Insecurity is an emotional state where someone feels inadequate, anxious, or doubtful about their abilities. For pricing insecurity, that fear of judgment or rejection generates additional stress in negotiations, and underpricing as a result of it.
Key causes include
– Financial pressure leading to fear of losing the client
– Imposter syndrome
– Lack of market information or clear pricing history
– Power imbalance, the client having more resources and influence looks like they have more bargaining power
– Difficulty quantifying or explaining value
When we are in that state, the clients do not see the confident, dedicated specialist in us. They see a hesitant, nervous person who is so reluctant to discuss pricing that they only mention it when pressed. Even then, they will overexplain, justify, try to keep the pricing vague, and volunteer big discounts at the slightest provocation.
The trouble is, clients typically don’t know enough about what you do to be able to tell how good you are at it by just looking at your past work. They rely, instead, on how confident you are while talking about it.
Your level of confidence in presenting your price is going to have a larger influence on client work profitability than your level of competence. Maybe that makes you angry, but I’ve discovered first-hand that it’s very expensive not to treat the previous sentence as a fact.
Friends, I’ve got something new for you – if you would like to know more about my thoughts on other “creepy” subjects, go to www.fearless-pricing.com and ask Astra AI chatbot to tell you about price insecurity, volunteering discounts, and confidence in pricing. I’m still testing “her” out, so all feedback is welcome.