The Price and Value Journey

Referrals and Pricing A story on referrals and pricing, and how best to refer your fellow professional services providers. The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX®. About The Price and Value Journey The title of this show describes the journey all professional services providers are on: building [...]

Waffles, Pricing, and Client Context A story about kids' waffles, and how professional services providers miss the opportunity to price based on client context, while in doing so treat their best clients unfairly. The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX®. About The Price and Value Journey The [...]

LinkedIn for Professional Services Providers: An Interview with Gregg Burkhalter, The "LinkedIn Guy" Gregg Burkhalter, dubbed "The LinkedIn Guy" by his clients, joined host John Ray to share his advice about effective relationship building and personal branding on LinkedIn. Gregg talked about successful LinkedIn strategies for time-starved professional services providers, creating and sharing cont...

Value in a Worthless Lottery Ticket Is there value in a worthless lottery ticket? Yes, and it's a perfect illustration of how our prospective clients (and all of us, actually) make buying decisions based on intangibles which have nothing to do with our services, experience, or credentials. The Price and Value Journey is presented by [...]

Finding the Ain't A visit with one of my clients and a CPA we were interviewing led to "finding the ain't." The "ain't" in this meeting was the intangible my client identified which attracted him to this CPA. A real-life lesson in how intangibles are what makes prospective clients lean in, not our certifications or [...]

Battling Imposter Syndrome: An Interview with Stacey Ruth, Unstoppable Leader Anyone who has started their own professional services practice faces imposter syndrome at some point in their journey. What happens, though, when the stress of imposter syndrome is so severe that you find yourself on the bathroom floor, bleeding internally and suffering severe headaches and [...]

Our Intelligence is a Vulnerability In our professional services practices, our intelligence is a vulnerability, but not because we don't know what we're doing. On the contrary, the sharper our intelligence, the more captive we can be to our biases. Further, and contrary to what we might like to think, our intelligence is not the [...]

The Post-It Note You Need on the Bathroom Mirror Some folks use a Post-It note in a prominent place, like the bathroom mirror or on their computer monitor, to remind them of their goals and to provide motivation. Here's a suggestion for what that note should contain to help you to attain those goals. The [...]

Prices are Marketing Signals: The Woodworker Edition Prices are marketing signals. Prices send messages of quality, and sometimes prices send a signal you didn't intend: that your service is inferior in some way. A master woodworker's story illustrates the point. The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by the North Fulton studio of Business [...]

Experts Don't Chase Experts don't chase for a lot of reasons. One reason is that they're too busy. The unsolicited pitches of a business and life coach prompts thoughts on expertise, chasing prospects, and the unintended signals some professional services providers send. The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by the North [...]

How to Successfully Increase Your Prices: An Interview with Mark Peacock, PriceMaker Ltd. Pricing expert Mark Peacock joined host John Ray to discuss how to successfully increase prices in your professional services practice. Mark covered the primary reason services providers don't raise their prices (fear), the role of options in better pricing, the two-stage communication [...]

How to Get Great Referrals For us as professional services providers, the answer to the question of how to get great referrals lies in the clients we already have. The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX®. About The Price and Value Journey The title of this show [...]

Business Brand Phrases That Stick: An Interview with Marti Konstant How should we as professional services providers address our business branding? How can we develop branding which is memorable? Marti Konstant, noted speaker, coach, and best-selling author, joined John Ray to address these questions and much more. Marti recounted her own journey, from teenage years [...]

When Is It Time to Fire a Client? When is it time to fire a client? There are several factors to consider, and not all of them have to do with the client or whatever problems we think they're causing for us and our practice. We must be honest: some of the considerations on such [...]

A Business Lesson from an Epidural Can you derive a business lesson from an epidural? Yes, says John Ray, and it involves small pinch points which cause dysfunction in an entirely different part of our business. The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX®. About The Price and [...]

A Real-Life Example of How Hourly Pricing Hurts Your Bottom Line Hourly pricing or pricing by any increment of time is one of the red flags of inadequate pricing for professional services providers. Here's a real-life example from a coaching call which illustrates how hourly pricing hurts your bottom line. The Price and Value Journey [...]

The Go-Giver Philosophy: An Interview with Bob Burg Bob Burg, coauthor of the best-selling book The Go-Giver and Hall of Fame keynote speaker, joined host John Ray to discuss the philosophy of being a go-giver, what it means, why giving and receiving are not opposites, why giving does not mean giving away services, how to [...]

Nice, Kind, and Offering Value You can always be kind, but being nice can sometimes inhibit your capacity to deliver value. Yes, there's a difference between being nice and kind. A story and some thoughts on nice, kind, and offering value to clients and prospects in your professional services practice. The Price and Value Journey [...]

How a Higher Price Makes You More Competitive As a professional services provider, don't you have to lower your price to be more attractive to the marketplace? How does a higher price make you more competitive? Answers to these questions in this episode. The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by [...]

Selling to Your Own Wallet "They'll never pay that much." If you've had that thought as you think about how to price a client engagement or project, then you may be guilty of selling to your own wallet. John Ray discusses the phenomenon, why it happens, and how to address it. The Price and Value [...]

The Value of a Dime The value of a dime is not ten cents. Depending on the circumstances, its value, like any "surprise and delight" gesture we extend to a client, prospect, or someone in our network, can be priceless, and cement your status as a person of value. The Price and Value Journey is [...]

Psychological Dance Steps To be successful in your solo or small firm professional services practice, there are a few "psychological dance steps" you must absorb. The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX®. About The Price and Value Journey The title of this show describes the journey all [...]

Should I Give a "Friends and Family" Discount? Naturally, you want to help your friends and family, or possibly a charitable organization. Maybe they've been early clients, helping you get started in your professional services practice. Seeds of dysfunction for your business, however, can be sown with a friends and family discount. The Price and [...]

The Pricing Journey of a Professional Concierge On a recent show I hosted, Julie Hullett, a professional concierge based in Nashville, told the story of her pricing journey and how raising her pricing fundamentally transformed her business. The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX®. About The Price [...]

Choices Are Powerful Human beings prefer choices, and therefore choices are powerful. When you offer choices in proposals to clients, you're not only harnessing that power to your advantage, but it's better for the client, too. The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX®. About The Price and [...]