The biggest barrier to raising your prices

Pricing is all about psychology.

Externally, you can use a technique called anchoring to set the expectations in your prospects' mind.

But, when it comes to setting your prices, the biggest barrier is internal.

It's you.

Because pricing, especially for small service-based companies, is linked directly to your sense of self-worth, to your sense of value.

The bespoke software development side of my business is not cheap. Projects can run for six months or more. Just getting the specifications written can be a several-month affair. And, even though most of my team are based abroad, hiring skilled software developers is expensive.

So when it came to putting the prices on my website, I decided on a base figure, started writing out the copy on the page. And I couldn't write out the number I had in mind. My fingers literally wouldn't move. If you look now, you'll see I never got round to writing that page.

I have twenty years experience in this field. I'm an expert in the technology I use. We have a nine-step process that our development team follows to ensure that the work done hits our consistently high standards. And yet I still can't write out what I think it's worth.

That's not because it's priced too high. It's lower than many agencies doing similar work.

It's not because it's not good value. Our systems help companies make hundreds of thousands of pounds.

It's because I've got an internal hang-up, somewhere in my brain, about writing out a big number and publishing it onto a website.

Take action: Remember I asked what's stopping you from raising your prices? Take a look at it again. What's really stopping you?