Why VAs lose clients by not charging enough

In your heart, do you know you should raise your prices, but are reluctant because you’re afraid of losing clients? Be honest with yourself. Most VAs don’t charge enough for their services. Has a client complained about your prices in the past, adding to your concern about raising them? Well, here’s a new thought to consider: You may be losing clients by charging too little, and I’ll show you why.

Imagine that you are shopping for widgets. You see one widget for $9.99, several for around $19.99, and one for $34.97. They all claim to do what widgets do, and there is no other obvious difference other than price. What do you assume about the $9.99 price? How about the $34.97 price? If you’re like most people, you assumed that the $34.97 widget must be the highest quality, the ones around $19.99 must be average quality, and the $9.99 widget is probably cheaply made.

You can see where this is leading. Yup. It’s no different for services. It may not be accurate, but it’s human nature to judge the quality of services based on price. Which means that the segment of your market that wants the best, when faced with a choice between you and another, higher priced service, will often choose the other service simply because they assume if it’s priced higher, it must be better than yours!

Crazy, huh. But very, very true. Which means if your prices are too low, you are losing clients. But hold on – I hate to tell you this, but it gets worse.

There’s a segment of every market that does not value having the best as their top priority. For them, the main concern is getting the lowest price.

Now like most people, they also may perceive that the lowest priced service isn’t the best, but since their biggest concern is price, they may be willing to accept “lower quality” in order to save money.

Is that how you want your clients to view you?

Consider what it’s like to work with a client whose main concern is saving money. Some of them are just grateful to have you, of course. But then there are the ones that complain about your prices, and heaven forbid you should raise them even a small amount! So in a way, your fear that you’ll lose clients if you raise your prices is valid. But it’s not because your prices are too high.

This type of client often wants to squeeze the most value out of their money as possible, so they also tend to be your most difficult client: expecting extras without charge, keeping you on the phone longer than they’ve scheduled or paid for, etc. etc. So you need to ask yourself: “Is this the type of client I want to work with?”

I’m not saying that all your clients are like this. Some are respectful. They know you are excellent at what you do and that you should be charging more, and those are the ones that are thrilled at what a bargain they’re getting.

But here’s another question to ask yourself: “Do I want to be a bargain, or do I want to earn what I’m worth?”

Here’s the truth: The very best clients, the ones you love to work with, who treat you well and respect your boundaries without having to be asked, and never complain about you raising prices, are the ones who pay more.

They are only interested in quality and fit, and in choosing a VA that will help them build their business. They figure a good VA is an investment that will pay off in more money and business for them. And they often won’t even consider a bargain, because that’s not what they’re looking for.

Even if your prices aren’t on the low end, but they are average, consider this: Are your services average? If they are, seriously consider investing in yourself and your business so that your services are above average, then raising your prices to get the very best ideal clients.

And if your services are already above average, stop charging average prices when you’ll get more ideal clients by charging what you’re worth!

Think about it.

If you decide you want to make good money AND have great clients, but you’re not sure what your next step is; OR you just need some support to take the leap into charging what you’re worth, I’d love to do a complimentary consult with you to help you figure it out. Just shoot me an email at Kellie@theVAsuccesscoach.com and we’ll set up a call.