Putting a Price on Therapy: The Importance of Getting it Right

Hi, and welcome back, and if it's your first time, it's brilliant to have you here. I hope you're okay. I hope you're having a good day. Now as I'm recording this, the sun is blasting through the window, which always makes me feel good, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one. So let's hope the sun's out where you are.

So what we're gonna talk about today, well, today I want to talk about pricing. You know, pricing's such a funny thing for us as therapists, isn't it? So. Really, I've just got a thought for you for reflection. Okay. So I'm not telling you what to do, I'm just giving you something to think about.

So imagine that you are looking for a wedding photographer, and you get three different quotes. So the first one's for 500 pounds, the second one is for 750 pounds, and the third one is for a thousand pounds. Now, which one of those would you choose and why?

Now, just before I go on, just to let you know, I've got absolutely no idea how much wedding photography is these days.

I know that those prices are gonna be well off. It's gonna be thousands probably. But just bear with me. I’m just doing this to make a point really. I'm not looking for a photographer or getting married for that matter. I just want to explore the process of how you might go about choosing,

Because wedding photos are precious.

You know, it's a one-time opportunity to get them, you know, and it's gonna be with you for the rest of your life, or at least until the marriage dissolves, not that I’m pessimistic! You know, it is taking photos of a day of huge importance when hopefully you'll have the people around you that you love, family and friends.

I got divorced years ago. I. But the photographs still a memory of a particular time. There are people in there that sometimes are no longer with us. It's important, you know, it's a memory of an important day, so you need to really trust the photography.

You need to trust the person that's going to be there to take the photos and you need a certain type of person. You know? You want someone that's got experience. Maybe you want someone that's being recommended and you definitely want somebody that's got talent. And very often this is going to mean that you'll pay more in order to be in safe hands, because if it all goes horribly wrong, I mean, we've all heard horror stories of when you know somebody took the photographs and they've just, n none of them have come out or.

You know, things like that. Absolute horror stories. And it's heartbreaking. I know for me, I had, my granddad made my wedding cake and it meant the world to me when I was young. Like my granddad was a guy who, you know, he was a big, burly guy. He did all his own building, you know, he was a real, you know, real man, you know.

But he used to ice cakes. My grandma used to make the cakes. She was a fabulous baker and my granddad used to ice them and he used to make delicate little flowers and he used to make like I icing baskets filled with like rose buds. It was absolutely amazing what he could do. And for me it was really, really important to have my grandma and granddad make my wedding cake.

You know, it was just such an important thing. And when it all came down to it, the photographs on the day were great, but the photographs of the cake of me and my ex-husband in front of the cake didn't come out and it was, I felt quite. You know, I was, I was quite heartbroken about that because it did mean such a lot to me.

So, yeah, you need to know that you're gonna be in safe hands because these are pictures that you can't recreate again, you know, so, So anyway, back to the wedding photographer. So think about how you would choose someone to be your photographer at a wedding. Now, would you choose somebody that was going to be, you know, the cheapest that you could find?

You know, you would you look around at prices and think, right, okay, who's gonna be able to do this? the cheapest for me. And I would say, well, Let's, let's just explore that a little bit, because when we see people that are cheaper than others, sometimes it makes us think, well, why are they being so cheap?

Why is it that others are charging a lot more? And it might make you feel a little bit suspicious, you know, can this person really be trusted with something so precious? Do they have the skills and experience in order to help you to capture your special day? So, you know, there's, for many people, there's an expectation that the cheapest person isn't going to be as good.

And you've heard this before and you know this, I know that probably in your own life there have been times when you've, when you've seen that something more expensive is going to be.

Now, that's not always the the truth. We know that that isn't always going to be the truth, but it is something that goes through the minds of potential clients when it comes to choosing someone, whether that's choosing a photographer, whether that's choosing a counsellor, whether that's choosing a pair of new trainers.

You know, some people are happy to go to Asta and buy some trainers. Some people want to have the very, very best. A lot of people are somewhere in the middle, aren't they? So, you know, it can make people question if somebody's very cheap. It can make people think, oh, you know, are they gonna be as good? Why are they cheap?

What is it that's making them so cheap? You know, do they not believe they're very good? You know, are they just inexperienced and need to learn? And it makes us feel a little bit suspicious. So, yeah, and I, I sort of say this because sometimes as therapists. We think that offering a low price is gonna bring us more clients.

But you know what? That isn't necessarily the case because our mental health is precious too. You know, people come to, a therapist because they need some help with whatever it is. They need help. And our, you know, they know that getting a good therapist, they want the best that they can possibly have.

Because it's important. You know, as I say, you are putting your story into somebody's hands, your mental health into somebody's hands, some their, their wellbeing into somebody's hands. And there are many people, myself included, who are willing to pay a little bit more to work with them, the right person for them.

And this is, you know, I've had this myself. Now, I don't actually go out and particularly look for really expensive counsellors. That's not what I do. But I do know that in the past when I've been looking for a counsellor if somebody's charging a really low price, it puts me off. You know, I'm, I'm sorry. You know, you might think that you know, you might think I'm wrong, and you are entitled to think I'm wrong, but that's what happens if I see someone.

That looks interesting. And then I see that they're charging a really, really low price. I don't think, oh, well, I'm getting a real bargain here. It makes me think, well, why aren't they charging enough? Do you know? And it makes me question whether, suppose if I'm honest, it makes me question about that person's self-esteem.

You know? Are they? Confident in what they're doing. Do they feel, you know, do they have confidence in what they're doing? Because you want somebody who's gonna be confident in what they're doing, don't you? You don't want somebody who's, you know, constantly thinking that you know what they're doing isn't gonna be good enough.

So, yeah, when people look for a counsellor, They want to get the best that they can afford. They want to choose the right person for them, and they're willing to pay a little bit more to pick the right person for them because it's cuz it's important. And like I say, this is in all sorts of different things.

Well, have you heard of Goldilocks pricing now? Goldilocks pricing is when the price is not too high, it's not too low, it's just right. So many people. Go for the Goldilocks pricing. So, you know, many people, if they're going to look for a new tele, you know, they'll go to wherever they're gonna buy a tele from and they have a look.

And many people will think, well I don't want the cheapest cuz that's probably not gonna be very good. And I really don't want to have the most expensive because. I don't wanna pay that much. So what? What's in the middle range that's gonna be suitable for me? And that's what a lot of people do. So I would say that as a counsellor, it's really worth considering this before you're tempted to offer a discount pricing because you could very well be putting people off and obviously you don't want that.

So I would say, you know, Go down the Goldilocks pricing range, so maybe think right, what would be a decent average price and charge that, or go big and attract those people that are prepared to invest in their mental health. There's nothing wrong with charging more than other people. I know so many counsellors that are very highly qualified and have invested a huge amount of their own money to become so qualified and so experienced.

It's absolutely. Okay, to charge people a bit more to reflect that, but really I would suggest that, you know, avoid being the budget counsellor because that's gonna work against you. And I've heard so many times, I mean so many times that people avoid putting the prices up for ages and ages and ages, and then they eventually put the price up and they're really, really worried about it. but when they put the price up, they start getting phone calls, people start getting in touch with them. So, you know, It's a myth that charging the cheapest means that you'll be busier.

So be brave. Put the price up to a decent price and it's gonna work for you. Okay, so that's it for today. I hope that you found that useful and, yeah, be brave and up your price a little bit. So yeah. Thank you for listening to the Gray Private Practice Show. I hope that you've found this useful, and if you're looking for some additional resources to help you grow your practice, go and check out my website, Jane travis.co.uk.

I've got a variety of free resources there available that you can go to, you can download them and you can actually start using them today. So just head on over to janetravis.co.uk/start here and I'll put a link to that in the show notes and have a look what's available for you. And also as an added bonus, you'll be added to my email list, which basically means I'll send you some helpful tips and strategies to grow your private practice.

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