The Question Nobody Wants to Answer Honestly

Let me ask you something, and I want you to be really honest with yourself.

Are you comfortable with the fee rate you are currently charging?

If the answer is yes — and most people say it is — then I have some news for you. In my experience, built over more than 27 years of working with coaches, consultants, accountants, speakers, and trainers across the UK, comfort with your fee rate is almost always a sign that the rate is not high enough.

That might sound counterintuitive. Surely feeling comfortable with what you charge is a good thing? But here is what I have seen, time and time again: the moment a professional stops feeling any tension around their fees is usually the moment they have stopped growing. They have settled. And settling, in business, costs you dearly.

In this article, I want to walk you through the ideas that have helped hundreds of my clients — and me personally — to charge fees that truly reflect the value they deliver. Not inflated fees. Not fees designed to rip anyone off. Fair, reasonable, and rightful rewards for the remarkable difference they make in people's lives and businesses.

There is a profound difference between those two things, and it is worth being very clear on that from the outset.

Money Is Not the Enemy — It Is the Applause

Before we talk about pricing strategy, I want to share a mindset that I believe is the foundation of everything else. And it is this:

"Money is the silent applause for a job well done and value delivered to others."

Think about that for a moment. When you receive a fee from a client, that fee is not just a transaction. It is their way of saying: what you did mattered. What you brought to our conversation, our project, our business, made a real difference.

The problem is that so many talented professionals have a deeply uncomfortable relationship with money. They feel awkward quoting fees. They under-price because they are worried about losing the work. They do not test higher rates because they fear rejection.

And in doing so, they inadvertently send a signal to the marketplace — and to themselves — that what they do is not particularly valuable.

Earl Nightingale described it beautifully with the image of an old apothecary's scales. On one side: service. On the other: reward. If the reward side feels light, the answer is not to look at the reward side. The answer is to put more in the service side. Deliver more value. Create better outcomes. Then the reward follows naturally.

This is not about greed. This is about recognising the real, tangible difference you make — and having the confidence to be rewarded appropriately for it.

The Pricing Attribution Error: Where It All Goes Wrong

In my book PAID!, I talk about something I call the Pricing Attribution Error. It is, in my view, one of the single most damaging mistakes that professionals make — and most of them have no idea they are making it.

Here is how it happens. A consultant decides what to charge by working out what their time is worth. They think about their hours, their overhead, perhaps a little profit on top, and arrive at a daily rate that feels fair for them.

The mistake is in that starting point.

Your fees should never be set by the value of your day. They should be set by the value of the outcome your client receives from working with you.

These two numbers can be dramatically different.

Let me give you a simple example. Imagine a client comes to you, and through your guidance, their business generates an additional £100,000 in profit. Would it be fair and reasonable for you to receive a fee of £10,000 — just 10% of that result? Of course it would. And yet, if you had been pricing by the hour or the day, you might have charged a fraction of that figure, leaving thousands of pounds on the table and significantly underselling the impact of your work.

"It is not the hours you put in. It is what you put into the hours."

Jim Rohn put it this way: you do not get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour.

Once you shift from pricing your time to pricing your impact, everything changes. Your conversations with clients change. Your confidence changes. And your income changes — for the better. 

The 10x Question That Changes Everything

Here is a question I ask every consultant, coach, and trainer I work with — and I want to ask it of you now.

If your fee rate was 10 times higher than it is today, would you change anything about the way you prepare for client work? Would you do anything differently in the delivery of your service? Would you improve your follow-up?

Most people, when they think about this honestly, say yes.

They would spend more time preparing. They would be more thorough in their research. They would deliver with greater care and attention. They would follow up more diligently.

And here is the point I want you to sit with: if those improvements are worth making at 10 times your current rate, they are worth making right now. Because the value you would deliver at that higher rate is available to you and your clients today — if you choose to provide it.

The question is simply whether you are choosing to bring your full capability to every engagement, and whether you are charging accordingly.

This exercise — imagining your fee at 10 times its current level — is not about suddenly sending out invoices for 10 times what you normally charge. It is about recalibrating your sense of your own worth. About seeing the gap between what you currently deliver and what you are capable of delivering. And then starting to close that gap.

A Story From My Own Business

Let me share something personal, because I think it illustrates this point better than any theory.

Years ago, I was hosting one of several Jay Abraham events in the UK. Jay is one of the finest marketing minds in the world, and I had the privilege of hosting six of these three-day events, as well as a full week event, for Nightingale-Conant.

At the end of one of these events, a businessman approached me at the back of the room. He had been in the audience, he liked what he had seen and heard from me during my own session, and he asked if I would be willing to come and work with his team.

We had a conversation. And in that moment, I made a decision. I decided to quote two and a half times my normal daily rate. Not because I had carefully worked out a new pricing formula. But because I knew that what I was bringing to that engagement was worth significantly more than what I had been charging, and I had the confidence — for the first time — to reflect that in my fee.

He said yes — immediately.

My first thought, I will be honest with you, was: I should have gone higher.

That single engagement led to over £300,000 of business with that company. More than £180,000 more than I would have received at my previous rate. And the company's turnover increased by over £10,000,000 as a result of the work we did together.

Fair value, all round.

That experience changed my relationship with pricing permanently. I started testing higher rates consistently. I became comfortable quoting fees that truly reflected the value I was delivering. Business grew, and — perhaps surprisingly — the quality of the clients I attracted improved too.

Wealthy, successful clients do not want cheap advice. Pricing low does not attract the clients you love to work with. It tends to attract the opposite.

The 4 Questions You Must Ask Yourself

Over the years, I have distilled the pricing conversation down to four questions. These are the questions I work through with my private clients, and the questions I encourage every professional to revisit regularly. Not just once, but as an ongoing practice.

Here they are:

Question 1: Am I dealing with the right type of client?

This is the foundation. There is simply no point in having a sophisticated pricing conversation if you are working with clients who cannot, or will not, pay for the value you deliver.

I sometimes put it this way: there is no point fishing in a broke pond.

If you consistently find yourself in conversations where price is the dominant objection, the first question to ask is not 'how do I justify my fee?' It is 'am I talking to the right people?' The right clients — the ones who understand the value of expertise, who have experienced the cost of cheap advice, who are serious about getting results — will rarely quibble over a well-positioned fee. They are looking for someone they can trust to deliver. When you position yourself well, the fee becomes secondary to the outcome.

Question 2: What is the real value of what I deliver?

This is where most professionals need to do the most work. Not on their delivery — that is usually excellent. On their understanding of what that delivery is worth to their clients.

I want you to think about the last client you worked with. What changed for them as a result of your involvement? More revenue? Saved time? Avoided costs? Better decisions? Clearer strategy? Greater confidence?

Now put a number on it. Or as close to a number as you can.

If your work helped a client generate an extra £50,000 in revenue, what is a fair fee for that outcome? If your coaching helped someone land a promotion that added £20,000 a year to their salary, what is your fair share of that result?

Write it down. Because until you see it in black and white, it remains abstract — and abstract value is hard to charge for.

Question 3: What is one day of my life worth?

This is perhaps the most personal of the four questions, and for many people the most confronting.

A day of your life is irreplaceable. Once it is gone, it is gone. You cannot earn it back, save it, or borrow more of it. It is the most finite resource you have.

So when you agree to a client engagement — whether it is a day of consulting, a coaching session, a training programme, or a speaking engagement — you are trading something irreplaceable for something that has a price attached to it.

Is that price fair? Is it a trade you are genuinely happy to make?

I am not suggesting you should be mercenary about this. I am suggesting that you should be honest. If the answer is 'not really' — if there is a part of you that feels the exchange is not quite right — that is worth paying attention to. It is usually a signal that it is time to test a higher rate.

Question 4: When will I next test my price?

This is the question that turns thinking into action.

Most professionals, when I ask them when they last tested their price, look a little sheepish. 'A couple of years ago, maybe?' is a common answer. 'When I first started' is another.

The marketplace changes. Your expertise deepens. Your reputation grows. Your results improve. And yet, for many people, the fee rate stays the same year after year — an anchor that was dropped when they knew far less than they know now.

Testing your price does not mean doubling your rates overnight and seeing what happens. That would be unwise. It means approaching the next conversation a little differently. Positioning the value more clearly before you name the number. Asking for a fee that you believe genuinely reflects what you bring — and seeing how the client responds.

Most of the time, you will be pleasantly surprised.

What Is the Value of the Value You Deliver?

I want to go one level deeper, because I think this idea is one of the most powerful in the whole conversation about pricing.

When we think about the value we deliver, we usually think in financial terms. The client gained an extra £100,000. Fine. But what is the value of that £100,000 to the client?

Is it security? The feeling that their family is protected, that the mortgage is covered, that the business is on solid ground?

Is it freedom? The ability to step back, take a holiday, spend more time with people they love?

Is it legacy? The chance to build something they are proud of, to make a contribution that outlasts them?

When you start to think about the value of the value — the real, human impact of the outcomes you create — you begin to understand why your fees can and should be much higher than the simple financial return might suggest.

Your client is not just buying a service. They are buying a better version of their business, their career, their life. That is worth a great deal more than most professionals charge for it.

"The income we receive is a direct reflection of the outcome our clients receive."

How to Test Your Price Without Losing Business

I want to be practical here, because I know that the idea of raising your fees can feel daunting — particularly if you have been charging the same rate for a while and you are concerned about disrupting existing relationships or losing work.

Here is how I recommend approaching it: 

1. Start with new conversations, not existing clients. Your next new client enquiry is the ideal testing ground for a higher fee. You have nothing to lose with someone you have not yet onboarded, and everything to gain.
2. Position the value before you name the price. What you say before you say what you charge is more important than the number itself. Build the picture of the outcome. Help the client feel the value before they see the cost. Then the fee lands in a very different context.
3. Test incrementally. You do not need to jump to 10 times your current rate in one conversation. Try 20% higher. Then 30%. Notice how clients respond. You will likely find the threshold is much higher than you imagined.
4. Pay attention to what happens when you are comfortable. That comfort, as I mentioned at the start, is your signal to test upwards again.
5. Keep what works. In marketing, we talk about 'the control' — the version of something that is currently working best. Once you find a fee level that attracts the clients you love and reflects the value you deliver, that becomes your new baseline. And you keep testing from there.

There is one more thing worth saying here. If you ever lose a piece of work on price — if a client chooses not to proceed because your fee is too high — I would encourage you to look at the conversation that happened before you named the number. In my experience, pricing objections almost always originate earlier in the conversation than people realise. They come from a failure to position the value clearly enough, not from the number itself.

If you did not get the engagement, ask yourself: did I do everything I could to help this person understand what the outcome of working with me would look like? If the answer is no, that is where the work is.

Your Next Step

I hope this article has given you something genuine to think about. Not just in terms of what you charge, but in terms of how you see yourself, the value you bring, and the clients you choose to serve.

Here is what I would encourage you to do this week:

• Write down the real outcome value of your last three client engagements. Not the hours you spent. The result they achieved.
• Ask yourself what a fair fee would be for those outcomes — starting from the client's result, not your day rate.
• Identify the next new enquiry you receive as a testing opportunity. Prepare to position the value more clearly, and quote a fee that truly reflects what you bring.
• Join a community of like-minded professionals who are working on exactly these challenges together. 

That last point is something I feel particularly strongly about. The conversations I have seen happen inside The Paid Up Club — our free Skool community — around pricing, value, and building a business of choice are extraordinary. Professionals sharing real experiences, real results, and real encouragement.

If you are not already part of that community, I would love to see you there.

Why not surround yourself with purpose-driven professionals focused on impact and income? Join our FREE Skool Community: https://www.skool.com/the-paid-up-club-1564

Peter Thomson | The UK's Most Prolific Business Development Author

Author of PAID! How to Get Rightfully, Richly and Regularly Rewarded for the Value You Deliver

peterthomson.com