How To Raise Your Computer Consulting Rates Without Hurting Business

If you charge hourly, I bet you have not raised your rates in a long time (if ever). You probably imagine your clients being outragged and dropping you like flies over a $10 to $20 an hour increase.

I want to give you one of the biggest pieces of advice you will ever receive: RAISE YOUR RATES!

Pretty wild right? That's why I get paid the big bucks. Go ahead and just try it. The only one that may have any anxiety afterwards will be you. Your clients won't care. Their response will be mild at best and you will not lose any business.

Why raising your rates can INCREASE business:

Consumer's subconsciously associate value with price, and this only makes sense. After all, a $98,000 home does not have the same perceived value as a $325,000 home of the same size in a different neighborhood.  Before even seeing the homes, we immediately associate the more expensive one with finer, polished, more luxurious features. We associate the inexpensive home with the opposite.

The same is true for your business. If you are advertising $15/hour while your competitor's all charge $65/hour, you will more than likely get LESS business.

Prospects will assume that your prices are so cheap because you either:

1. Are not good at what you do- or -
2. You are not confident in your own abilities

If you demand higher prices, you are demanding higher credibility, and sending a message that you provide a quality of service that is superior to your competitors.

Even though I am suggesting that you raise your rates, I do not want you to price yourself out of your clients buying range. A $10 to $20 hourly rate increase will not break the bank, but a $40 to $50 increase might.

The best thing to do is test.
You have to test your prices and your clients response. I suggest you take 30 days for each pricing structure to give yourself enough time to collect accurate results. Document the following:

1. Your profits
2. The number of calls you receive a week
3. The number of calls that turned into clients
4. The number of calls that did NOT turn into clients
5. How many clients expressed concerns about your new price.

What you will most likely find is that business either stays the same or increases slightly and you do not lose any clients.

Consider my own example...
In my own computer consulting business I advertised a Total Recovery service that included a Windows reinstall, data/drivers/settings backup, and program reinstall. I originally charged a flat $125. I decided to experiment with higher prices, so I raised my rate to a flat $197 for the service.

The results? I almost doubled sales and had virtually no objections when I told clients the new price over the phone.

I have advised dozens of other computer consultants through my Computer Consulting Business In-A-Box to raise their prices, and have never witnessed a negative affect on their business. In all instances, sales went up.

Make Sure You Deliver and Justify
If you are going to raise your rates you must always deliver on your abilities and wow your clients with your work and customer service. If you take care of every person who calls, emails you, and walks into your store, they will have no problem spending a little more with you than with your competitors.

What About The Bad Apples?
If you do have a few clients leave because of your new price, chances are they are bad clients and you should have fired them anyways. The clients that work with you are the ones who appreciate what you do and will gladly refer you to all of their friends.

Conclusion
The bottom line is, you will never know until you try. The worst that could happen is you raise your rates, decide its not for you, and lower them back down. But if you do not try to raise your rates, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table.

So go ahead, give it a try.

Post your answers to these questions as comments below:

What rates do you currently charge? How does that compare to your competitors? When was the last time you raised your rates? If you've raised your rates already, what was the result?

For a full-proof solution on how to increase sales AND raise your rates, consider investing in my Computer Consulting Business In-A-Box. The marketing campaigns and business systems I provide you are designed to sell prospects on the VALUE of your services which, in turn, justifies your higher prices and makes it easier for them to see you as the 'clear choice' when choosing a provider.