The Right Clients Will Pay You More

Do you ever feel like you're attracting the wrong type of client? The ones who question your fees, push back on everything, and treat you like a cost rather than a professional strategic partner? Maybe you start thinking, well, this is just what clients are like. But what if it's not the clients? And what if actually it's your positioning? In this video, we're going to be talking about how your pricing is silently filtering out the types of clients you attract, and why the right types of clients will absolutely pay you more. There's a question you need to answer honestly: who is your business for? Because whether you realize it or not, your pricing is acting as a filter. Price is not just a number, When you buy a product, we might be drawn to something that has nicer packaging. So the sleeker, more smoother, more colorful packaging, it's part of the appeal of that product. But what we're selling is a service. So with accounting and bookkeeping, the packaging looks a little bit different, and part of that packaging is your price. So your price is a signal. It's a signal of the quality of the service. It's a signal of the type of service, the relationship, the experience that the client can expect from you. The price is a signal of the level of value that you deliver. If your price is low, whether you mean to or not, you are signaling that this is a cheap, basic service. If you compete with other people on price, then your service becomes— it has this perception of it being a commodity. If everyone is doing the exact same thing and the only differentiation is the price, then everybody will simply be hunting for the best, for the cheapest option, and the market responds accordingly to that. So we all end up in this downward spiral where we're just trying to underprice each other, and all you're doing is making yourself cheaper and cheaper and just destroying your profits. It's not sustainable. Your services are not a commodity. There's a lot that you can do to add massive value to that service, to differentiate yourself based on value rather than on price. So when you price more confidently and properly, you signal something very different. You signal high quality, professional, strategic partner. You're signaling outcomes and results. This perception is what attracts those premium clients and deters the price-sensitive complaining clients. So think about brands outside of our industry. Think about something like Ryanair, which is a budget airline. Ryanair doesn't pretend to be a luxury airline. Their stance is that they are budget, they are cheap. They're very clear on who they are for. And because they are clear, their customers are also clear on what they're getting. So those customers, they will choose to book a flight knowing that there's no in-flight meal, there's no decent legroom, there's— they're gonna have to pay extra for baggage and extra to choose the specific seat they want to sit on. They also go into it kind of with an understanding that Ryanair often are delayed, they're canceled, they're overbooked, your seats are just gone. Um, that's the risk that you take when you go for the cheapest service. That service is likely cutting corners, or they're not going above and beyond, and you're the one that faces the consequence for that. So the problem with accounting firms is that we try to be everything to everyone. We want every single client. We're scared to niche and to narrow our focus, and we worry that if we increase our prices, no one will come. But higher prices don't just increase revenue, they also help to refine your client base. They naturally filter out people who are shopping purely on cost, and they attract people who are investing in their growth. They attract business owners who think long-term, who value advice, who see their accounting professional as a strategic partner, not a commodity. They're not just a simple tick, tick box to be compliant. These clients exist, but they're not attracted to cheap. In fact, a very low price would create doubt in the minds of these kinds of clients, because if something looks too cheap, it can signal low quality. There's no attention to detail, there's no personalization to their needs and their wants, there's no expertise. It's all just the basic essentials. It's cheap and basic. So low pricing positions you as this commodity service, whereas stronger, higher pricing positions you as a specialist. And this doesn't mean that you have to abandon those clients who want something simple, but it does mean that you need to structure your services properly to cater for those needs and those different budget levels. So your basic clients can choose a basic package, but there needs to be clear scope, clear boundaries, clear deliverables, and importantly, the lower price point also needs to mean a reduced workload for you so that you're not out of pocket, you're not going over on time, you're not spending all of your very limited available time going above and beyond for people who just want the basic. You can do that for your higher-level clients. So the higher-level clients could choose a deeper level of involvement. They can choose, I want more strategy, I want more proactive advice, I want more access to you specifically, And that's the power behind value pricing, is that you're not forcing anyone to buy anything. You're creating structured choices and then allowing those clients to opt in to the level of value that they want. So the clients who are higher level, that want the higher level stuff, are going to opt in to your more expensive materials. But you cannot attract A-list clients with D-list pricing. Your price has to match the level that you want to operate at. So instead of asking, will clients pay me more, or will clients pay more, will clients pay that higher price, start asking, am I positioning myself to attract the type of client that I really want? Because the right clients, the ones who respect you, they're going to act on your advice, and they're going to see you as a partner, they're not looking for the cheapest option. They are looking for the right fit, the most value, and your pricing is one of the clearest signals of that fit. So if you want better clients, you have to position yourself for them, and that starts with having the confidence to stop pricing for everyone. 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