13127: How To Confidently Raise Your Rates

Raw transcript:

so sooner or later you’re going to be
raising your rates I know that some of
you just heard that phrase and you said
what I I just got started I’m not
raising my what are you talking about
trust me someday you’re going to do it
and for new clients
that’s going to be easy because they
don’t know what your old rates are you
just put new rates up on your Pi on your
webcast under your website and boom
you’re done right but for the existing
clients how do you have that
conversation hmm
we’re going to talk about that in this
episode of the vo Heroes podcast
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so one of the courses in the vo Heroes
Pro curriculum is mastering vo pricing
pricing is a a cryptic kind of weird uh
depending upon your relationship with
money kind of scary conversation to have
and in some cases it’s simply
understanding what the numbers are how
much do you charge for a certain product
the prices that you’ll see online I want
you to remember this this is if you
don’t take anything away from this
podcast episode take this away the
prices that the union sets for voice
over work that non-union uh Priceless
like gvaa set for non-union work etc or
recommend for non-union work
those are floors those are not the only
prices that you can charge
so maybe you start off with those or if
you just don’t have the the confidence
to charge what our standard or
recommended rates maybe a little less
don’t go much too less you know but
eventually you’re going to gain
proficiency and you’re going to gain a
body of work that you can share with
people as demos
and you’re going to gain a word of mouth
and you’re going to be raising your
rates
I know it’s kind of hard to believe for
some of you but you are and that means a
conversation with your current clients
the ones that come back to you time and
time again
and I can tell you that the fear of that
conversation keeps many voice Talent
from ever raising their rates
and that makes me sad because they’re
leaving money on the table their worth
is a lot more than they think it is and
part of it is because they’re concerned
that if they raise their rates too much
they’ll lose work if they uh raise their
rates too much people will think they’re
being
egotistical or arrogant or who are you
to raise your rates those are kind of
things go through people’s heads no one
will ever pay for that
um and a lot of those things may be true
I’ll just rip that bandage off it may be
true but likely it won’t be true even
with your existing clients I just had a
conversation with somebody who provides
services to me who said yeah I’m going
to keep my rates the same for you
because you’ve been with me for a long
time like no no no no no no no no no no
no what you provide me
in terms of support and value is worth
the increase
in your hourly rate please do that
and the person said okay almost
apologetically
and I want you to have that conversation
with yourself before you have it with a
client if you need to
the phrase to use is I’m raising my
rates and I wanted to let you know about
my new rate schedule
say it with me again I’m raising my
rates and I wanted to let you know about
my new rate schedule
this will go into effect at certain
certain date
I appreciate you being a supportive
client and I look forward to working
with you again in the future
you know they may push back and say oh I
can’t afford that you know 10 increase
oh no and so you have to ask yourself is
it worth having the conversation with
them maybe extending their rates a
little bit as a last resort but more
importantly having the conversation with
them about the value that you provide to
them you’re helping them sell their
products and services if you’re doing
commercials you’re helping them keep
customers satisfied and happy and
informed and educated and using that
product and service especially if it’s a
subscription based product or service if
you’re doing explainer videos or how-to
videos or audio versions of a manual you
know if you’re narrating a an animated
explainer video how to video so the
value that you’re providing is often far
greater than the price that you charge
and except in certain cases
you’re charging a one-time fee now if
you’re if you’re doing Union work and
you’re getting residuals then you have a
floor already but there’s no reason why
you can’t say to your agent or to a
casting person hey I’m raising my rates
I have a lot of work to do and these are
the rates that I now am charging you may
lose work you may
you may not and won’t that be nice when
you get that first paycheck that’s at a
higher rate
than what you ever thought you’d be
charging I want you to remember back to
when you first started and you didn’t
even know how to charge for your stuff
you didn’t know what to do you didn’t
know how to engage in the conversation
or what numbers to use now you do you
have more experience and when you think
about those voice talent and on-camera
performers that are making the big bucks
how do you think they got there they
raised their rates and I want you to be
able to do that as well the conversation
doesn’t have to be long and drawn out it
could just simply be a statement from
you think about the other companies that
you’ve received information about
raising your rates their rates from
right hey as of May 1st we’re raising
our rates we wanted to let you know it’s
not what do you think do you mind you
know that that’s not the conversation
that’s had
you set your rates you’re an independent
contractor you’re a professional
and I want you to be at peace with
getting what you’re worth and not
worrying
that some of your clients may leave you
because they might or that some of your
clients May Grumble because they might
or some of your clients might say well
it’s about damn time
in a minute I’ma need a higher price
so think about that just think about
that and share with me in the comments
Below on veoheros.com what your thoughts
are about how you approach your pricing
how you approach raising your prices how
you approach if you feel you need to
uh giving reasons why you’re raising
your rates often you just don’t have to
it’s like you know we’ve been doing this
for a while and we’re raising our rates
end of con and end of conversation
so tell me what you think about that
tell me what what happens inside your
body how do you feel when you hear I
have to raise my rates I want to raise
my rates I really want to raise my rates
let me know in the comments Below on
veoheros.com if you want to hit the like
button because you like what you’re
hearing that’s great share it with
another video Heroes uh client your
thoughts and and somebody who isn’t
with vo Heroes if you think they would
benefit from this hit the like button if
you want to subscribe to the channel uh
that’d be great if you want to be
notified click the bell and you’ll be
notified when new episodes appear I’m
David H Lawrence the 17th I thank you so
much for watching and for listening and
I will see you in the next episode of
the video Heroes podcast
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(from YouTube)