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:But in reality, you're doing
these other things, which is
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:bringing your price down here.
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:There's a couple reasons this
question ispor important, and
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:one is that consistency in how
you handle pricing builds trust
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:with your clients and yourself.
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:If you are doing things that's eroding
those prices, then you're probably
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:first and foremost hurting that
trust with yourself because you know
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:the price is really down here, but
when, when you, you talk about it or
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:asked about it, you're saying it's up
here, and that disconnect can erode
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:the trust you have with yourself.
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:And that also then has
an impact on clients.
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:It will come up in the conversations
that you have with them.
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:On a subconscious level, they will feel
that, or they might sense that, last
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:time it was this price and this time
it's this price, and they might sense or
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:notice that variability in your pricing.
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:Actually, I had one client
earlier this year who said that,
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:I asked her, why do your clients
have so many different prices?
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:And she goes, well, it depends on how
good they are at negotiating with me.
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:And that's another type of emotional
reaction or informal adjustments that are
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:being made that aren't really serving her.
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:Or really in the end, the client, because
she starts to resent that they have these
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:better prices for no other reason except
for that they were able to negotiate well.
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:Okay.
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:Reason number five, or question number
five is to let's see, to ask yourself
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:are your current prices or is your
current pricing strategy aligned with
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:where your business is currently heading?
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:If you're focused on your short-term
goals, hitting your goals just
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:for 2025, then you need to make
sure that your pricing is still
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:aligned with getting you there.
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:Yeah.
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:Are, and then if you look beyond 2025
into:
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:Are there, maybe you're bringing
new people into the team.
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:Maybe you're, you've decided to
shift your business and do less
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:hands-on work with your clients.
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:For example, these types of shifts in.
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:Where you're taking your business
may also and usually will require
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:some adjustment to your prices.
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:Oftentimes, people forget to
make those adjustments and
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:then later on have to catch up.
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:But if you take the time to take a look at
that now and understand that, then you're
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:going to be in a better position, not just
for this year, but going into next year.
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:So I look at it this way, that the
model that got you where you are today
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:might not be the one that takes you
where you want to get to in the future.
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:Yeah.
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:So you want to make sure that
you're checking in with yourself
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:and taking a look at that.
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:I want to remind you that my suggestion
here isn't that you redo everything,
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:but where you need to and then would
like to make small adjustments to
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:your pricing in order to bring some
of these areas back into alignment
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:if they are out of alignment.
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:We're talking about a review,
not a complete overhaul.
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:That's really important because you want
to keep it sharp and focused right now,
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:you can always come back and do something
heavier later on if that's needed.
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:And certainly going into 2026,
you're going to want to give it a, a.
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:A more thorough looking at, let's
say small refinements in your pricing
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:strategy, both internal and external,
can remove friction and support you
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:in achieving those bigger goals.
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:Pricing isn't always about
making great big changes.
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:Sometimes it's about making
little adjustments and fine
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:tuning things along the way.
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:Tune up, not a tear down, I
think is the message on that one.
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:Okay, so here's what I suggest you do.
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:Set aside 30 to 45 minutes, maybe
an hour, depending on your business
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:this week, to run through these
five questions that I just gave you.
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:Let me just repeat the questions.
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:Has the market or the customer shifted?
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:Has my offer offer changed?
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:Am I satisfied with how
pricing is functioning?
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:Have you been adjusting prices informally?
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:And last is your current
price strategy aligned with
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:where your business is headed.
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:So those are the five questions
I suggest you sit down and
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:run through those questions.
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:Look at your offers, revisit the
packages, maybe even look back
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:at some of your notes if you've
have them from client discussions.
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:And just ask yourself, is
this still how I want to work?
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:Is this still how I want to price
things for the rest of this year?
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:If something feels off, then you're
going to look at it a little more deeply
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:to decide how you want to proceed.
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:Now if you're listening to this
episode and you're nodding along,
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:oh yeah, this is me, I need to do
this, then you may actually want to
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:check out my Price Check Workbook.
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:It could be a really
smart next step for you.
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:The questions in this episode are the big
picture questions the workbook gives you
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:12 strategic questions to ask yourself.
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:It gives you more clarity.
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:It goes deeper.
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:And then it gives you that self-pace
and reusability of the workbook.
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:You can use it say, once or twice
a year to continue to review your
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:prices in a very structured way.
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:I'll put a link in the show notes for
my Price Check Workbook so that you can
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:buy yourself a copy, if you think that
that's something that would help you.
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:I can certainly recommend it.
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:My clients use it quite often to kick
off their pricing review process.
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:If you want to go deeper,
that is the workbook for you.
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:That is what I wanted
to share with you today.
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:Hope that this episode has given
you some food for thought and that
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:you've already booked that review
session for yourself in your calendar.
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:I appreciate you being here.
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:We are very proud to be part of
the SwissCast podcast Network
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:here in Switzerland and be
one of their legacy podcasts.
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:Be sure to check out the
other shows in this network.
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:Until next time, my friend, I wish
you all the best and enjoy pricing.