[INTERVIEW]
Ronda Nelson: Let me guess. You know you should be raising your prices, but then you start to think about actually doing it, and the fear kicks in. What if the patients leave? What if they can’t afford it? What if they think I’m greedy? What if I’m not really even worth it? And so you don’t do it, and then you resent the fact that you don’t have any income. But no more, my friend. Today I’m gonna talk you through how to raise your prices, how to change your mindset so you can stop undercharging and start charging for what you’re worth — and getting paid well for what you do. Let’s go.
Welcome to the Clinical Entrepreneur Podcast. I’m Ronda, your no-fluff, tell-it-like-it-is business bestie for wellness practitioners just like you who want to build a practice you love, make a bigger impact, and a little money while you’re at it. So if you’re ready to ditch the overwhelm, attract your dream ideal patients, and finally run your practice with complete confidence, you’re in the right place. Each week we’re tackling things from programs to patient retention to marketing strategies that actually work — sprinkled, of course, with a little sass, a lot of heart, and the step-by-step strategies that will help you get there. So grab your cup of coffee, your notebook, or whatever keeps you going, and let’s build a practice you love and a life you love together.
Welcome back to the podcast. It’s Ronda. We are gonna talk about money, money, money today — how you’re charging for what you do, and all of the things. Because very often what happens is we don’t really charge what we’re worth. And it’s sad because, my friend, you are changing someone’s life. You’re giving them their life back.
They were on the couch. They couldn’t get up. They couldn’t work. Mom is so grumpy and messy — she’s about to get a divorce because she’s so cranky and grabby, her hormones are so screwed up. You come in and you’re like, “Well, how about we get that fixed?” And you fix it, and she stays married, everyone is happy, she goes back to her job because she’s not fatigued and wiped out all the time. You just changed someone’s life. And then you think you’re gonna charge, like, well, maybe $75 for a one-hour follow-up. I’ve heard it all. I have heard it all.
And I tell you, here’s what I think happens. We get scared. We get scared. Why are we scared? Who are we afraid of? Well, we’re afraid of ourselves, and we’re also afraid of them. I think one of the biggest reasons why many practitioners don’t raise their prices is because we’re afraid that they’re gonna leave. We’re afraid that if we make it about the money, that’s all they see is the money. Did you hear what I just said? We think that because we are making it about the money, that all they see is the money. But I would really beg to differ with you here, my friend. Because you — you are the one that’s making it about the money. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t. I may not be explaining this well — give me some patience while I let my mouth catch up with my brain.
Whatever you focus on, you get more of. And so if I’m focused on the money — let’s say you go to a practitioner and everything’s expensive. The tests are expensive, the fees are expensive, all the money is expensive. And every time you walk in, the practitioner has on some fancy suit, or they just got a brand new piece of equipment, and they drive a big fancy Mercedes and they have this big fancy house. And their lifestyle — you can see that their lifestyle is, what we might think of as extravagant. It’s all judgment, it all is. But nonetheless — and then you go in and you can barely afford to feed your kids, but you know you really need help, and you’re going in, and this person’s charging you $200 for a 30-minute follow-up. How does that feel? It doesn’t feel very good. Because what’s happening is that provider is making it about the money. Does that make sense?
Whereas what I wanna talk to you about today is making it about the outcome. Making the money equal the outcome. Not letting the money — or the revenue that you’re creating — be so that you can live this really extravagant lifestyle. And I’m not opposed to having an extravagant lifestyle. I’m not opposed to that at all. But it has to be an equal exchange. The patient has to get the same amount of value as what you are getting in revenue. If it’s out of balance, it doesn’t work. If the patient is getting the better end of the deal and you’re getting very little money for the transformation that you provide, that’s out of balance, and that’s never a good thing. It has to be equal. It has to be in balance.
The reason that we don’t make the decision to charge appropriately for the outcome — I could say you’re not charging what you’re worth, and I probably wouldn’t be wrong. I don’t think anybody really charges what they’re worth. But when your fees are aligned with an outcome, all of a sudden it doesn’t make it about the money. It makes it about the outcome. It makes it about the transformation.
There are a few fears that I think we have. The first fear is we’re just afraid that if we raise our prices, they’re gonna leave. But what if they’re getting a really great outcome? Will they leave? I mean, maybe — maybe you’ll lose a few people that might be tire kickers, and they’re probably not the people that you want in your practice anyway. But when you make sure that your fee equals the amount of transformation or outcome that you’re providing, the right patients will stay and the wrong ones will leave. And that’ll give you better and more room for more of the right ones to come in.
The second big reason that I see practitioners don’t want to raise their prices is because they really feel deep down inside that they’re not worth it. “Well, only if I just know more. I just need to know more. I just gotta take that one more class. I gotta get one more certification. I gotta finish my FMU. I gotta finish this over here.” I’m gonna call a hundred percent bull on that. I don’t think that’s true at all. I think that it’s an inside job. The problem is the way that you’re perceiving yourself. What is the transformation that you’re providing them? Are you changing their life — or are you just dinking around and treating your business like a hobby? I talked about that a few weeks ago. If it’s just a hobby, well then you should charge hobby prices. Just saying.
Gosh, the last few weeks I’ve been sort of saucy. Maybe I’m in a little bit of a mood. I don’t know. But you’re welcome.
If your business is a hobby and you don’t take it seriously, how is the other person gonna take it seriously? If I go to a dentist and they’re gonna charge me $29 to fill my tooth, I’m probably gonna be a little nervous about that. But if they’re charging me a thousand dollars to fill a tooth, I’m like, thank you, but I’m not making your Mercedes payment this month. I will find someone in the middle. Now obviously those are two very big extremes, but you understand my point. Your price has to be reflective of the transformation that you provide, the outcome that you are delivering.
You know things that your patients don’t know. You are really the smartest person in the room — when it’s you and them, guaranteed you’re the smartest person in the room. Doesn’t the smartest person in the room get to charge what they’re worth? I think so. That’s why we pay an accountant. We pay a lawyer. We pay the people that are smarter than us about a topic they know more about than we do. And therefore we’re gonna pay them. That has value. So stop discounting it. You don’t need to.
Another reason is because we kind of feel greedy. A lot of practitioners — and I think even women especially — we’ve been conditioned to just serve. And if we charge more, that means we don’t care. We’ve gotta just take care of the mamas and their families. And it’s a trap. I don’t know about men, but I would say that us women, we can fall into this a little bit easier. I do deeply care about my patients. But I also know that I’m changing their life, and I am not afraid to charge for that transformation, and I’m not ripping anybody off.
In fact, I was looking at my fees the other day and I thought I should probably raise them. And I raised them like $20. Like, big fat deal. I’m not gonna end up with a Mercedes over a $20 price increase. But I thought, I think it’s been a while, and I’m comfortable with $20. That doesn’t feel harsh to me, but it feels fair for the transformation that I’m providing.
Another reason — and this is a big one, and I’m gonna get saucy about it — you assume they can’t afford it. But I have a question for you. Who put you in charge of their bank account? How do you know? Do you know when they last bought their brand new iPhone? Do you know when they last went out and bought a $350 pair of shoes or a $500 bag? You don’t know any of that. But yet we assume — I do it too — we assume that they can’t afford it. And so, well, you know, I’ll just keep my prices low because I just wanna serve everyone. I wanna make sure that everybody’s taken care of. I’m just gonna treat a whole family of ten for free, except for the mom. I’ll just charge one and it’ll take me about two hours but it’s okay. What? How is that equal? Is the outcome, the transformation, the freedom that you’re giving that family — is that equal to the amount of money you charged them? I don’t think so.
Your job as a business owner is to make sure that your business is profitable. The bummer part is that we have to switch back and forth between our hats. We wear the CEO hat, and then we wear the practitioner hat. And when your practitioner makes choices about pricing, you’re gonna be broke. When the CEO makes the decision about pricing, now we’re gonna be profitable. Because the CEO says, “This is what we need to keep the business afloat. This is how much we have to earn in order to keep the business going.” So we need to put our CEO hat on and make sure that that becomes the guiding perspective when we choose what we’re gonna charge. We let the CEO brain do it, not the practitioner brain.
It’s not your job to offer your services at a “fair” price. Their job is to decide whether it’s right for them. Some people will say no, and that’s okay. Other people will say, “I’m gonna figure out a way because I want the outcome.” So the shift is that you’re not charging for your time — you’re charging for the outcome. What are you giving them in return? When you charge by the hour, you just become a commodity. Anybody can charge by the hour. Any practitioner can make up a protocol. But what makes it different for you? What is it worth to them to have energy again? What is it worth to them to not be crying on the couch all the time, or to be so rattled at work with brain fog and anxiety that they can’t even function? You’re not selling your time. You’re selling that outcome, that possibility. What does their future look like? That’s what you’re selling.
So how do you do this? First of all, decide on your new number. And listen — if emotionally you can only do $20, like that was all I was able to do — I could do more, I think I’m worth more, but I’m comfortable with what I charge. I’m good with it, and I can still be profitable. So decide on your number. Don’t chicken out. Just make a decision. You could bump it by $30, $35, $25, $20 — whatever you wanna do, you just pick the number that feels right to you. But here’s my caveat: pick a number that makes you feel just a teensy bit nervous. Just a tiny bit nervous. That’s probably your right number — not the one where you’re like, “Yeah, that feels fine.” Just one that makes you just a little bit nervous.
Number two, you can grandfather in your existing patients if you want to. I don’t advise that, because you’re still providing the same service. You could keep them at the same rate, or you could just give them notice and give them maybe a little bit of extra time to adjust. There are several different ways you can do that. But think about your existing patients.
And then communicate confidently. This is where I think most practitioners kind of blow it. It’ll be like, “Well, you know, overhead’s gone up, and I haven’t raised my prices in a long time, and I have a new baby, and so I, I need to have a little bit more…” We talk too much. Too many words. No, no, no, no, no. We just say: “I just wanna let you know that as of this date, my rates are going to be increasing to X. This reflects the value of the care that I provide, and it allows me to continue to offer this high level of service for you. I am so thankful that you’ve trusted me with your health, and I look forward to continuing to serve you.” Or something like that.
Gosh, I tell you what — right in the middle of a podcast, they decide to do construction. Sorry, gang.
So you’re basically just not going to overtalk it. Just say what you gotta say and then be done. That’s it. No apology, no justification, no nothing. And then update it everywhere — update it on your website if you have it, et cetera. And you will be surprised. Patients typically don’t get too flustered about this. They’re like, “Hmm, okay.” And if they push back, that’s fine too. Don’t take it personal, because it’s not personal. You have to make sure that you’re charging equal to the value that you’re providing. That’s your only job. That’s your job as a CEO. You don’t have to convince anyone to stay with you. You don’t have to discount it. You don’t have to do any favors. You just say, “This is just what it is.” And they may say, “Well, can I keep my rate from 1991? You know, $10 an adjustment?” And you say, “No, I don’t think so. That’s not gonna work.” And if they go somewhere else, they might. But guess what? They’ll probably come back, because they’re not gonna get the level of care that you’re gonna provide. I know that because I know you. The people that hang around with me are all really committed to giving that A-plus experience and making sure that patients get what they need — the outcome that they deserve.
So there you go. I just am a big fan of stopping for a minute and getting really clear on the fact that you are providing an outcome, and the amount that you charge has to equal that outcome. If you’re changing someone’s life — if you’re literally changing their life, which you are every single day — don’t undercharge for what you do. It cheapens the value of the work that we as a community do together. It just cheapens it. I don’t want that for you. I don’t want that for us.
So we need to lead with confidence. We need to lead with our pricing and feel like we’re 100% in the driver’s seat: “This is what I’m worth because this is the outcome that I’m gonna give you.” When you talk about the outcome, you let them know where they’re starting, and where they’re gonna be in six weeks or eight weeks or whatever it is. Don’t back down because you don’t think you know enough, or you’re afraid they don’t have enough money. Nobody made you boss of their wallet. They probably just bought a brand new iPhone. Those things are twelve hundred, fourteen hundred, sixteen hundred dollars. Come on. And you’re fussing about paying for a chiropractic adjustment or an acupuncture visit or whatever? Crazy. People are funny.
Don’t let them bulldoze you. You price yourself for what you’re worth, because my friend, you are 100% worth it. I’ve seen you. I know you. I am you. I get it. Don’t let people take advantage of what you know and the transformation that you provide. Don’t let them do that. You set the standard. Your circus, your monkeys — I say this inside Clinical Business Academy all the time. Your circus, your monkeys. You decide how it’s gonna go. And if they don’t like it, bye-bye. Love you. Bye-bye. See ya later. There are more people that want what you have.
[CLOSING]
Ronda Nelson: So that’s all I got for you this week. I didn’t get too saucy — just a little bit. Thanks for hanging out with me. I’ll see you next week on the podcast. Bye for now.
[END]