Know your worth and ask for it

0:12

No one will ever pay you what you'reworth. No one will ever pay you what you're worth. They'll onlyever pay you what they think you're worth. And you control theirthinking, not like this, although that would be cool.

What is my unique skill set that makes mebetter qualified to serve myo one will ever pay you

what you're worth. No one will ever pay you what you're worth. They'll only ever payyou what they think you're worth. And you control theirthinking, not like this, although that would be cool.

00:34

(Laughter)

00:36

That would be really cool. Instead, likethis: clearly defining and communicating your value are essential tobeing paid well for your excellence.

00:48

Anyone here want to be paid well? OK,good, then this talk is for everyone. It's got universalapplicability. It's true if you're a business owner, if you're anemployee, if you're a job seeker. It's true if you're a man or awoman.

01:04

Now, I approach this today through the lensof the woman business owner, because in my work I've observed that womenunderprice more so than men. The gender wage gap is a well-travelednarrative in this country. According to the Bureau of LaborStatistics, a woman employee earns just 83 cents for every dollar a manearns. What may surprise you is that this trend continues even intothe entrepreneurial sphere. A woman business owner earns just 80 cents forevery dollar a man earns. In my work, I've often heard womenexpress that they're uncomfortable communicating their value,especiallyearly on in business ownership. They say things like, "I don'tlike to toot my own horn." "I'd rather let the work speak foritself." "I don't like to sing my own praises."

01:51

I hear very different narratives in workingwith male business owners, and I think this difference is costing women 20cents on the dollar.

01:59

I'd like to tell you the story of aconsulting firm that helps their clients dramatically improve theirprofitability. That company is my company. After my first year inbusiness, I saw the profit increasesthat my clients were realizing in workingwith me, and I realized that I needed to reevaluate my pricing.I wasreally underpriced relative to the value I was delivering. It's hard forme to admit to you, because I'm a pricing consultant.

02:25

(Laughter)

02:27

It's what I do. I help companies pricefor value. But nonetheless, it's what I saw, and so I sat down toevaluate my pricing, evaluate my value, and I did that by asking key valuequestions. What are my clients' needs and how do I meet them? What ismy unique skill set that makes me better qualified to serve myclients? What do I do that no one else does? What problems do I solvefor clients? What value do I add? I answered these questions anddefined the value that my clients get from working with me, calculatedtheir return on investment, and what I saw was that I needed to double myprice,double it. Now, I confess to you, this terrified me. I'msupposed to be the expert in this, but I'm not cured. I knew the value wasthere. I was convinced the value was there, and I was still scaredout of my wits. What if nobody would pay me that? What if clientssaid, "That's ridiculous. You're ridiculous."

03:30

Was I really worth that? Not my work,mind you, but me. Was I worth that? I'm the mother of two beautifullittle girls who depend upon me. I'm a single mom. What if mybusiness fails? What if I fail?

03:48

But I know how to take my ownmedicine, the medicine that I prescribe to my clients. I had done thehomework. I knew the value was there. So when prospects came, Iprepared the proposals with the new higher pricing and sent themout and communicated the value. How's the story end? Clientscontinued to hire me and refer me and recommend me, and I'm stillhere. And I share this storybecause doubts and fears are natural andnormal. But they don't define our value, and they shouldn't limit ourearning potential.

04:27

I'd like to share another story, about awoman who learned to communicate her value and found her ownvoice. She runs a successful web development company and employsseveral people. When she first started her firm and for several years thereafter, shewould say, "I have a little web design company." She'd actuallyuse those words with clients. "I have a little web designcompany." In this and in many other small ways, she wasdiminishing her company in the eyes of prospects and clients, anddiminishing herself. It was really impacting her ability to earn what shewas worth. I believe her language and her style communicated that shedidn't believe she had much value to offer. In her own words, she waspractically giving her services away. And so she began her journey totake responsibility for communicating value to clients and changing hermessage.

05:26

One thing I shared with her is that it'sso important to find your own voice, a voice that's authentic andtrue to you. Don't try to channel your sister-in-law just because she's agreat salesperson or your neighbor who tells a great joke if that's notwho you are. Give up this notion that it's tooting your ownhorn. Make it about the other party. Focus on serving and addingvalue, and it won't feel like bragging.What do you love about what youdo? What excites you about the work that you do? If you connect withthat, communicating your value will come naturally.

06:00

So she embraced her natural style, foundher voice and changed her message. For one thing, she stopped callingherself a little web design company. She really found a lot of strengthand power in communicating her message. She's now charging three times asmuch for web design, and her business is growing. She told me about arecent meeting with a gruff and sometimes difficult client who hadcalled a meeting questioning progress on search engine optimization. Shesaid in the old days,that would have been a really intimidating meeting forher, but her mindset was different. She said, she prepared theinformation, sat down with the client, said this isn't about me, it's notpersonal, it's about the client. She took them through the data,through the numbers, laid out the trends and the progress in her own voiceand in her own way, but very directly said, "Here's what we've donefor you." The client sat up and took notice, and said, "OK, Igot it." And she said in describing that meeting, "I didn'tfeel scared or panicky or small, which is how I used tofeel. Instead I feel like, 'OK, I got this. I know what I'm doing.I'm confident.'"

07:17

Being properly valued is soimportant. You can hear in this story that the implications range farbeyond just finances into the realm of self-respect andself-confidence. Today I've told two stories, one about defining ourvalue and the other about communicating our value, and these are thetwo elements to realizing our full earning potential. That's theequation. And if you're sitting in the audience today and you're notbeing paid what you're worth, I'd like to welcome you into thisequation. Just imagine what life could be like, how much more wecould do, how much more we could give back, how much more we couldplan for the future, how validated and respected we would feel if wecould earn our full potential, realize our full value.

08:08

No one will ever pay you what you'reworth. They'll only ever pay you what they think you're worth, andyou control their thinking.

08:16

Thank you.