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How to Justify the Cost of the Session
Posted by on 2018-04-10 at 9:16 AM
Hello All,
I would like your advice on how to justify the charges you quote to potential clients and how to sell the service in other words.
Love,
Karuna
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13 Replies
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Why do you need to justify your fees to a customer? Imagine yourself being in a restaurant and a waiter justifying the cost of the steak to you: “Sorry, but the good meat is really expensive, and we are in a touristy area, so the rent is very high, and since Trump deported all the illegal Mexicans the owners have to pay high salaries to kitchen stuff…” They do not do that, right? And no professional specialists ever explain why they charge what they charge. Choosing what to charge is another story – you might have to check what other practitioners charge in your area, or in similar modalities, figure out who is your preferred client and their financial status, your expenses etc.
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Hello Karuna,
How about you let us know what made you posted this thread? Have you had people telling you that you are charging too much/too little? Are you trying to figure out a price? Have you already set a price and not feeling good about it?
I got my prices through meditation. I did have some doubts even though the prices are not high at all compare to what I paid for my own healing in the past. I used to work from my living room in London in a nice area. When I posted my website on facebook, a school friend asked me my prices and said too expensive and asked me for discount. He is a banker for many years and I didn’t understand how he could justify his saying that my prices were too high. I did say to him okay he could have discount but in my head I wrote him off. I meditated on this subject and basically my higher self said I could charge whatever I wanted as long as I felt good about it. I reduced my prices when I moved to Greece because the wages and cost of living are lower here. Also because I don’t have a healing space and I tell potential clients that either I go to their home and they pay for my transport if it’s far away or they pay for a rental space. Honestly, sometimes I need to justify to myself why I’m charging so little! But then again whenever I earn some money, I’m so happy with the amount and also the gratitude I receive from my clients. So at this moment, my prices are right for me.
Now if anyone say to me that my prices are too high, honestly I am not bothered to respond. This had happened and I said ‘Do you think so? I don’t.’ and ‘I actually think I’m charging too little. I will increase soon.’
When I was a flight attendant and first enlisted help from a Kinesiologist, I paid her in total more than my one month’s salary for about 10 sessions. My friends and colleagues at that time said it was too expensive. I asked them how much happiness was worth to them. For me, it was money well spent.
Love,
Stephanie
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People who say “your prices are too high” are being rude, the polite form would be ‘I am sorry, I can not afford this, this is beyond my budget” and if THEY JUSTIFY WHY THEY CAN”T AFFORD IT – I might give them a discount or do a trade.
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@Karuna_Chinchkhede. When people ask, I tell them that a session is 4-6 hours long and I do an hour of pre-work before we meet for our session. I charge $298. With that said, I don’t get any push back except for people who truly can’t afford it. I then say I have a YouTube channel and a Patreon page with my private videos. Any membership fees you pay on Patreon go towards your session and once you reach $200 you may book a session on my website and ignore the price at checkout and I give them a coupon code. Works great for me.
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@Byron_Preston @Irina_Nola @Stephanie_Shek Thank you all of you for the insight. I recently stated asking for fixed price $229. It becomes hard for me to even ask that much thinking if they would go for it. Many don’t question but don’t come back either. So I was thinking is there anything I must do to sell the service in the first place. I had clients telling me I charge too little and also I am reasonable. My problem is with those who don’t come back.
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Karuna, you live in Orange County, right? This is one of the wealthiest, highest price real estate counties in USA. But you need to find a way to connect with “well to do” clients interested in holistic modalities – ads in crystal shops and yoga studios, doing group regressions etc. There are free opportunities like Yelp and Google Local business and many free local online directories. And by the way, your website is offline, I wanted to have a look, WIX said it is under construction or something. People can find you on QH listings or QHHT official site, but without a good business web-site how can you promote your work?
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@Karuna_Chinchkhede I grew up in Corona del Mar and return home once a year. You could charge $400 a session and people will pay it without blinking. I recommend contacting all the Practitioners on this site and the official site in your area and ask what they charge. That’s what I did for Dallas. EVERYONE charges at least $300 and some $350. I did the numerology and $298 works well for me. I also charge tax, and $298 plus tax works well for me too. I just didn’t like the numerology of other combinations, full price plus tax. I invoice my clients via my website before the session so there are no surprises. Knowing the going rate in Orange County will give you the confidence to charge the going rate. If you think about it, even $400 is a deal!
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@Karuna_Chinchkhede there will always be people who are just feeling things out and don’t come back. Have you ever been interested in something and checked out pricing but then left it because you weren’t really serious.
When someone askes about my price I first tell them that QHHT is a one shot deal and they don’t need to come back for weekly sessions. Then i tell them that the session is 4-7 hours long and i only book one client a day so we can take as long as they need. Around 70% of people get back to me and 30% don’t.
If someone who you don’t know tells you that your prices are too high, you can ask them how much they’ve already spent going to doctors and therapists.
Blessings, Love & Light
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I have found two clients who went to alba W. and I was a donation— they paid her her fee and gave nothing to me. If free they will take a chance. I don’t care it an experience. They did want another session and I feel that that one time deal that Doloris put outs not the way to go..Other therapist do more than one session and charge for each, do a two hour session and get them to book another appointment. You can do this over the internet easily. Offer a package deal 3 sessions for x amount of dollars or euros. Give them choices. One can offer a one time or a 3 time session. The two people that had alba before wanted another session because they had more questions, and their life continued on down the line to other questions. I had a girl have an 8 hour session with another person and never went under before my session with her, I gave her a 3 hour session and had all the answers she wanted to have in 3 hours. Just a thought candy
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I’m with you Irina- why the need to justify at all? I find that most people who have something to say about your rates are usually people who want “something for nothing” in every area of life or actually really dislike their own jobs or being paid so little for what they may be doing for a living. (Projection!)
Karuna- a gentle suggestion that it just might be that this has a great more to do with your own self-esteem and self-worth as much as anything. And its easy for me to suggest this because I have very clear memories of feeling this way myself and justifying some very low rates for my own sessions years ago.
This remains an issue with MANY people in our Community! This is very common.
The practical things to consider are usually what others in your area are charging for similar services (do they have a office? etc) and also your own practice primarily as it has to do with outreach and marketing. Dolores Cannon lived in one of the poorest areas of Arkansas. “What others were doing” in her area made not one bit of difference to how many people wanted to come and see her– because she wrote all those books and made that name for herself. She could have lived on the moon.
We don’t all have be as successful as Dolores to do this work, but those that do the outreach (primarily video these days) and find a niche or an audience, are the ones that have the clients lining up, and waiting, for sessions. Alba is a great example. So is Allison Coe. Both of these ladies have way more demand than the ability to supply sessions and both of them got to this place because of their YouTube videos. I don’t think either of them are feeling like they have to justify their rates to anyone.
This brings up basic supply and demand. You can’t book more than about one (or possibly two) sessions a day because of the sheer time they take so if you have lots of clients waiting, you can very easily then increase your price.
I understand not everyone wants to put themselves out there, and some very much want to do this work quietly. But if you are too quiet- you simply are not going to be found by clients.
<3
Candace
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You charge what feels right to you. With all the training, success and demand I’ve had, I can justify charging a lot more like some of the Hypnotherapists and QHHT practitioners out there (whose prices I think are outrageous), but I don’t.
All of my sessions include Life Coaching during my pre-talk and a majority of my sessions are pure hypnotherapy sessions in which I use techniques that are never shown on YouTube, but I keep my prices low because I know that people spend a lot of money just to travel to see me. With all the travel that I do, most of my income goes to paying for travel, food and lodging, yet I set my price where I feel it’s fair.
You have to use your own gut feeling as to what your experiencee and level of competency is and what feels right for you. If someone thinks you charge too much, they can go see someone else. Go with your gut.
Alba
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I also want to add that many people contact you just to check out the price and details about booking and what happens in a session. I have my prices on the website, but they still ask, as they might not see them or just get my phone #. Not everybody who contacts you will book a session. Often they want to think about it, and I had clients who booked a session several months and even years after initial contact. This is absolutely normal. I am not an aggressive salesperson and do not try to push them – like ‘book now, what are you waiting for?”. I can’t stand pushy salespeople and if somebody puts pressure on me, I would just hang up. They will book when they are ready, sometimes they get signs and synchronicities telling them that it is the right time for them to have a session.
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Thank you. @Irina_Nola @Byron_Preston @Alba_Weinman I will consider your advice about cost and the gut feeling about it. I have some clients who thought I ask for too little and paid extra. Some even paid me a tip. I think there are clients who value the service and ready to trust your valuation of the service. I still want to reach people who can’t access internet or not on internet or social media. I am doing monthly group regression. And I also offer healers trade sessions.
@Irina_Nola I am also not in aggressive marketing. That’s why I feel all I have to do is in the first call or the first email I have with the client so that they know all that they want to know before booking the session.
I am okay if they don’t come back. I think that was the case before when I was doing on-donation sessions. After having some experiences of feeling not being valued or being taken advantage of, I changed to fixed price just this year. I know @Candy_Durand I have also that kind experience.
@Candace_CrawGoldman I think you are right, maybe it is my self worth issue. Stephanie is helping me with that. Thank you, @Stephanie_Shek@Irina_Nola I am working on my website. I plan to cover as much as I can about these aspects on my website. Thank you @Nikola_Milenkovic
@Malka_Ahern and @Irina_Nola You are right. Yes, I understand that not everyone is going to go for the session right away and will take their time to get there.
Thank you all for giving your perspective on the issue.Love,
Karuba
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