Raising Your Prices: Five Strategies
When I was a little girl, my uncle gave my parents a West Highland Terrier puppy. My uncle was a breeder of these dogs. With his certifications, bloodline, and paperwork, this little guy was worth about $1,000. We named him “Westy” (of course we did – my name is East, my brother’s name is West, and we just had to have a dog named “Westy,” right?). Sadly, Westy didn’t work out for our family, so we decided we had to give him up. We placed an ad offering the little guy for free (seeing that we got him for free we figured that seemed fair). Days, weeks, and a month went by without not even a single person expressing interest in Westy. Hmm? What was going on here? My parents considered the idea that people were holding the perception that Westy wasn’t valuable because we were giving him away for free. Why would someone give away something valuable, right? So, they changed the advertisement to offering Westy for $750. Within hours we received eight responses, and someone bought Westy that night for $750. Can you see where I’m going with this story (besides letting you know that I didn’t change my name to East to go to Chinese medical school)? In this article, I will present you with five strategies for raising your prices. Before I give you my secrets, however, I’d like to propose we shift our way of thinking (kind of how my parents did in offering Westy, the dog). I’d like you to shift from selling to offering. In my years of coaching practitioners, I have found that they an almost visceral reaction to the words “sell” and “selling”. If you think about it, we aren’t selling our treatments or even ourselves. We are offering to help. We are offering to use the tools, wisdom, and education we have gathered to help someone feel better, to heal, to laugh again, to live a life of well-being. Another shift I’d like to propose is from treatments to results. We don’t sell needles, acupuncture, massage, gua sha, moxibustion, or counseling. We offer our patients a way to their desired results. Because of us, people have babies when everyone else told them it was impossible. Because of us, people play golf without having to take prescription medications or receive surgery. Because of us, people no longer have debilitating migraines, back pain, pee their pants, suffer from extreme anxiety or depression. It’s all about the end result – that is what we offer. I’d love for all of us to recognize this and hold that in our minds when we are coming up with our pricing structures, marketing, and/or communications to our communities. Lastly, before I divulge the goods: When raising your prices, I’d like to offer you three rules: Time it Right. Do it when you have happy patients—in some cases a full practice where everything is going well. Clearly Communicate. Use newsletters, a poster in your office, postcards, your website and verbal communication to let everyone know that your prices are going up. You don’t have to explain why. In fact, DON’T explain why. You don’t have to. No Apologies or Reasons. It’s your business. These are your decisions. The sooner you practice how you want, when you want, with whom you want and where you want you will align with what I refer to as your Three P’s: Purpose, Passion, and Prosperity. Okay, as I get off my mini soapbox, and without further ado, here are five strategies for raising your prices. #1: Raise Prices for New Patients Keep current patients at old pricing. All new patients are given the new, higher pricing structure. Raise prices across the board but raise prices slightly for current patients and more for incoming patients. Good for: Moving your practice to a new location, or a growing practice. Maybe you are feeling super loyal to your existing patients and don’t want to raise prices on them. That is okay. What if you just raised prices on any new patients? Your prior/existing patients can be “grandfathered” into your old pricing structure. This is a good strategy if you are moving to a new location, and only a handful of your patients will follow you or if you are phasing out of a specialty and entering into a new one. Perhaps you once were the Queen of fertility, but now you want to treat more sports injuries. You can keep all your fertility patients at the old pricing structure and publish your new pricing on your website and any other marketing for new patients. #2. Give a Grace Period Give a grace period to all patients: current, new, and potential. Give grace period to existing patients only. One month is entirely adequate. Good for: All situations. You can announce the grace period by having a sign at the reception desk. Something like “As of (this date) our prices will be (this price). Thank you for allowing us to continue to provide service, comfort, and support to you and your families.” In addition, you can provide grace period notice in newsletters, emails, text messages, social media posts and on your website. For the website notice, create a small pop-up message on the main page or on the page that describes your services. Again, you can write something like, “We love our patients and community. As of (this date) our prices will become (enter new prices). Thank you for allowing us to be of service. If you have any questions, please (enter how you want them to ask you questions). #3. Add Value Gain new knowledge, skill, or techniques that make your sessions more valuable Add new modalities or products that also make your sessions more valuable Good for: Those who have been in practice for several years, just completed new training, or bought new equipment or tools (aka practice toys). Many of you have started using expensive tools like lasers or Acugraphs, which cost
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