Are you charging enough for the value your clients perceive you are creating for them? If you are in financial services, insurance, business services or professional services, I’d hazard in 80% of situations you are not. Think about that for a second. 80% of your best clients if they are intellectually honest with themselves think you are leaving money on the table.

Why is that? Here are my five most frequent observations:

1. You feel guilty asking for a fee commensurate with the actual value to be provided (imposter)
2. You are afraid of losing the business (fear of the consequences)
3. You insist on a commodity remuneration basis (charging hourly,
   day rates, percentage of a transaction, per capita, per user, per asset under management and so on). Fear of challenging “market norms”.
4. You don’t have, omit to or do a terrible job in establishing in the buyer’s mind in the pre-agreement period (proposal), and on an ongoing basis (frequent monthly or quarterly reports/updates) the value you mutually-agree to deliver or have delivered to the client. It is impossible for the client to calculate anything except the fee they are paying.
5. Your signalling (desperation for the business), the language you use (lose control of the discussion), and the deal vibes you give off (willing to continually acquiesce to client demands), simply encourages the buyer to keep chiseling the terms (no risk of you walking away or perceived harm for them).

Revisiting your historic pricing model or the terms that you typically work with clients, feels uncomfortable for many. There is a weird comfort in familiarity. Yet the reality is you are increasing the risk that your competitors are going to overtake you. Confront your pricing with confidence not fear. After all if you don’t believe in your own value, why should your clients and prospects?