TRANSCRIPTION OF THE VIDEO
How to charge more for your services. That’s the question I get asked a lot. The first answer is there’s no way I can tell you specifically how much you should charge for your services. But I can tell you this.
You are not trudging enough right now. You are underselling yourself. You have employees that you have to pay. You will have online services you have to pay. You have bills you have to pay.
Yet, you are not charging enough to make a great living in your business. If you double your fee, you are going to attract a totally different kind of client. You are not running a non-profit, are you? Are you a 501C3?
I was coaching this young lady, and she said to me… the same question I get asked by a lot of entrepreneurs that I coach. She said, Rene, I feel like I’m not making the money I should be making.
So, how much you think I should charge for my services. It’s the same answer. I don’t know! Because it’s different for different kinds of people. What I told her, is it something I said earlier?
You need to double your fees. You are not charging enough. The reality is there are so many people doing exactly what you are doing. They’re providing the same kind of service you are providing. Let’s say you are charging five thousand dollars.
They are charging a hundred thousand dollars. Does that mean they are 100 times better than you? No. Money is energy. If you want more money, you want to raise your energy. You want to attract different kinds of people.
You want to raise your energy. Have you ever entered a room full of millionaires and billionaires? I have. You want me to tell you what’s the difference? The difference is huge.
The energy level is way up are there. Let me give you an example of the energy level.
You see, if you go to Wal-Mart right now, you take an item that is… I don’t know. Ten dollars. You take that same item. You go to Saks Fifth Avenue or one of the high-end boutiques. You put it there. You cannot ask for ten dollars. Why?
People will not buy it because the people who go to Saks Fifth Avenue, they don’t pay ten dollars for this kind of item. If it’s 10 dollars, something is wrong. They will pay a hundred dollars or two hundred dollars for the same item that you have at Wal-Mart.
What is the difference? The difference is the energy level.
Saks Fifth Avenue, a high-end store, has a different kind of energy that attracts a different kind of person. And when they get there, they don’t argue with you. They don’t give you a hard time. They just buy it.
When your price is low, people who have a lot of returns. If you go to Wal-Mart to see the lion when you try to return something. I mean, it’s a long line. And they have carts after carts after carts pile with stuff that people are returning.
You don’t see that at Saks Fifth Avenue. Do you see my point now?
If you raise your prices, you’re going to have less aggravation. You’re going to attract a different kind of people in your business. If you are still thinking about how to raise your prices for your services.
I want to show five ways to do so. And once you start focusing on those five ways, you will double or even triple your prices instantly. Number one. Think of the law of association.
If you associate yourself with people who have a high energy level, your energy level automatically is going to go up and you’re going to attract the right people in your business.
You’re going to be able to double or even troupe all your fees. It’s that simple. I remember I was speaking at an event for Mark Victor Hansen. I don’t know if you remember Mark Victor Hansen.
He is the guy who created Chicken Soup for the Soul. Remember those books? If you’re old enough. They were all over the bookstores, right? Him and Mark, Mark, Victor Hansen, and Jack Canfield.
He invited me to keynote a conference for him in L.A. The name of it, I believe, was Maga speaking empire. And they told me to put a package together to sell at the event because back then it was like a big sales pitch.
I put some packages together, about three packages. One of them was ten thousand dollars. I know I was not going to sell that many, but the five thousand dollars in the middle was very enticing.
And I had one for twenty-five hundred dollars.
Sure enough, I sold a bunch of packages for five thousand dollars and twenty-five hundred dollars.
There was one lady who bought that ten thousand dollar package. Do you want to know why she bought it? She said to me, “Rene, I don’t need it. I already have the money. I’m doing extremely well.
She said, you know, I buy it. I said no. She said, “I want you to take me to the green room and introduce me to some of the speakers in there. And you don’t have to worry about delivering anything.”
I already gave your assistant a credit card. Let me give you another example. I had lunch with a guy who was pretty high up in the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce many years ago. About ten or fifteen years ago.
He said to me, Rene, I’m going to share a secret with you and don’t tell anybody. He said, if you joined the chamber at the 500 or a hundred dollar level, it’s not a good thing.
Because you will get invited to meetings where a bunch of people who are struggling, they have business cards.
They are asking each other business, but they have they don’t have much to offer you.
That’s the kind of people you’re going to vibrate with. That’s the kind of energy level. There’s nothing wrong with that.
If you’re talking about those big fees that you are in the speaker range, I would suggest you join the five thousand dollar level. That is the ambassador level.
You probably will get a call from somebody to invite you for a barbecue on a weekend at the in the backyard of the CEO of IBM, of Microsoft, of U.P.S., of Federal Express or whatever big company.
That’s the kind of invitation you will get. Why? Because you are an ambassador and you join the five thousand dollar level.
That’s the law of association. That’s what you have to associate yourself with those kinds of people to raise your energy level.
Number two, you need to raise your confidence level. You have to be confident when you ask for your fee. I remember when I went to ten thousand dollars for a keynote, the first call I got was from a place in Canada called Fort McMurray.
And if you’re from Canada, you know, they have a lot of money because they have a lot of oil. It’s a huge oil industry. They are close to Alberta, I believe.
When they asked me for my fee, I said ten thousand dollars. And immediately I said, is that within your budget? And I was ready to make some concessions or to negotiate my fee because I didn’t have that level of confidence to ask for ten thousand dollars.
And I remember the lady said, oh, sure, no problem.
She said, just bill us… bill us separately for your expenses. Because at ten thousand dollars, when you leave your house, you start charging the client for everything.
The limousine, the parking at the airport, or whatever it is. If your confidence level is low, you will not have the courage to double your fee or to triple your fee. It’s going to be very hard for you.
Number three, create the illusion of everywhere. Here’s what I mean by that.
Let’s say, I go to Facebook right now and I see you; your video. You are talking about whatever service you provide or you are giving people a behind the scenes look at how you do what you do.
And I switch to go to Microsoft and I see you again. I go to YouTube and I see you again. I go to CNN dot com. I see you again. I’m thinking like, wow, you are everywhere. But the reality is, you are not everywhere for everybody. You are everywhere for me. You are targeting me.
You know what that’s that’s called that’s called retargeting. Have you ever heard of something called behavioral response marketing? Well, it’s the same thing. It’s the illusion of everywhere.
What that is, is I can put a video on this video. I can Market or promote it on the Internet or Facebook or YouTube.
I put something in it and I say, hey, when people reach twenty-five percent of this video, I want you to create a separate audience for me right there. That’s on Facebook. Same thing for everywhere.
I want you to… when somebody watches the video for 10 percent, create an audience for me or 50 percent create an audience for me at this point based on this behavior. You watch my video for twenty twenty-five percent of my video.
I have another video that I want to show you because. Hey, you. Some kind of interest. Number four. That’s a quick one. You need to work on your brand, your personal brand at the end of the day, people will buy from people.
They will buy from you based on your brand. They will want to vibrate at your energy level because of your personal brand. That’s what I’m saying. Who you are as a person.
They want to connect with you. So that’s why you have to work on your personal brand as the person who is out there speaking on behalf of your company.
That’s why they need a face to communicate with. They are not communicating with your product. They are not communicating with your services. They just want a person to connect with. That’s called personal branding. Who you are as a person.
Finally, number five, be the definitive expert in your field, as the definitive expert in your field.
You want to start teaching. You want to start teaching little known facts that the market doesn’t know about your industry.
You start taking people behind the scene and show them how you do what you do. Your process. And then suddenly they start seeing you as THE go-to person.
The definitive expert. Another way to do so is to really attack the gurus. Yes, expose them. A lot of gurus out there. They all sort of like false gurus.
And when I say false gurus, you’ve seen them. You’ve seen people say a bunch of nonsense in your industry. And, you know, they don’t make sense. They are misleading people.
Be the one to take charge, to disseminate that kind of information.
How the gurus are misleading them. The moment you start showing people how the gurus are doing it wrong, immediately they see you as the expert. Your trust and credibility go way up there.
This is how you get to charge more for your services.
It’s not that complicated.
I love how you’ve expanded upon the mantra “Your vibe attracts your tribe!” How much you charge isn’t to puff out your chest but to attract and build a community that is hungry for what you have to share and wants to build relationships with the other community members. A timely reminder! Thanks!
Many thanks for your feedback. Are you speaking now?