Cheap or affordable: how one sentence changes the price of your work
A client does not buy your service. She buys what she heard about it. And most of the time, you are the one telling her.
Gospodinolog
Picture 2 beauticians on the same street in Linz. Same training, same products, same treatment. Same price: 65 euros.
When someone asks what it costs, the first one says: “It's not expensive, 65 euros, and if you come regularly I can go a bit lower.” The second one says: “The treatment takes 75 minutes and includes a mask and a care plan for home. The price is 65 euros.” And then she stops talking.
A year later the first one has a full calendar and an empty bank account, because every other client asks for a discount and she is too tired to say no. The second one has a waiting list and raises her price to 75. Nobody leaves.
The difference is not the treatment. It is 20 seconds of conversation, repeated a few thousand times.
Words create value before the client sees the service
When you call something “cheap”, it sounds like poor quality. When you call it “affordable”, it sounds like an opportunity. The number is the same. Only the picture in the listener's head has changed.
Women who run their own business do this to themselves every day, only in the wrong direction. These are sentences you will probably recognise, next to what the client actually hears:
- “I've only just started, so it's not expensive.” She hears: you have no experience.
- “I can go a bit lower if needed.” She hears: the real price is lower.
- “I know it's a lot, but…” She hears: even you don't think it's worth it.
- “It's just a small treatment.” She hears: it doesn't matter much.
Whoever apologises for her price invites a negotiation before anyone asked for one.
Why we apologise for our price
Because it doesn't feel like a price. It feels like a judgment of your worth. When you say 65 euros, somewhere inside you hear: am I worth 65 euros? And if the client hesitates, it feels as if she said no to you, not to the offer.
The way out is to separate the two. The price is information about the service, the way the time and the ingredients are. It says nothing about you as a person. You are not asking for permission. You are telling her what it costs.
What to say instead
The formula has 3 parts and none of them is an apology: what she gets, what it costs, silence.
“The treatment takes 75 minutes and includes a care plan for home. The price is 65 euros.”
Then you stop talking. Those 3 seconds of silence will feel uncomfortable. You will want to add “but if it's too much…”. Don't. Whoever speaks first after the price usually gives way first.
How to prepare your price before the conversation
- Write your price sentence down, word for word, with what is included. Don't improvise it in the moment.
- Say it out loud 10 times, at home, until it sounds boring. Boring is good. Boring sounds sure.
- Know your minimum before you walk in. The number below which you say no, calmly, without explaining.
- Prepare a smaller option in advance, so you never have to invent a discount under pressure.
And when she says it's expensive?
Don't lower the price. Reduce the scope. “For 45 euros I can do the basic treatment, without the mask.” Your hour is worth the same, and she still has a choice. Most will take the full treatment once they see what they would lose.
If the problem is the amount at once, offer a way to pay, not a smaller number: “You can pay it in 2 parts, half now and half next month.” And if neither works, let her go with a friendly sentence. Not every client is your client, and the ones who haggle hardest are usually the ones who later complain most.
When it's time to raise your price
There are 2 clear signs. Your calendar is more than 80 percent full, and nobody has said “that's expensive” in months. If both are true, your price is too low, not too high.
Raise it for new clients first. For existing ones, give notice and a small thank-you period:
“From 1 January the price is 75 euros. For you, the old price stays until the end of February.”
No long explanation, no apology about inflation. Clients who value you will stay. The ones who leave were mostly staying for the discount.
The same rule applies at home, by the way. A woman who says of her own time “oh, it's nothing” teaches everyone around her that it really is nothing.
Gospodinolog