You send them anyway, and wait, heart thumping, for a reply that might never come. When it does, it’s a “Thanks, we’ve chosen someone else,” and you’re left wondering what invisible signal you’re sending into the world.
The Tuesday I doubled my rates didn’t look like a revolution. It started with a lukewarm coffee on a wobbling café table and a client call I nearly cancelled. Rain rattled the window and my inbox looked like a graveyard of maybes. On the screen, a founder with kind eyes described a problem in messy detail, and I found myself listening longer than I usually do. Not with a script. With curiosity. At the end of forty-five minutes, she asked for my price. I said a number that would have terrified me a month earlier. She nodded. No drama. No awkward silence. Just a calm “That works.” And I realised something strange.
The course that changed the question, not just the price
I didn’t stumble across a flashy mastermind or a viral cohort. It was a quiet online course hidden behind a plain landing page, taught by a soft-spoken operator who’d priced complex projects for years. The promise wasn’t loud. No magic templates. Just a shift: stop selling tasks, start measuring outcomes. The course called it diagnostic discovery — a way to talk with clients that makes price a reflection of impact, not effort. Oddly simple, oddly rare.
We’ve all had that moment when a client says, “What’s your rate?” and the word sticks in your throat. In week one, the course gives you three questions to ask instead: what does success look like, what is the cost of not fixing this, and who needs to be convinced. I tried them with a B2B SaaS lead who’d ghosted me before. She stayed on the call for 58 minutes, shared churn data, and admitted a missed revenue target of £450k. The next day, I sent a three-option proposal anchored at £6,800 instead of my usual £1,800. She picked the middle tier without blinking.
Why does that work? Because the number stops floating in a vacuum. When a client can feel the gap between where they are and where they need to be, your price becomes a bridge, not a bill. Anchoring high sets context; tiers create control; outcomes create clarity. The course framed it as value hygiene — clean up the conversation and money gets less squeamish. I didn’t raise my talent — I changed the conversation.
Four moves I made in 30 days
First, I rebuilt my enquiry process. Instead of “What’s your budget?” my form asked three things: where is the pain felt most, what would a win look like in 90 days, and what’s one internal metric we can move. I also added a gentle “If we’re successful, what would this be worth?” checkbox with ranges. On calls, I used a one-page outline from the course to keep us honest: goals, constraints, evidence, next step. No theatrics. Just structure. By week two, I had enough context to present a three-tier proposal every time.
Second, I stopped charging per hour and built productised outcomes. Not fluffy packages — explicit ones. Example: “Reduce qualified lead CPA by 25% in 60 days” with exact deliverables, risk reversals, and a weekly decision log. Clients knew what I owned and what they owned. I introduced a calm anchor (“Most projects like this land between £6–10k”) before showing the options. Let’s be honest: nobody actually does that every day. But when you do it three times in a row, the old day-rate habit starts to look like leaving money on the table.
Third, I learned to handle silence and scope creep before it started. On calls, I asked one question and shut up. If a client dodged budget chat, I offered ranges and said, “If that’s wildly off, tell me now and we’ll adjust.” I also set one boundary I’d never tried: a 48-hour expiry on proposals. It made decisions faster and filtered time-wasters. I kept a small script from the course taped to my laptop and I still use it.
“For work like this, my projects fall into three shapes. If we can agree which shape fits, the price writes itself.”
- Option A: Diagnostic + Plan (fast, focused, lower risk)
- Option B: Plan + Implementation (shared cadence, mid-tier)
- Option C: Implementation + Training + Licence (partner level)
What actually changes when your price doubles
In week three, I sent a proposal to a fintech who’d approached me for “some copy tweaks.” The old me would have tidied their landing page and sent an invoice for two days’ work. The new me dug into funnel data and found a leaky onboarding email that was costing them 1.2% in paid conversions. We scoped a 30-day sprint to fix activation and run two experiments. Price: £7,500. They didn’t flinch because the number sat next to a forecast of what a 1% lift was worth to them annually. The maths did the talking.
There were wobbles. One prospect pushed back with “We don’t pay that.” I thanked them, sent a one-paragraph resource pack, and walked away with curious calm. Two weeks later they returned, budget doubled, because their cheaper option had stalled. Another wanted to squeeze extra scope into a fixed fee. I used a line I learned from the course: “Happy to include that — would you like it instead of X, or as an add-on at £1,200?” It was disarming and fair. Boundaries kept the work clean.
By day thirty, my average project fee had more than doubled and my pipeline felt lighter. Fewer calls, better fits, calmer days. The surprise wasn’t the money. It was the feeling of being hired for judgement, not hands. I stopped saying yes to everything and started saying yes to the right things. Value-based pricing wasn’t a slogan — it was a behaviour. And it’s contagious in the best way.
Some lessons are loud and viral. This one was quiet, almost shy. It taught me to listen longer, price like an adult, and write proposals that don’t beg. The course didn’t promise riches; it offered a mirror I’d been avoiding. In it, I saw a freelancer who wasn’t underqualified — just under-framed. If there’s a next step, it’s probably this: teach your future clients how to buy you well. That starts with the questions you ask, and the pauses you let breathe.
| Point clé | Détail | Intérêt pour le lecteur |
|---|---|---|
| Shift to outcomes | Ask about impact, not hours; tie price to measurable change | Turns pricing into a value conversation that feels fair |
| Three-tier proposals | Lite/Core/Partner with clear scope and risk reversals | Gives clients control while anchoring a higher middle |
| Calm anchors and silence | State a range early; let numbers sit before you talk | Reduces haggling and increases perceived confidence |
FAQ :
- What was the “quiet” course, exactly?A self-paced programme focused on discovery, scoping, and pricing psychology for service businesses — short videos, worksheets, and live office hours with a veteran operator.
- Did you lose clients when you raised prices?A few. The ones who stayed made faster decisions and respected scope. Revenue and headspace both went up.
- How do you handle clients who won’t share budget?I offer a realistic range and ask if we’re “in the right postcode.” If they can’t engage, I follow up once and move on.
- What if I’m just starting and don’t have big case studies?Use pilot-style offers with tight outcomes and a small risk reversal. Document the process, not just the win.
- Do you still charge hourly for anything?Only for open-ended advisory blocks. Projects get fixed fees tied to outcomes, with change orders for new scope.
