Price is a function of perceived value – yours and the client’s.

Lots of ingredients go into baking the perceived value cake, but for the most part, what you can charge for your products and services is a function of the value a buyer attaches to the purchase and you attach to your worth.

Now, what you can charge and what you actually charge is rarely the same thing. Far too many business owners undercharge because they feel price is purely a function of competition or worse they simply don’t value what they do enough to get what it’s worth.

This is as true for the Etsy seller making iPad covers as it is for the consultant providing high level advice.

In order to charge more and get what you’re worth you’ve got to take some time and get very serious about measuring one thing – value or results that a customer receives.

Here’s how to do that

Create a process that requires you to meet with every customer for something I call a “results review.” How you do this will depend on how you interact with your customers – the key, however, is to position this process as a valuable to the customer and not as research for you.

I would advise you to present the idea in the selling stages – “we know you’re going to receive incredible value and part of the way we deliver on that promise is a results review that ensures it.”

Your results review must be seen as a way for you to ensure the customer received the value promised and measure actual value. It’s also a great place to ask for referrals!

One of two things will generally happen in these reviews a) you’ll find you didn’t deliver, and that’s okay, because that’s how you fix and improve b) you’ll discover a tangible amount of value the customer received and that’s awesome, because that can act as proof of value delivered and should give you the confidence to raise your prices.

Either way, this must be considered an integral part of the overall client experience and a wonderful gauge of where you and how you get better.