Listen here. Service providers avoid pricing conversations for the same psychological reasons consumers avoid checking their bank balances. Etinosa Agbonlahor spent years as Director of Behavioral Research at Fidelity Investments studying financial avoidance, and now she applies those insights to help consultants, coaches, and professional service providers fix their pricing.

In this conversation with host John Ray, Etinosa reveals the three main reasons service providers underprice: lack of confidence in their value, the dangerous habit of anchoring to competitor pricing, and the fear that clients are scrutinizing every price change. She shares research showing that customers can’t even remember what they paid for items they just bought, yet service providers operate as if clients are tracking every dollar. Etinosa explains how premium pricing can actually attract better clients, why doing nothing with your pricing has real costs, and how to use pricing as a steering wheel rather than just a revenue engine. She also provides practical first steps for service providers stuck in the knowledge-action gap around pricing.

The Price and Value Journey is presented by John Ray and produced by North Fulton Business Radio, LLC, an affiliate of the Business RadioX® podcast network.

Key Takeaways You Can Use from This Episode

• Your confidence level shows up directly in your pricing as a business owner, whether you want it to or not.
• Copying competitor pricing is dangerous because you don’t know if your competitors are leaving money on the table, if their pricing is right, or if they deliver the same value you do.
• Most customers aren’t as price-sensitive as you fear. Research shows more than half of shoppers couldn’t remember the cost of items they had just put in their cart.
• Premium pricing can attract better clients who associate higher prices with higher quality. Some prospects won’t work with you because low prices signal you won’t deliver the value they need.
• The cost of pricing inertia compounds over years. Doing nothing costs you clients who thought your prices were too low, growth opportunities, higher margins, and time you could have taken off.
• Use pricing as a steering wheel, not just a revenue engine. Design your prices to influence how customers choose, what packages you offer, and how you position yourself against competition.
• Talk to your customers about what they value in working with you, including the softer things like responsiveness and friendliness, then crystallize those value conversations into pricing decisions