Why do professional service providers discount their fee before clients even ask? It's not humility. It's ego protecting itself. Here's how pricing anxiety keeps you from charging what you're worth.

It's the season to post about gratitude for clients and others who have helped you in your business. When you sell your expertise, however, I think gratitude needs to move beyond what can sound like a greeting card and into how you run your business, especially how you price. Here are four kinds of gratitude I see expert service providers miss.

There's plenty that professional services providers can learn from canned chili prices.

"You do not lose business because your price is too high. You lose it because you never asked what else mattered." The number of value drivers motivating clients to hire you is countless. They matter much more than your price.

The real reason for most price objections? It's not because all clients are price sensitive. It's usually because of inadequate value conversations.

Disney Cruise Lines doesn't just sell cruises. They sell delight. The same is true for professional service providers.

Several statements that lead to mindset traps and mental baggage that get in the way of delivering client-perceived value.

I've seen it too many times: service providers, particularly early in their business, creating a false choice between being virtuous and being profitable. Between serving others and serving themselves. Between being honorable and increasing their value. These dichotomies are false.

As a service provider, you often face a challenge similar to Caitlyn Clark. Your impact is substantial, yet often invisible unless you frame it through your conversations with clients.

While we might chuckle at milk hoarding ahead of snowstorms, this same mindset of scarcity exists for professional service providers.

If you undervalue your work and give everything away, your generosity has limited impact because you won't be around too long.

Reflections on the business lessons a successful Christmas tree farm has for those of us in professional services.

A couple of "low-cost" airlines have finally added first-class; many service providers operate like all their clients should be first class.

A quick and handy guide for coaches considering Black Friday discounts for their service offerings.

Clients are like cats, and rightly so. Even the ones who love you dearly have limits on that love: they don't really care about your costs.

One week from today, on May 29th, 2024, I'll be at the Gwinnett Entrepreneur Center discussing my book, The Generosity Mindset. In this...

Thoughts on sushi, the concept of "too good to be true," and value conversations as acts of generous service.

Intangible value is like a glacier: it's unseen and unrecognized, but it's the fundamental underpinning to how clients perceive your value.

What should you do when you get asked, "how much for an hour of your time?"

"The Generosity Mindset" selected for the Gwinnett Entrepreneur Center Small Business Book Club