It’s true, most prices need to be competitive. There’s just one problem.
That word doesn’t mean what you’ve been told it means.
We grow up surrounded by examples where “competitive” means “affordable”. This is true not only for items; it’s like that for many services, too. But not for yours.
Here’s the truth that transformed my own practice: In expertise-based services, competitive doesn’t mean cheap—it means confident. When clients seek out specialists, they’re past shopping for bargains. It’s not that they don’t want to save money – of course they do.
But when someone knows they need an expert, they’re trying to buy the extra confidence they lack to solve a serious problem.
– If you were sick enough to need serious medicine, would you buy the box from the corner shop’s bargain bin or the more expensive one at the pharmacy?
– If you needed a heart transplant, would you want the number of a budget surgeon or the number of the best Swiss clinic that you could afford?
Both solutions are far more expensive than the alternatives, but would anyone ever call them “not competitive”? No. Because when the stakes are high, the meaning of “competitive” actually does change.
Your “affordable”, “friendly” prices aren’t just too low to be competitive – they’re screaming “insecurity” and scaring away serious clients. Because buying expertise relies on trust, and discount trust is no trust at all.