A key part of running a successful freelance business is charging enough to make it sustainable. But perhaps you’ve been put off increasing your prices because you’ve tried it before and sales dropped. Potential clients stopped getting back to you, or told you outright that they couldn’t afford your services. Or everything just went REALLY quiet.
It’s tempting to conclude that your prices are too high, and that you’ll just have to put them back down, work harder and squeeze in a few more clients.
But I wouldn’t be too quick to make that assumption.
Sometimes people genuinely can’t afford what you’re offering, and there’s not much you can do about that. But quite often, when someone says ‘I can’t afford it’, there’s something else going on. And understanding what that is can make an enormous difference to how successfully you sell your services.
Here are three things I’d look at before deciding to reduce your prices.
1. Are you attracting the wrong people?
If you’ve been offering lots of free content and support, you may have built up an audience of people who love what you do, but aren’t actually in a position to buy your services.
Perhaps they’re based in countries where average incomes are much lower, or they’re at a stage in their careers where investing in professional support simply isn’t realistic. Or perhaps they’re interested in your subject but have no real intention of paying for help with it.
There’s nothing wrong with any of that, of course. I’m certainly not suggesting that everyone who enjoys your free content should be expected to become a paying client. I offer plenty of free resources myself!
But if your audience is largely made up of people who aren’t potential buyers, you’re going to struggle to sell to them, however good your offer is.
This is why I think it’s so important to be strategic about the free content you create and share. Is it attracting the kind of people you actually want to work with? Does it help them understand your expertise and the problems you can solve? Or are you mainly attracting people who are interested in collecting free teaching resources?
I’d also look at how often you’re actually talking about your paid services. I’ve come across freelancers who spend months sharing useful content on social media but hardly ever mention what people can buy from them. And then they’re surprised when nobody buys!
You don’t need to stop giving away valuable content. But you do need to make it clear what you offer, who it’s for and how people can work with you.
And before you get on a sales call, I’d strongly recommend making sure potential clients have a reasonable understanding of what you offer and roughly what it’s going to cost. It can save everyone an awful lot of time.
2. You’re not communicating the value clearly enough
This is probably one of the most common issues I see when working with freelance language professionals.
Sometimes when people say they can’t afford something, what they really mean is that they don’t see sufficient value in it to justify the price.
They might have the money, but there are plenty of other things they could spend it on, and your offer simply isn’t high enough on their list of priorities.
Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t plenty of value in what you’re offering. You might be an excellent teacher or trainer, with years of experience and a fantastic approach that gets great results.
But do your potential clients understand that?
For example, there’s a big difference between offering ten Business English lessons and offering a programme designed to help someone lead international meetings more confidently and effectively. The actual teaching might involve some of the same activities, but the second description makes a much clearer connection to something the client actually wants to achieve.
And if that outcome is important enough to them, they may be quite happy to pay a premium for the right support.
This is why I spend so much time helping clients understand their niche and communicate the value of what they offer. You need to know what your potential clients really want, why it matters to them and what difference working with you could make.
You also need to provide enough evidence to give them confidence that you can deliver. That might mean sharing relevant client stories, explaining your approach or showing what makes your service different from the alternatives.
When people understand the value of what you’re offering, price can become much less of an obstacle.
But there’s an important caveat here. Sometimes you can explain the value beautifully and someone still won’t buy, because they genuinely don’t have the money, or because solving that particular problem isn’t a priority for them right now.
And that’s fine. They’re simply not the right client for that offer at that moment.
3. Perhaps your offer needs to change
Sometimes the problem really does lie with the offer itself.
You may have identified a group of people who genuinely need your help, and who can see the value in what you’re offering, but there’s something about the way you’ve packaged it that makes buying difficult.
For example, perhaps you’ve developed a substantial programme for busy professionals who would love to improve their communication skills, but simply can’t commit to weekly sessions for six months.
Or perhaps you’re offering a premium one-to-one service when some of your potential clients would be perfectly happy working in a small group, at a lower price.
It’s worth thinking about whether you could make your offer more attractive by changing the balance between live teaching and other kinds of support. Sometimes clients would value regular feedback, accountability or opportunities to practise independently more than additional face-to-face sessions.
You may also be able to offer something smaller as a first step, allowing people to experience the benefits of working with you before making a bigger commitment.
And don’t overlook the way people pay. Offering instalments can make a substantial investment more manageable for someone who has the budget overall but would prefer to spread the cost.
Of course, none of these changes should come at the expense of making your business profitable. There’s no point reducing your prices if it means you have to work twice as hard to earn enough.
The important thing is to understand what’s actually making someone hesitate, rather than automatically assuming the answer is to charge less.
So, should you put your prices down?
Maybe. There are certainly situations where your prices are simply too high for the market you’re trying to serve, or where you’ve developed an offer that people aren’t willing to pay enough for.
But I’d want to investigate the other possibilities first.
Are you reaching people who are genuinely potential buyers? Do they understand what makes your service valuable? And have you designed an offer that suits their needs, circumstances and priorities?
I’d also encourage you to become more comfortable having conversations about money. When someone says they can’t afford your service, you don’t need to immediately offer a discount or launch into a speech about why it’s worth every penny.
You can simply explore whether the offer is right for them, and whether there’s anything they need to understand better before making a decision.
Sometimes the answer will still be no. But if you’re consistently hearing that your services are too expensive, it’s worth taking a closer look at what’s really happening before deciding that your prices need to come down.
Because it’s perfectly possible that the problem isn’t what you’re charging, but who you’re reaching, how you’re communicating your value or what you’re actually offering.
And sorting those things out could make a much bigger difference to your business than knocking another 20% off your prices.
Want to feel more comfortable handling sales conversations?
Perhaps you’re attracting interest in your services, but feel awkward when potential clients start asking about prices or raise concerns about making an investment.
I’ve created the Non Sleazy Sales Kit to help freelance language professionals feel more confident having these conversations.
It includes a short video course and practical PDF taking you through a natural, ten-step sales call process, including how to ask useful questions, communicate the value of your offer and handle concerns about price or time without feeling pushy.