Monday, November 09, 2026

What does a business coach cost in the US? The published price points, where each comes from, six questions to ask before you sign and a simple payback test.

You've known for months that your prices need to go up. Costs have crept, your margin's thinner than it was, and you've done the maths more than once. And you still haven't sent the email. You want to charge what the work is actually worth. What's stopping you isn't the maths — it's the fear that the moment you do, every one of your customers quietly walks to someone cheaper.

The Enemy Is ‘Price Is The Problem’

In the US Census Bureau's Business Trends and Outlook Survey, employers with one to four staff expect the prices they pay to rise 54.7% of the time over the next six months — but only 33.4% expect to raise what they charge. That gap doesn't close itself. It closes when you stop treating price as the thing customers judge, and start treating value as the thing you've never actually spelled out.

The Value Equation

Alex Hormozi's Grand Slam Offer framework boils value down to one equation: value rises with the dream outcome and the likelihood you'll deliver it, and falls with the time and effort it costs the customer. Raise the top, shrink the bottom, and the price barely matters.

  • Name the dream outcome in the customer's words, not yours — what they actually wanted when they called.
  • Prove the likelihood with a guarantee, a result or a story that removes their doubt.
  • Strip out time and effort — anything you can make faster or easier is worth more than a discount ever was.

Early in his agency career, Kevin worked on a well-known food brand that plenty of people assumed was a commodity nobody would ever pay a premium for. The campaigns that actually worked weren't built on a cheaper jar. They were built on genuine insight into why people loved or loathed it so strongly — insight deep enough to justify standing out instead of blending in on price. The lesson transfers directly: the businesses that get away with charging properly are the ones who understood their customer's real want before they ever talked about the number.

Try this before you touch a single price list: call three of your best customers and ask them, in their own words, what changed for them after they bought from you — not what they bought, what actually got better. Write their answers down verbatim. That's your dream outcome, proven, in language you didn't invent. Most owners discover their own pitch has been undervaluing the result for years, talking about the service instead of the outcome it buys. Raise the price on the strength of that answer, not a guess about what the market will bear, and the conversation about money gets a lot shorter — because you're no longer the one who has to make the case for it.

“Kevin doesn't just present — he electrifies the room and drives massive, real-world value! He drops game-changing insights and actionable shortcuts that show businesses exactly how to turn everyday customers into raving, loyal fans — and acquire new ones faster than ever thought possible.”

— Gareth Bayliss, Sales Manager, The Icehouse

Why You Keep Putting It Off

The fear isn't irrational — some customers genuinely will leave over a few dollars. But those are rarely the customers carrying your margin, and losing the wrong ones at a higher price can leave you better off than keeping everyone at today's price. This isn't for you if your whole offer really is the cheapest option in the market — that's a real strategy, just a different one. For everyone else, the number you're scared of is smaller than the cost of staying where you are.

Key Takeaways

  • Write down the dream outcome your best customers are actually paying for, in their words.
  • Close the gap between what your costs are doing and what your prices are doing.
  • Expect a small number of price-only customers to leave — and do the maths on losing them.
  • Pick one service or product to reprice this month, not the whole list at once.

If you've been sitting on a price rise for months, that's a five-minute conversation, not a five-month decision.

Monday, October 12, 2026

Seven low-cost ways to lift sales this week, starting with the customers and quotes already in your business.

Monday, October 12, 2026

The 4 real reasons marketing fails for SME owners, and the practical, low-cost fix for each one.

Monday, October 12, 2026

New research shows 39% of small business owners blame admin, not the market, for stalling their growth. Here is how to find the real constraint before you spend another dollar fixing the wrong one.

Monday, October 12, 2026

Only 20-30% of businesses for sale actually sell, often because they can't run without their owner. Here's how to design yours so it can.

Monday, October 12, 2026

Writing your goals down is linked to real gains in achieving them. Here's the Vivid Vision exercise that turns a fuzzy dream into a measurable plan.

Monday, October 12, 2026

Owners using AI with purpose save 6 to 10 hours a week. Here's the simple audit that finds your first three tasks to hand over.

Monday, October 12, 2026

97% of buyers read reviews, but trust in them is falling. Here's how to build the review ask into your sales process, not just your marketing calendar.

Monday, October 12, 2026

64% of marketers can't tell competing brands apart. Here's the one-sentence positioning formula that makes sure your customers always can.

Monday, October 12, 2026

Most SME owners already know their real edge isn't price. Here's why benchmarking competitors kills that edge, and how first-principles thinking builds a strategy around it instead.

Sunday, October 11, 2026

Coach, consultant, mentor or advisor? How the four roles differ, which one suits an established NZ business, and the questions to ask before you pay.

Sunday, October 11, 2026

Gallup's 2026 data shows global employee engagement fell to 20 percent, even in the best-performing regions. Here's the three-question check SME owners can run this week to find out where their own team really stands.

Sunday, October 11, 2026

Everyone agrees December is too close to Christmas to prospect. One sales agency's own client data says the businesses that kept going saw 19 percent more leads the following January.

Sunday, October 11, 2026

Most SME owners can describe next year's budget in detail and go quiet the moment you ask about year ten. A UK study of over 1,000 companies found that gap predicts success almost on its own.

Sunday, October 11, 2026

Most SME owners build their people plan around courses. The research behind the 70-20-10 model says courses are the smallest lever you have, and it is worth knowing how shaky that research actually is.