Graham Cochrane (00:03.788)
If you're scared to charge full price, if you feel bad when someone says they can't afford your program, if you've quietly if you've ever quietly lowered your price because you didn't want to seem greedy, you are losing the exact clients you're trying to win.
Graham Cochrane (01:04.171)
If you're scared to charge full price, if you feel bad when someone says they can't afford your program, if you've ever quietly lowered your price because you didn't want to seem greedy, you are losing the exact clients you're trying to win.
Graham Cochrane (01:39.702)
If you're scared to charge full price, if you feel bad when someone says they can't afford your program, if you ever quietly lowered your price because you didn't want to seem greedy, well, you are losing the exact clients you're trying to win.
Graham Cochrane (02:26.305)
You see, most coaches think discounting is kindness. It's not. It's disrespectful. And today I'm gonna give you the three rules I follow that let me charge premium prices without guilt. Rules that most coaches break without even realizing it. I'm also gonna tell you about the time someone told me flat out he couldn't afford my program and what happened two days later that completely changed how I think about who can and can't afford to work with me.
Graham Cochrane (03:11.287)
So I see it happen with my clients where they go from I could never charge high prices to maybe they read my book or they come to the 10K offer challenge and they realize, absolutely I could charge high prices. In fact, every industry can have premium prices and should have premium prices and all the reasons why and all the psychology, and they finally are at that point where they created, let's say, their 10K offer or their $20,000 offer or their $9,000 offer or whatever the price is.
And they've come to believe that it is possible and maybe even possible for them. And then it comes to actually putting the offer out to the world and bumping up against real people because real people are going to ask for a discount. People that it either isn't a good fit for, or they're they've never invested that much, or they just want to see if they can get a better deal. I mean, I literally have friends that they could afford anything full price, but they always want to get a deal. So it it could just be that.
But when you get to real life presenting your offer to a real person, something weird happens where you you want to be accepted, right? You want someone to say yes to you, partially because you want the money. It'd be great to get a sale. That's why we're in business is to make money. But also you want them to like you and you you don't want people to say no to you. Having a no is hard for most people. Now, if you've been in sales for a long time, you're used to rejection, you're used to no's, it may not bother you anymore.
But most people aren't very comfortable with getting no after no after no, and they start to wonder, is there something wrong with me? And so what I want to do is tell you, what do you do when you bump up against that opportunity where you present your offer and someone says, I'd love to. It sounds amazing and you're amazing, and I'm sure you're worth every penny. I'm just in a really tough financial situation right now, and I can only afford X. Would you take that or can I spread the payments out even longer? Or
Whatever it is they asked for, what do you do then? What do you do when you've almost got the sale, it seems, but they're asking for a discount or they're asking for you to come down to their level. Well, first let me share you a little story, share with you a little story that will illustrate the three rules perfectly that I've lived by. But it this just happened so recently that I had to share it with you today. last week I was hosting a
Graham Cochrane (05:37.56)
Dinner mastermind in London. And so what I did is I sold tickets for $2,997 to this event. And it was a small private dinner. I've done this in Vegas. Now I've done it in London, where it's a cool opportunity for me to have dinner with either current clients that want to pay to come and be in the room or people that aren't clients yet, who live in the city, will travel to the city, who want to be at the table and have a really cool, intimate life.
hot seat mastermind coaching experience where we get to have an amazing dinner together, everything's included, of course, but they get coached at dinner. And it's fun for me to be able to meet some fans or followers or clients that I haven't met in person. So I hosted one of these in London and before the event took place, probably the week leading up to it, I got an email from a gentleman who said, Hey
I live not too far away from London. I could fly there. I've been a huge fan. I want to meet you. I want to be at the table. Like I feel like I need your help. Like I need breakthrough in this new season of business. I have a lot of clarity, but I believe if I were at that table with you in just a couple of hours, I could have breakthrough that could be worth a ton and I need to be there. But I can't swing the $2,997 right now. Could you offer a payment plan for that? and I
Have a decision to make. No one has ever asked me for a payment plan on that. And I wouldn't even consider a $3,000 offer a high ticket offer. It's certainly not for me, but I wouldn't even consider high ticket for most people. You have to be over $5,000, in my opinion, to be in high ticket range. So for me, the the $3,000 mark is a very doable opportunity to get live in-person coaching from me in a small setting. So I have no problem with this.
But I get this with all my offers, my higher ones too. But I sh I want to show you something powerful here. He said, Do you have a payment plan? And I said, Hey, I am so excited that you want to come. And I hope I get a chance to meet you and coach you. there is no payment plan for this opportunity. It is $2,997. I hope you can join us. So I stuck to my guns and I did not capitulate on price or on payment plans or in spreading it out. I was like,
Graham Cochrane (07:54.232)
Pay for it up front or don't come. It's all good either way. Cause I've got hard costs on the food at the restaurant. Also, they're gonna get the coaching right away. I don't want them to pay a couple hundred bucks, get the coaching, and then they don't make the other payments. It just doesn't make any sense for me. So I said no. The next day he said, I found the money, I'll be there. And the money to fly and the hotel. Okay, great. If people really want your offer, they want your offer, which we'll get to in a second. Then we get to the dinner. We do the dinner.
And typically at an event, anytime you do an event, you should always make an offer. No dead ends, right? There should always be a next step for anything you do. If you have a YouTube video, it should not just end like, well, big gulp, say, see you later. You know, it should not just end with a goodbye. It should always end with a next step for the person watching your video to take. That could be download a guide. That could be book a call. That could be buy my book. That could be leave a comment. It doesn't matter, but there should always be a next step.
If someone comes to an event that you're hosting, the event isn't the offer. The event is an offer, but you should always make an offer at the event because the event itself is never enough. You could always help them more. Right? I've heard it said you can't teach someone to ride a bike at a seminar, right? They can come and learn about riding a bike, but they have to spend time riding a bike with you and getting training to really ride a bike. So they come and get some coaching and they can have breakthrough, but really you should offer them something else. So what I
Do when I do a dinner mastermind like this is I coach them powerfully, give them the insight they need so they walk away from that dinner knowing exactly what they need based off of what I know, what I believe to have breakthrough in their business. But then I give them an opportunity to work with me longer. Okay. And typically that's to join one of my group coaching programs. And so at this dinner, I normally would make this offer, but I kind of waited to see.
How the group was facing and how it was going to finish up in the evening. This gentleman, as dinner was wrapping up, said, You haven't made me an offer yet. He knows what I do. And I said, Well, I can make you an offer. I'd like to make you an offer, but I don't want you to feel any pressure because I know, you know, you, you, you did a lot to get here. He said, Well, what would the offer be? So I made him an offer. It was a $25,000 offer. And
Graham Cochrane (10:13.453)
And he said, Well, of course I want that offer. I just can't afford it. I said, Well, no problem. Think about it. I'll give you two days and this offer will be gone. If you want it, awesome. Great. I'd love to be able to work with you for the next year inside of this program. If not, no pressure. I'm so glad I got to meet you. I got to sign some of his books. We got pictures together. We had a great dinner. it was a great group. And I I literally did not even sell him hard. I was like, bro, if you if you want to do it, great. If you can't.
Great. Full knowing full well the answer was no. This is a guy that couldn't find the $3,000 to pay me up front to and then fly to London and be there for at least one evening, right? So there's no way he's gonna have $25,000, is what even Graham's brain is thinking. So it was like no big deal. I'm happy to serve you either way. It was a great meal. He got some power powerful insights. Two days later, come by. I'm literally flying home from London. I'm on the plane, I get an email.
Is that offer still available? I was like, yeah, today's the last day to say yes to it if you want it. He said, I think I found the money. Sure enough, I was like, Well, if you get your deposit in by the end of the day, midnight tonight, you can get into the offer that I made you. He got his deposit in and he's moving the money around. He found he found the money somewhere, somehow. So to recap, here's a guy who says, I don't have $3,000. Ended up finding the $3,000, coming to London, having dinner, staying with at a hotel.
And then who said, I can't afford your $25,000 offer, found the money 48 hours later, and is in my coaching program from I can't afford your $3,000 to here's $25,000 over the course of maybe six days. This is not the first time this has happened, but this is the most recent time, and it's a perfect example of why discounting is disrespectful. And here's what I want to share with you. I'm gonna share with you the three rules for charging premium prices that I live by, and I hope you consider.
Because if you're a human being and you have a heart to serve people, you're gonna feel this inner conflict of, I really wanna help this person. they said they can't afford my offer. they need a longer payment plan. they need this. they need that. And what you're doing is literally undoing all the magic of what you do. And you're hurting not just your business. Forget yourself. You're hurting your prospect and you're disrespecting them if you discount. What do I mean by that? Well, let's talk about it.
Graham Cochrane (12:42.337)
The rule number one for charging high prices or premium prices is never discount. Ever. Ever. Like no ifs, ands, or buts, no discounts. And you will have to break the addiction of discounting. Discounting is built into our
DNA because we see so many brands do it because they know that their offers aren't great and there's so much competition. So they just try to run sale, run a sale, run a sale to get you to pay attention. I'm not saying that model doesn't work for certain brands. I'm saying if you want to be a premium brand, do not discount. Have you ever seen Ferrari run winter sale events at Ferrari dealerships? No. Ferrari.
Doesn't discount because they're Ferrari. They don't feel bad that you can't afford or say you can't afford their $400,000 car. They they they're like, we can we can come up with a payment plan. Like, bro, if you want a Ferrari, you'll figure it out. And guess what? People figure it out. Even people who shouldn't be driving Ferraris figure it out. Right? There's 24-year-old kids that that go to this business leader group I'm a part of that drive Ferraris. They can't afford that. Right? Like
The point is, if somebody wants it, they'll find a way. So always hold your price. Never discount your price. When you discount, two things happen. You hurt your brand and you hurt your prospect. You disrespect your prospect. What do I mean by that? When you hurt your brand, when you discount, you tell the world, she doesn't mean business. Sh when she says $10,000, she doesn't mean $10,000. It's just a price anchoring tool. It's just a a place to mark down from. It it's it's not a real price. It's always going to be cheaper.
And so you're already hurting your brand by telling the marketplace, don't trust what I say. I'm not really a premium provider. I just throw out big numbers and put slashes through them and give you lower numbers, right? That's not good for you. That's training people to expect discounts. It's training people to not trust what you say. And it's training people to view you, even at a subconscious level, as just like everybody else, but you're not like everybody else. You need to stand out. The way to stand out is to hold firm to your prices.
Graham Cochrane (14:58.453)
It messes with people in a good way. Secondly, discounting disrespects people because when you discount, it literally tells somebody, you can't afford this, so I'm gonna help you out. And that leads me to rule number two. Never assume what someone can afford.
When you discount, you tell people, I know you don't have the money for this, so let me help you out. How rude. How arrogant of us to assume that we know what's in someone's bank account, to assume that we know what length someone is willing to go to to get the money. That is never, I tell clients this all the time: stop spending people's money for them.
I would charge $10,000 grand, but you know, in my space, they're students and they don't really have the money. You don't know that. You don't know that. Why why would you tell them you don't have the money for this, so I'm not gonna charge you that? Let them wrestle. Let them struggle. I I say this often to my clients, but the my high fees are not for me, they're for you. I don't need your money.
I have plenty of money. That's I'm blessed. I didn't always have plenty of money. I know what it's like to be on food stamps and be broke, right? But at this season of my life, I have plenty of money. I don't charge $55,000 because I need it. I don't charge $25,000 because I need it. I don't charge $250,000 for a VIP day because I need it. The fee is for you, my prospect, my client. What are you talking about, Graham? That's not helping me. Yes, it is. The moment you say, Graham, I want to work with you, and I say,
It's $55,000 to join my inner circle, and we can take your business to the multiple millions. You, you then, before you even become a client of mine, I'm coaching you by presenting an offer that's at such a higher price than maybe you expect or you feel comfortable paying, or you've ever paid before, so that you have to wrestle with this question: Am I worth $55,000?
Graham Cochrane (17:06.059)
That's the only question you have to answer. If I present you a $55,000 offer, you're not really asking, can I afford this? You're really at a deeper level. I know you think you're asking, can I afford this? You're really asking, Am I worth this? Am I worth investing $55,000 in myself? Because I guarantee you, you have found a way to get $55,000 for something. I ask people this all the time in rooms. I say, raise your hand. I look around the room.
Raise your hand here if you've ever bought something you can't afford. It usually takes a second for people to think about it and then they start to laugh and everybody starts to raise their hand. Why? It's called a car. It's called a house. For many people, it's called college. Right? It's called private school for your kids. Dude, we borrow money or we find the money or we work extra jobs for the money to get a thing that we can't afford because we want it bad enough.
Graham Cochrane (18:03.809)
So I say to you again, if I present you a $55,000 offer to join my inner circle so we can add an extra $500,000 to a million to your business every single year, which would be a 10 or 20x return on your investment. Show me an investment that can give you that. And I invest in stocks and real estate and private equity and all the about startups. Nothing's giving you 20x on your money in that year. Okay. That's the offer I'm presenting to you. Let's say, and you the question isn't, can I afford $55,000?
Yes, you can find 55. Every one of us can find 55,000, even if we have to borrow it. The question is, am I worth it? Am I worth it? And I want you, if you're my prospect, to ask yourself that question. I want you to wrestle. This is my first coaching opportunity for you, even if we never become a client. I'm giving you the opportunity to ask the hard, maybe dangerous question, am I worth investing in?
And you may not feel like you're worth investing, but that's the question you're asking. Not is Graham's offer worth it? It's worth it. It's not that, can I afford it? You can find everyone can afford anything if you want it bad enough. If your kid were sick, dying, and there was a pill that could save your kid's life and it's $55,000, would you say, I just can't afford $55,000? No, you would find the money. It's your kid because it's worth it to you. So the question is not, is it, can I afford it? It's not, is Graham worth it? It's am I worth it?
Worth it? And so let's flip it now back to you and your prospects. When someone wants to work with you and you present your offer, let's say it's a $10,000 coaching program or $10,000 to work with you one-on-one. Hold your price and don't assume what they can afford because they may have never invested in themselves at that level. But here you are giving them an opportunity to do that. You're giving them an opportunity to say, Am I serious, not just curious about actually changing my life?
Because let's be honest, most people are not serious about changing their lives. they read the books, maybe they they come to the webinars, they scroll on Instagram and follow the accounts that are inspiring. They've bought courses, but most people are not serious about changing their life. They're not serious about changing their marriage, they're not serious about changing their body or their health, they're not serious about changing their business. They're curious, very curious. They want to know the secret. They wanna know how, they want their life to improve, but they're not serious.
Graham Cochrane (20:23.841)
So you presenting a high-ticket offer is giving them that opportunity to see, am I actually serious this time? Is this the month? Is this the year? Is this the day when I finally say, enough is enough. My family deserves better. My, my, I deserve better. My future deserves better. I'm going all in on this. That's why I don't capitulate on price, because it gives my clients that opportunity. Never assume what they can't afford. Never assume.
Okay, so you never discount, because that affects your brand that disrespects people. Never assume what they can afford. That's not your job, right? That is not your job. That is their job to find out if they're worth it and if they want to find the money. Number three rule: let people self-select. So what I mean by this is make the offer and get out of the way. Oftentimes you might find, as I have found, the people that I assume
Are all in are gonna buy my offer if I present it to them, they ghost me, they disappear. The ones that talk up a big game, I'm gonna be your best client, I'm gonna work with you, they don't become a client. They don't work with me. And then it's the people that I would least expect who don't seem to have the money, don't seem flashy, don't talk a big game to say yes to my offer. You net like like this gentleman that came to London. I didn't think he could afford the three thousand dollars to come to London to be just to do the dinner, let alone the twenty five thousand dollars to join a coaching program of mine. But he did.
Because this was the year he was serious, not just curious, about changing his life. So your job isn't to say, yep, she's gonna say yes, he's gonna say no. Your job is to make the offer to as many qualified people as you can tell and get out of the way. Make the offer and get out of the way.
Right. Imagine if I listen to time. Imagine with this gentleman, if I had discounted the three thousand dollars to get him a gave him a payment plan, I would have already lost my opportunity to make a better offer later at the dinner. Cause I would have communicated you you're this is this is powerful. I would have communicated two things. I do discounts or I I capitulate on price or I can make you a payment plan that even though I didn't want to. So I'm manipulatable. That's what I'm communicating. But two, I'm subtly poisoning him and and reducing his confidence by saying
Graham Cochrane (22:47.253)
You're not worth $3,000. I don't believe in you enough, bro, to find $3,000 to come to this dinner. If I had done that, there's no way he could have said yes to my $25,000 offer. Does that make sense? But because I said, hey, bro, price is the price. I hope you can make it. I called him higher. I called him up. He found a way. And when he found a way, his confidence went up. And he told me so when he came to the dinner. He's like, I'm so glad I came. It actually wasn't hard. I I just put my head down, I figured it out, and now I'm here. And I'm so glad I'm here.
So I already gave him a dose of confidence and self-belief, which what your prospects need to be able to invest in themselves. That rolled over to the dinner. I almost didn't make him the offer for a 25K offer. I almost didn't make it because I was like, this guy barely could afford to be here. There's no way he's gonna say yes to this offer. But I did anyway, because I know rule number three: don't is don't self-select, let people self-select.
But I almost didn't. Cause even me, I'm like, bro, there's no way this guy's gonna say yes. But he showed me that I was wrong, and he was he was more motivated than even I thought, and he's super motivated because he again, and I I got to know this guy over dinner. He's been following me for a while. He's a guy that learns a lot, knows a lot, is willing to do the thing.
But this is the year he's like, I've got to get serious about doing this. I can't keep playing small. I wanna play, I wanna play a bigger game. I wanna play large. I wanna expand. And that he had this realization during dinner. And I got to watch a gentleman go from I can't afford your $3,000 thing to I will find a way to afford your $25,000 thing. And he did in 48 hours. He hasn't even become a client yet. Like he's not in the coaching yet.
And he's already a different person. He's already got, he already has the thing that's gonna make him a millionaire. He already has the thing that's gonna make him an a world changer. Cause he got to grow just because I put out my offers and let him scramble, let him sweat it out, let him figure it out. Is this making sense?
Graham Cochrane (25:03.181)
When you discount your prices, you are telling people, I don't believe in you. And that is the absolute worst thing you could say or communicate as a coach. A coach's number one job is to believe in his or her client's ability to win. That is your number one job as a coach. They are paying for outcomes, yes. They are paying for transformation, yes.
But part of what they're getting by hiring you is a champion, is someone that can champion them, someone that can say, you have what it takes, which all of us needed to hear from our moms and our dads, but not everybody got. All of us needed to hear from a mentor, but not everyone has a mentor. The whole world is screaming at you to say, you don't have what it takes, you're not good enough, you'll never be good enough, you're just like the rest of us. And
Your job as a coach is to be at the at the very least the single voice in their world saying, you have what it takes. I believe in you. You're better than this. You can do more than this. You're made for more than this. I can't wait to see who you become. That's what a human being needs. And so when you discount your price because you're like, I can't afford it, you're throwing that opportunity away and saying, yeah, I don't believe you have what it takes. So I'm going to come down to your level.
No, no, no, no. The whole world is already coming down to their level, trying to drag them lower. You need to be the only person in their world that calls them higher, says, no, I'm not coming down there, but you can come up here. The air is clearer up here, the view is better up here, and you're gonna like who you are when you come up here. So, no, I'm not gonna reduce my price. I'm gonna believe that you have a way to figure it out. If you really want it bad enough, you'll find the money. That could be their very first and most important.
important transformation they ever get in their entire life. How powerful is that?
Graham Cochrane (27:04.001)
Never discount. Never assume what someone can afford. We don't know what's in their bank account or what they're willing to do. And let people self select. Your job is simply to make offers and get out of the way.
So the next time somebody tells you, I can't afford this, don't discount.
Don't decide their future for them. Make the offer, hold the price, and let them rise to meet it.
Because the version of them that says yes might just be two days away. They might be two days away from becoming a totally different person. Someone who respects themselves enough, values themselves enough, and wants to invest in themselves to become all that God said they could become. Your job is not to make it easier for them to buy. Your job
Is to make it worth it.
Graham Cochrane (28:09.503)
I hope today's episode blessed you and encouraged you. Let me know in a comment below if you're watching on YouTube what resonated with you the most. And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, you can always DM me on Instagram at the Graham Cochrane and let me know that you listened to this episode and it connected with you. Have an amazing rest of your week. Make offers, hold your price, serve people powerfully, even if they don't become a client. See you on the next one.
