Do you know how what you say impacts customer willingness to pay? Clarity of message is key in all things, and pricing is no exception.
A customer’s willingness to pay for something can be fickle. That’s one reason why an important part of pricing is to consider the message. The message your prices deliver. What message you deliver with your prices and the message your actions around pricing communicate to your customers.
You’re communicating a lot! Whether you realize it or not, not only what you say but what you do matters in pricing. And the clarity of those messages is critical to your business success.
In this episode…
That’s what we’re talking about in this week’s episode of Live with the Pricing Lady with my guest expert Kate Gilbert. She helps high-achieving professionals improve their public speaking by finding their authentic voice and building confidence. She’s going to be sharing with us her own pricing journey as well as her take on the importance of a clear message.
Let’s take at what Kate has to say about how to have a clear message and how it might be impacting what your customers are willing to pay.
If you prefer to watch the video live stream replay, use this link.
Highlights of this episode:
These timestamps are based on the Youtube video. The podcast is different.
Favorite quotes from this episode:
“It’s important to think about the context in which you’re delivering that message.” Janene
” (at the beginning…) I charged 60 pounds in the end, which I thought was amazing at the time. Then obviously since then I’ve realized that it’s not actually sustainable for a business.” Kate
“(I hear this often…) I’m too nervous to talk about my company. So I’m just gonna show up and I’m just going to spout some stuff, but in a way you might as well not go to that meeting. If that’s what you’re going to do.” Kate
“Changing the pitch sometimes can help if it’s not working, if you’re not getting people to put their hand up at the end and want to speak to you, try something different.” Kate
“An important point to make is that by preparing it’s not necessarily memorizing something. It is actually about making sure that the things that are most important are fresh in your mind so that when you do deliver it, you don’t have to work so hard to come up with the things to say,” Janene
“You’ve got to be really careful with language because it’s so powerful. And we have to speak confidently and with real conviction about what we deliver.” Kate
Links from this episode:
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Get started improving your business. Sometimes it’s difficult to know where to begin. I suggest you Download the the self assessment Pricing Scorecard. Get a view of what’s working and what’s not working when it comes to pricing in your business. Figure out where to start making improvements.
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Episode Transcript
(Note: this transcript has been edited)
Introducing Kate
Kate: I’m a public speaking coach. I’ve been doing that now for about six years. I started as an actor and I was actually quite terrified of public speaking myself for many years and I decided that I needed to kind of grow my confidence. And so I put myself forward for. Lots of opportunities to speak and put myself on the stage as much as I could and started to learn actually how to grow confidence, basically through action, but also through workshops and Buddhism and all kinds of stuff that I did.
Then I had an opportunity to teach public speaking in schools, years later. I was quite nervous about doing that, but actually found that had some gift and an absolute talent for it. And I was transforming hundreds of, of young people in schools. And when I left there, I started working with adults and I’ve been doing that now for about three or four.
Janene: Okay. Wow, fantastic. What, what a journey. I, myself also had, I had a rough start at the beginning when it came to public speaking and was able to… I always wanted, I always envied people who could be on stage. It looked like they were having fun. Yeah. And so I joined Toastmasters with that goal in mind to enjoy public speaking and turned around things [00:02:00] myself for myself as well.
So I understand what that journey can be like and kudos to you for turning that around and making it into a living of what you’re doing today.
Kate: Yeah, sure. Yeah. It’s funny. I mean, some people are natural sort of extroverts and they really love it. And others, it is really the scariest thing you could possibly do.
Janene: Yeah. Yeah. Public speaking really is one of those things that can be very, very frightening for people that’s for sure.
How’d she start her business?
So, Kate, how did you decide to start your own business?
Kate: Well, like I said, I was working in the school and I actually got made redundant because they just didn’t have the funding anymore.
They were painting quite a lot. I was in three days a week as a specialist. I’ve been there for three years. And so when I came out with that, I thought, what am I going to do? I was also an actor, but my acting wasn’t giving me a sustainable income, unfortunately. And, I knew I had to do something else as well.
I was having a conversation with my brother. He said, well, you taught kids so you can teach adults. And I was like, no, no, no, it’s totally different. I don’t think it’s the same thing at all. And he, and he kept questioning going, how’s it different? How’s it different? And then I just thought, you know, okay.
I think I might really enjoy that. And so I got my first client just by saying to someone that I was a public speaking coach and that I’d been doing it for three years in schools. I was looking for clients and her daughter was actually looking for someone to help her. So I went and worked with her.
I think we did three sessions. She was doing a PhD in science. So it was quite funny because she was talking about all these really technical terms. It was very scientific. I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I can tell you how you’re delivering, how you’re coming across and let’s work with that.
I got the first one…and went from there
[00:03:51] Yeah. And that went really well. She gave me a great testimonial and then I just started getting more and more clients from that.
Janene: Excellent. Well, sometimes it’s a very organic process and for other people, it’s a very challenging decision to make, to take that leap from having a paycheck into starting their own business.
Kate: Yeah, of course. No, I think you’re right. For me, it was quite authentic and it did grow in a way where I was going, okay. People are coming to me, this is working. And then it gets to a point, but I was still teaching as well as still doing bits of teaching him in there. And then it gets to a point where you kind of.
Okay now, am I ready just to do this? And then it’s a whole, as you know, being a business owner, as I say, it’s a whole different book.
Janene: Ain’t that the truth?
What was pricing like for you when you started?
Kate, one of the questions I like to ask guests is when you first started your business and you had to set a price for what you were doing, what was that process like for you?
Kate: You know, that was really difficult for me because [00:05:00] I’d also come from an acting background. If you know anything about acting, unless you’re doing big time stuff, you’re often doing there to work or to work or short films or something like that.
The money is not great. And so as a lifestyle thing, you start to kind of get used to not having that much money, but just about getting by charging an hourly rate. I was, I was kind of like, I’ve got no idea. I’ve kind of do it for 10 pounds.
Janene: Well, you were thinking about what you would pay for it. I would guess.
Kate: I had such, just strange well a different relationship with money than, than I do now.
Paying attention to what other do
And when I started getting, started working with corporates or with those people, I started realizing how low my, my relationship with money was in terms of my value. And what other people were actually getting paid. Right. So it’s been, you know, and it has been a journey for me going, actually I give loads of value [00:06:00] to people.
They get loads of worth, they get jobs out of it. They get clients out of it, right. Or that kind of thing. And it’s actually worth a lot more money to them that I’m putting on. You know, so I think, I think I’ve, I started the first one I did. I think I charged 60 pounds in the end, which I thought was amazing at the time.
Then obviously since then I’ve realized that it’s not actually sustainable for a business.
Janene: Yeah. Yeah.
Kate: But it was a good start and I felt like it wasn’t so low that she wouldn’t take me seriously. And it wasn’t too high that it made me feel uncomfortable at the time, knowing that’s my first adult client. Right?
Janene: Right. Very interesting. Yeah. Everybody has a different journey and a different approach to how they started out with, with the topic or with setting prices in their business.
It’s about building rapport
So I always find it very interesting to hear where people started and, and how the they’ve developed [00:07:00] in their own journey. Now, one of the things that we wanted to talk about today was clarity of message. And how that relates then back into what someone can charge. So why don’t you talk a little bit about the importance of being clear in your message?
Kate: Yeah, I, you know, it is kind of. And particularly if you’re talking about your business and you know, sometimes we overfill the plate for someone and they look around for where where’s the gold, where the yummy bits in this, and it’s making people think too much. So the more economical you can be for them in that thinking, the more likely they are to.
Go up, get, get on board with, with what you’re doing. So there’s, you know, there’s lots of things I think that, that people, people do and also your genuine delivery and your confidence makes a difference because at the end of the day, we’ll buy people. So they’re looking for, you know, can they [00:08:00] have a good rapport with that person?
Do they like them? Do they trust them? Or those kinds of things. I think when people shy away from. Them getting personal or telling a personal story or their own journey into how they got into what they’re doing. But what she does is it makes you relatable and people feel like they know you more and they’re more likely to trust you.
So is this kind of simple things I think that people can do when they’re talking about their business to enroll people in what they’re doing and want to want to sign up with them ultimately. Right.
The difference now
Janene: Right. So one of the things I recognized a lot, because I’ve obviously well in the olden days before COVID (BC), I would, when you were going to networking events and I’d introduce myself to someone new and eventually you’d ask them, what do you do?
You get? I would get a lot of, oh, I’m just a coach or, oh, I’m just an accountant. Oh, I’m just. I call it the, the disease “justa”. And to me, you know, that’s a really good example or a bad example, depending on care on your perspective of how powerful or how not powerful your communication can be.
And then if you extrapolate that, if someone says I’m just a coach now, is that someone that you think, oh, I want to work with this person.
Kate: Yeah, absolutely. I think you’ve got to be really careful with language because it’s so powerful, you know. And we have to talk very confidently and with real conviction about what we’re doing. I was working with some startups the other week, some entrepreneurs.
And I was saying to them, even if you haven’t been working at this business for a long time. You haven’t got maybe the personal validation that what you’re doing is brilliant, but look at what you’ve done, what you’ve trained in, where you are now, and be really confident in that. And you don’t need to say, oh, I’m just new to this.
Or I’m just beginning, you know, because it does make a difference to how people perceive you. And actually, if you just talk about you. Your most your, your qualities and the things you have done and done well, even if it’s only one project. Yeah. You know, and I think when I had that first conversation with this lady and that I don’t actually think I said to her, I only work with children.
Lean into your strengths
I think I’d kind of talked about public speaking and how I worked and things like that, so that she felt confident that I could work with. So, I mean, it depends on the rapport and relationship that you have with someone, how much you want to be honest about that. But if you’re in a networking thing and you’ve only got one or two minutes to talk about it, I just talk about your strengths and really lean into that.
Do not apologize for yourself in any way. Yeah, I think
Janene: that’s a, that’s a really important point. Especially I think with women, they have a tendency to see their own faults. Very clearly, at least what they perceive to be their own faults, very clearly I have to put that in quotes. Right. And almost apologize for it.
Are you saying too much, too little, the right or wrong things?
Kate: And a lot of these conversations. Absolutely. And you know, people are, you’re asking people to part with their money. No, so to kind of sit there and I, except I’ve seen so many women who I’m sure are absolutely brilliant at that jobs and men as well actually. But if they come across and they’re like, oh yeah, I just, you know, I work in this industry and you know, and it’s, and it’s nervy and they’re using a lot of fillers and you’re just like, okay.
Or if they don’t give enough information as well to involve you, then you’re like, okay, you just, you do public speaking. Okay fine.. I know what I’m doing.
Janene: I think it can go in both directions. So you can say too little, but I think most, most of the cases I see are most of the times that I see people is trying to overcompensate and delivering too much information.
Take a little time to prepare
Kate: Actually, you know, another point I suspect, particularly with elevator pitch is it’s so worth sitting down and actually stretching it and spending some time with it because. Even, it can be one of those things that you think, oh, I don’t really know what to do or how to talk about it. And I don’t, I’m too nervous to talk about my company.
So I’m just gonna show up and I’m just going to spout some stuff, but in a way you might as well not go to that meeting. If that’s what you’re going to do. So it’s, I actually recommend people sit down and really think about how can I structure this? What can I say, what are my main points that are going to actually enroll someone and then confidence in me rather than winging it and hoping that some day like, oh, I feel really sorry for you, but I tangle back with you, you know?
Yeah. It’s not going to work, especially in the markets where they’re so, you know, there’s so much competition. Yeah. Right.
Janene: I think an important point, an important point to make is that by preparing it’s not necessarily memorizing something. It is actually about making sure that the things that are most important are fresh in your mind so that when you do deliver it,
you don’t have to work so hard to come up with the things to say, right? Because you have this pool of information already kind of in your brain because you’ve taken and it can be 15, 20 minutes. It can be two hours if you want. But you know, thinking about those things and thinking about, ok for this group, this is what’s most important to say.
And when you take the time to do that, then you, you are more likely to get the next meeting with the investor. You’re more likely to get the call with the prospect client or get the order from, from the clients that you’re speaking to. And I think that that is a very important thing for people to remember.
It’s not about the memorization. It’s it’s more about the ideas and, and being able to being in a place to deliver the right message.
Just a little time makes a big difference
Kate: Yeah. I mean, I was on a networking group a few weeks ago and we were put in networking, we were put in breakout rooms about four times to do our elevator pitches to each other.
And I noticed by the third time. That. And I actually didn’t know this was happening, so I hadn’t really prepared, but like he said, it already known my stuff. So I was able to think, what are the stories I’m going to use in this very quickly? And by the fourth time I realized that there were three people who would have been on every single room.
I’d been in. And I thought OK, I cannot say the same thing again. So I changed it. I took a completely different angle that I’d never actually said before either. I was kind of inspired by what someone said in the last break, having a thought, and that really works on that angle. And then at the end of it, someone said are there any questions.
And someone asked me a question and then three other women put a hundred percent. Kate I’d really love to speak to you. And I just noticed [00:15:00] how changing the pitch sometimes can help if it’s not working, if you’re not getting people to put their hand up at the end and want to speak to you, try something different.
And you know, you might, you might hit on something that works.
Janene: Yeah. Yeah. Earlier this year, I was in an event where we went through sort of pitching rounds where you were, it was a zoom, and then you were in zoom rooms with like four or five people and then a and a moderator and you pitched in the moderator, gave feedback and then.
We did it again and did it again. And then we had a pitch off in the end and it was really interesting to keep having to adapt based on the feedback. But then also recognizing that, you know, some of the people who’ve already heard this, how do we do that? So I think to come back to how this relates then to.
How can you improve clarity of message?
You know, the clarity of your message. Then relates back into what you can charge or how you can charge all of these things are very much tied in, in my opinion. And so I’m curious we’re going to start wrapping this up in the moment, but I’m curious, you know, what can people really do in order to have that clarity in message.
Kate: Yeah, I think watch other people. I’ve really observed what what’s working, what isn’t working. Then goes back to your own pitch or how have you speak about your company when you are talking about it. And really just sit down and think, what, what can I say about this? How can I hook them in that first, in that first line?
Have I got a great client story that I can talk about? It’s going to say so much about my business, that I don’t have to say what I’m doing or how I work. I just really an example. What’s my call to action at the end. Because it’s often that people are missing that because they kind of go, oh, here’s my amazing speech.
Please don’t run away…remember the call to action
And now I’m going to run away, you know? And it’s that thing of please don’t run away, just stay with your audience and know everything that you can give them. That’s going to help them decide whether you’re the right person. And then you give them the call to action. How did they get in touch with you?
How does it…what’s the next step.. Yeah, because people do need feeding that a little bit, if you don’t say it they won’t necessarily think to get
Janene: in touch with you. Right. Right. It’s also important to remember that not every, you may be pitching your business, but if you’re pitching it to a client, to an investor, to a partner, those are different pitches.
Remember context is important to clarity of message
And your call to action may be the same, have a meeting with me, or let’s do business or whatever, you know, whatever the call to action is, but that doesn’t mean that you would give the same pitch in all three cases. And so it’s important to think about the context in which you’re delivering that message.
Kate: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And as you said before, you don’t want to be just on the rote this kind of robotic sales pitch you know type of thing. So it does need to be spontaneous and you do need to think who’s this already wants, what is it they’re going to be interested in. That’s going to relate to what they want.
And then we’ll talk about that
Janene: Yeah. Excellent.
Biggest takeaway from our discussion
Kate, we need to start wrapping this up here. What is it, or what is the one thing you would like people to remember from our conversation today?
Kate: Your language is important. How you show up and how you present yourself does make a difference in whether people are going to want to work with you or not going to take you seriously. So really do practice, do sit down and think about how you talk about your business. And yeah, go from there.
Good luck really.
Janene: Okay, excellent.
For those of you starting a business here’s Kate’s tip
And if you had advice to people who are starting out their own business, so maybe something that you know now that you didn’t know them, but boy, you wish you did. What would you share with them?
Kate: I think, you know, I spent a lot [00:19:00] of time on my website actually, and it took me ages to get it up, up upon nine and get going.
And I would just say, when you’re starting, just, don’t worry too much about, don’t worry about things being perfect. Never even with the elevator pitch, you know, when you’re starting out, people will forgive you a little bit and, and again, you know, your, your pricing and who you want the real kind of mirror where you are as well.
So make sure that you’re just shocking up your skills as you go, but when you’re starting out, give yourself a little bit of It’s supposed to like friend friendly, friendly chat, negative, and quite critical in our mind. It’s about just being a little bit gentle and generous with yourself. And just remembering to be curious and that we’re exploring and you will learn and you will get better and it will get easier.
Janene: I love that. I love that. Be kind to yourself. I think that’s very good advice.
