A quick note before we begin

This episode was recorded in March 2026, during an earlier version of my positioning. There was no major offer promotion to remove, but the recording introduced this as a much broader conversation about pricing, sales, scope creep, offer design, business models and marketing.

The episode itself goes deeply into pricing and sales, while the other areas are only briefly named. This written version follows what I actually taught rather than padding the article with points that were never in the recording. Very on theme, really.

Listen to the episode

In this episode

You state the price, the prospect pauses for two seconds, and before she has even formed a response you are explaining the payment plan, adding another deliverable and offering a discount nobody asked for.

It looks like helpfulness. Commercially, you have negotiated against yourself.

People-pleasing in business rarely announces itself as “I would like to reduce my profit today.” It appears as flexibility, generosity, excellent client care or not wanting to be pushy. The intention may be lovely. The money still leaves.

In this episode, we’re talking about:

• how fear of rejection leads to undercharging;
• the difference between healthy flexibility and a pattern of discounting;
• how to raise prices for existing clients;
• why a price objection is not always about affordability;
• the difference between client urgency and manufactured pressure;
• how vague sales follow-up loses otherwise warm leads;
• what over-explaining communicates on a sales call;
• and how to end every call with a clear next step.

People-pleasing creates a commercial chain reaction

People-pleasing is learned. For many women, being agreeable, helpful, low-maintenance and attentive to everybody else’s comfort has been rewarded since childhood.

So when a business decision creates discomfort, saying the price, changing a client’s rate, following up, holding a boundary, the instinct is not random. You have practised smoothing the moment for years.

But the commercial mechanism is very clear:

Fear of discomfort changes the behaviour. The changed behaviour reduces revenue or increases delivery. The profit pays for the avoided conversation.

You discount instead of hearing the objection. You include more instead of holding the value. You stay silent instead of following up. You keep a legacy client on a rate that no longer supports the work.

One awkward moment disappears. The cost repeats every month.

Undercharging starts before anybody objects

You may price an offer around what you think the buyer can afford before she has seen it.

That feels considerate. It is also a projection.

You know your own bank balance, spending, priorities and emotional reaction to the number. You do not know hers. Two people with the same income can have completely different available cash and completely different urgency around the result.

The price still needs to match the buyer and market. Episode 10 goes deeply into what happened when one of my prices stopped matching the clients I wanted to serve. But “this feels expensive to me” is not market research.

Set the price from the result, delivery, capacity, demand and profit required. Then test it with actual qualified buyers.

Do not reject the offer on their behalf.

Make the price visible before the sales conversation

If saying the number live makes you wobble, stop treating it like a surprise reveal.

Put the price on the sales page. Explain the payment options. Make the investment available before somebody books a call.

That does not mean every prospect will be able to afford it. It means the call is not the first moment she learns the broad financial commitment, and you do not have to sit there waiting for a facial expression as though the price is the winner of The Traitors.

Transparent pricing also improves the conversation. You can focus on fit, the problem, the result and whether this is the right time, rather than spending the call building towards a dramatic number at the end.

The buyer arrives informed. You arrive less tempted to apologise.

Healthy flexibility is not the same as always closing below price

Occasional flexibility can make sense.

You may adjust payment timing, reduce the scope or create a suitable version of the work for a specific client. A thoughtful exception does not destroy the business.

The pattern matters.

If the offer is listed at £5,000 and every sale closes at £3,000, the £5,000 price is decorative. Either the offer is poorly positioned at that number, the buyer does not see enough value or you are reducing it whenever the sales conversation becomes uncomfortable.

Collect the evidence:

• How often is the full price accepted?
• At what point do you offer a reduction?
• Did the buyer object, or did you anticipate an objection?
• Does the reduced price still create the required margin?
• Are you changing the price while keeping every deliverable?

A repeated exception is the model.

Raise the legacy-client price first

People-pleasing becomes expensive when long-standing clients remain on rates that bear no relationship to the current work.

I have seen businesses with older clients paying a few hundred pounds a month while new clients pay a few thousand for the same service.

Loyalty can justify thoughtful treatment. It does not require indefinitely preserving the price from a version of the business that no longer exists.

In fact, existing clients can be a useful place to begin a planned increase because they already understand the value and have experienced the work.

Use a simple process:

1. Decide the new rate and the date it begins.
2. Give reasonable written notice, at least 30 days in the example discussed in the episode, while checking any contractual requirements.
3. State why the rate is changing.
4. Explain the options available.
5. Allow the client to decide without turning the email into a courtroom defence.

Your explanation may include the experience, training, improved result, expanded service or market change since the relationship began. It does not need seven paragraphs begging the client to agree that the increase is morally acceptable.

You are communicating a commercial change, not asking for a character reference.

Faster work can be more valuable

One reason service providers resist raising prices is that the work now takes less time.

But becoming faster because you have repeated the work, improved the process and developed better judgement does not reduce the value. The client receives a stronger result with less delay and less management.

There are exceptions. If you explicitly sell hours, as a virtual assistant might, time is part of the pricing unit. Even then, greater capability can justify moving from £20 to £25 an hour because the client receives more useful output during each hour.

For outcome-based work, the question is not how long the expert spent typing. It is what the experience allowed her to see, decide and produce.

Do not punish proficiency with a cheaper invoice.

A reduced scope is different from a reduced price

Sometimes an existing client cannot or will not continue at the new rate.

That does not force a choice between abandoning the relationship and keeping the original full service at the original price.

You can reduce the deliverables to match the available budget. Fewer channels, fewer calls, a narrower scope, less access or a different turnaround time.

This protects the client’s choice and the business’s economics. She pays less because she receives less, not because the same work has become cheaper after one uncomfortable email.

In my client work, price increases did not usually produce the catastrophe people feared. Some relationships ended because the fit had already changed. Others continued with an adjusted scope.

That is experience, not a guarantee. The point is that the predicted mass rejection often exists only in the business owner’s head until the change is communicated.

Discount for a reason, not for relief

Discounting is not inherently bad.

A launch offer, seasonal campaign, early-bird period or deliberate promotional event can create energy and reward a specific buying behaviour. The discount has a purpose, a timeframe and a margin calculation behind it.

Fear-driven discounting works differently.

You lower the price because sales feel slow, one person hesitates or you want to make rejection less likely. The discount is not serving the strategy. It is regulating your discomfort.

Before reducing the number, ask:

• What commercial purpose does this discount serve?
• What does the buyer do in return, pay sooner, decide sooner, accept a smaller scope?
• Does the price still cover delivery and profit?
• Would I offer it if I felt completely calm about the sale?

If the discount exists only to make the yes easier for you to hear, it is probably costing more than the percentage suggests.

“I can’t afford it” can mean several things

A budget objection can be completely genuine.

Somebody may want the result, understand the value and still not have the cashflow, credit or financial room to buy. Treating every affordability objection as a psychological block is lazy sales practice.

But the phrase can also mean:

• not now;
• not urgent enough;
• not the right solution;
• not valuable enough compared with the alternatives;
• or not enough trust yet.

If the price was visible before the call, the buyer was broadly aware of the commitment. That makes it useful to explore what changed without arguing with her finances.

Ask what she is weighing up. Ask what makes the timing difficult. Ask whether the problem is the total investment, the cash timing, the result or the priority.

The job is to understand the no, not defeat it.

I declined £200 a month, then spent £2,000

Two friends launched different offers around the same period.

The first offered me a programme at roughly £200 a month. I looked at the business cashflow and declined. She kindly offered a longer payment plan, and I checked again. The money genuinely did not fit without cutting other spending I had chosen to prioritise.

A few days later, another friend messaged about six weeks of one-to-one launch support. I was preparing to launch, the problem was active and the timing was immediate.

I paid around £2,000 in full from business savings.

On the surface, that appears to make the original affordability objection nonsense. It was not. The two offers had different urgency, relevance and expected return.

I later joined the first friend’s programme in another cohort, when the timing changed.

“Not now” was not “never.” And “I cannot prioritise this expense” was not “there is literally no money anywhere.”

The distinction matters because your sales strategy should not treat every no as a dead lead or every later purchase as proof that the first objection was dishonest.

Real urgency belongs to the buyer

Businesses use urgency to help people decide.

Doors close. Discounts end. Capacity is limited. Some of those constraints are completely legitimate, particularly when delivery genuinely has a maximum number of spaces.

But those are seller-controlled deadlines. The strongest urgency comes from the buyer’s own situation.

What does waiting cost her?

Perhaps underpricing loses £1,000 every month. Debt continues charging interest. A broken sales process wastes qualified leads. The business keeps missing pension contributions. Low margin means another quarter of unreliable personal pay.

Talking about the cost of inaction can feel uncomfortable because people-pleasers do not want to press on the painful bit. I have struggled with that too.

But avoiding the consequence does not make the sales conversation kinder. It can make the decision less informed.

Name the cost accurately. Do not manufacture catastrophe. Let the buyer decide whether now matters.

People-pleasing weakens sales follow-up

The same pattern appears after the call.

You send a polite email saying, “Let me know if you have any questions,” then disappear because another message might feel pushy.

The prospect gets busy, forgets, becomes uncertain or assumes you are not particularly invested in the sale. The conversation dies without anybody making a decision.

Sales follow-up is not an optional personality preference. If you chose self-employment, you chose a business that requires people to buy things.

The sales ick is allowed to exist. It cannot be the operating system.

Silence is not a no

Some prospects stop replying because they are not interested. Others are busy, distracted, overwhelmed or genuinely forgetful.

Many people in my business world are neurodivergent, myself included. I have been grateful for reminders about things I wanted and still failed to answer.

So use a clear boundary:

• If somebody says no, respect the answer.
• If somebody gives another explicit answer, respond to it.
• If somebody gives no answer, follow up.

Two or three thoughtful follow-ups across the life of a warm lead is not harassment. Continuing after a clear no is.

People have thanked me for nudging them because the decision had fallen out of their immediate attention. Following up can be useful service.

Prioritise the warmest conversations

You do not need a rigid sequence that contacts every person every Tuesday until the end of time.

When revenue needs attention, start with the warmest leads:

• people who completed a sales call;
• people who asked a specific question in DMs;
• people who requested a proposal;
• people who replied to a sales email;
• past clients with a relevant new need;
• or somebody who previously said the timing was wrong.

The follow-up can be light:

How are things going? Has anything changed since we last spoke?

Or it can be connected to something current:

I have a space opening in this offer, and I thought of you because of our conversation about X.

You are not arriving with a pitchfork. You are reopening a conversation that already existed.

Stop making silence mean something about you

A slow reply can become an entire emotional narrative.

She hated the call. The price was ridiculous. I talked too much. The offer is bad. Everybody has realised I am a fraud.

Meanwhile, the prospect is on a school run with 47 unread WhatsApp messages and has not thought about you since Tuesday.

You do not know what the silence means. So stop using imagination as sales data.

Follow up. Ask for the answer. Let the response tell you what is happening.

State the price, then be quiet

Earlier in my sales career, I watched people’s faces on calls for signs of approval.

If the reaction to the price was not immediately enthusiastic, I began talking. I explained the value again, added context, mentioned the payment plan and generally behaved as though silence meant the offer had entered cardiac arrest.

Now I state the price and stop.

The prospect booked the call because some interest already exists. She may need a moment to calculate, think or decide what question to ask. Filling that moment communicates that you are uncomfortable with the number.

Confident brevity does more for the offer than an anxious seven-minute justification.

Ask a question that helps the buyer picture the work

“Do you have any more questions?” is easy to answer with no.

A more useful question asks the buyer to imagine how she would use the offer.

For example:

Which offer in your business would you want to bring into this programme first?

Or:

If we began next month, which part of the sales process would you want us to look at first?

The prospect moves from inspecting the offer at a distance to considering her own application. You learn what matters to her, and she articulates the relevance in her own words.

That is not manipulation. It is a better fit conversation.

Never end with an undefined “think about it”

Some buyers need time. Give them time, then agree what happens next.

If the call ends with “I’ll think about it” and no next point of contact, the follow-up becomes emotionally heavier for both people. The buyer has to remember to return. The seller has to decide whether reaching out will look desperate.

Instead, say what you will do:

Have a think, and I’ll check in on Thursday. If I do not hear from you then, I’ll send one final message the following week.

Now the follow-up is expected. Nobody has to interpret it as pressure.

A clear next step is part of a well-run sales process, not evidence that you are pushy.

Client care should not require commercial self-abandonment

Good client care includes listening, reasonable flexibility, clear communication and delivering the result you sold.

It does not require:

• guessing what somebody can afford;
• keeping every legacy rate forever;
• adding deliverables to justify the price;
• discounting whenever a prospect hesitates;
• avoiding necessary consequences in the sales conversation;
• or leaving warm leads untouched because follow-up makes you uncomfortable.

The business can be kind and commercially sound at the same time.

If the only way an offer feels generous is by making it unprofitable, the generosity has been funded by your salary, time or future capacity.

That arrangement will eventually reach the client too, through resentment, burnout, delayed delivery or a business that can no longer provide the service.

Audit the behaviour, then calculate the cost

Look at the last ten sales conversations and current client agreements.

Ask:

1. Where did I lower the price before the buyer asked?
2. Which clients receive the same work at materially different rates?
3. Which discounts had no defined commercial purpose?
4. Which deliverables were added to soothe my discomfort?
5. Which warm leads never received a direct follow-up?
6. Which calls ended without an agreed next step?
7. Where did I over-explain instead of waiting for the answer?

Then add the money.

What does the legacy-rate gap cost each month? How much unpaid delivery sits inside the scope? How much potential revenue remains inside warm conversations nobody continued?

People-pleasing becomes easier to change when it stops being an abstract personality trait and becomes a visible line in the commercial model.

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