What's Your Pricing Personality?

Setting prices for your services is one of the things that makes us squirm. Why is that? Why do we wrestle with knowing we provide something of value but feel weird about putting a price tag on it? There are many reasons why we squirm, but one of them has a lot to do with our “pricing personalities.”

Where are you at with your pricing at the moment? How about your salary? 

What words pop into your mind when you think about these things?

Are you feeling good?  Tight? Anxious?  Proud?  Uncertain?  Want an increase? Contentment?

You may feel confident, thinking, “My pricing is definitely premium, but it is just slightly below my mentor’s prices, so I’m good. Right??” Self doubt has a way of creeping in even then!

Here’s something for you to consider when that squirmy self doubt comes creeping in:

There are no real rules around pricing. 

There are implications, logistics, and consequences around your prices… but there are no rules.

Think of the world of art - what makes a painting worth a million dollars versus 20 bucks?   

Perception. If enough people love it, value it, and appreciate it, the price goes up.

The prices that are set by your competitors, your mentors, and you are all made up! There are things to consider like covering your costs, but you’re not missing some critical piece of information, some magic algorithm, or some glorified pricing formula. It’s all just made up.

Your “pricing personality” plays a big role in how you feel about and set your prices. Just like having a social personality of “shy” or “outgoing” affects how you feel about, react to, and behave at parties, your money personality, also known as your Sacred Money Archetype, influences how you feel about, react to, and behave around money.

One of my favorite phrases is, “How you do money is how you do everything.” It’s true! It’s incredibly valuable to understand your archetype because it gives you tremendous insight into your money mindset.

You’ll want to take my Sacred Money Archetype Assessment (It’s FREE! Download it here.) to get your personalized result, but for now, here are a few of the traits of each of the seven Sacred Money Archetypes as they apply to setting pricing.

Which seems to apply to you?

Connector - You tend to think about how your pricing will affect everyone in your life - your client relationships, your family, friends, etc. You tend to not really get too attached to your prices and trust that the money will come to you somehow - if not by raising your prices, then by more clients finding you, or waiting for your next big windfall. Even thinking about pricing can make you feel anxious or distracted and want to get back to work meeting with people and coming up with new ideas to help them. You might struggle with raising your prices when it is time or even when it is overtime because you worry about leaving any of your tribe behind. You like critique proof prices. And you want something available at a price for everyone. Connectors feel bad when someone can’t afford it.  

Ruler - You tend to want to be the best in the market, the top, the leader, and may set your prices at the high end. As a Ruler, you think a lot about creating wealth AND empowering others to create wealth. You might receive criticism that can sometimes hurt because some people think your prices are too high. You tend to have the “save up until you can buy it” and “let’s go find the money to do it” attitudes.

Maverick - You tend to not mind, and may even enjoy taking risks and trying things, so you might just pull a number out of your consciousness for your pricing and try it. You tend to have a courageous approach to pricing and try things in order to generate income. Other people’s opinions about pricing and what “the market will bear” don’t necessarily matter to you. When you hear advice about ending your prices with a 9 or 7, you’re likely to say, “F-that, I’ll do what I want!”

Celebrity - You tend to price things to reflect the way you want people to see you. The way you handle money, and particularly pricing, has a lot to do with the way you portray yourself to the world. Depending on where you are in your business journey you may want to appear as a high-end role model and set your prices high. But you may also want to appear as humanitarian and set your prices quite low, maybe too low for your own financial wellness. 

Accumulator - You look at money analytically and are constantly decoding and justifying value.  It would feel totally unethical for you to pick a number that didn’t match up with some compared value. You strive to come up with something that feels like it would be a bargain for your clients while providing you enough, so you research the heck out of pricing for your industry and other related or even unrelated industries.

Nurturer - You tend to worry about how other people will react to your price and whether or not it will be feasible to them. You want to help everyone and therefore might set your prices low enough for everyone to take part. You tend to be really generous with your pricing, but then you can end up feeling burnt out or resentful when you’ve given your all. You may attract clients who hem and haw about paying your prices, not because they are actually needy or cheap or frugal, but because they are experiencing their own money blocks when deciding to invest in themselves.

Romantic - You tend to have a push-pull relationship with pricing because you want to generate enough income to afford a luxurious and abundant life, but you don't like to think about money or anything related to organizing, counting, tracking, or assigning it. Setting prices, therefore, is something you don’t want to spend time thinking about.

Alchemist - You tend to have a love/hate relationship with money and everything that has to do with money.  You have amazing ideas and enjoy stepping into new and creative endeavors but you like to focus on the outcome that your work brings to others rather than the prices and money mechanics along the way. Pricing brings up feelings of unfairness and resentment about having to assign value to your work. You probably use your pendulum or divination deck to choose your pricing.  (wink wink)

Pricing your services is a no-rules game, but there are consequences, implications, and logistics to be considered when deciding the dollar value you assign to them.

Don’t let this be scary! 

Let it be an inspiring part of your business vision, your money goals, and what attracts your ideal clients.

If your money goal is to make $250,000 next year, you have to decide if you want to sell a ton of products or services for a low price, or a few products and services for a higher price. The answer will help you determine what mix of things you want to offer and how many people you’ll need to see them.

Pricing isn’t punitive to you or your clients! 

You get to make choices based on your pricing and set your pricing based on your choices.

If you charge well for what you do, you’ll have the time to allow you to help so many more people. It will afford you the time and energy so you can create a book or a free program that you can give to everyone.

You have to make the money so that you can have the energy and resources to create more things that reach more people and allow them to have the transformation they need and want.

There is no perfect price. And prices are not permanent. If you find your pricing isn’t working, you can change it! There is no rule saying you can’t!

It is incredibly empowering to know your pricing and money personality so you can pinpoint the blind-spots you may have around money and identify steps you can take to own your value with confidence and clarity.