STOP Undercharging: The Brutal Truth About Low-Ticket Clients (That No One Tells You)
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The Membership That Almost Broke Him A friend of a friend of mine launched what he thought was the perfect business model: a $45/month membership stuffed with value. The idea was at 12 months this is $540 a year. He worked hard to make it irresistible. Custom software membership portal. Weekly live calls. A growing library of templates. A private community where he showed up every day, sometimes twice. He said to me, “If I can just get 200 people in here, that’s $10K/month. Man that will rock.” It sounded logical. But reality was different. He landed a bunch of signups at launch, which felt like a huge win. But soon after it stalled. He was buried. $2500 a month with costs around $700. While many were happy, he’d spend hours replying to support emails - answering annoying questions, justifying the price and calming complaints. He was up past midnight some nights, and anxiety was through the roof. The same members who thought $45 was “a lot” were also the loudest, most demanding. They wanted more than what was promised. They questioned him. They drained his energy. He was pooped. I met him at a coffee and we talked for a bit. “This isn't working. I built myself into something that doesn't work. Now I’m kinda stuck.” The irony is that the more value he gave, the less his members respected it. They didn’t value his time, expertise, or energy. Because he didn’t value it either. Why do people want more clients? We all fall into the trap at some point: thinking more clients equals more success. We measure our worth by client headcount, not actual revenue or profit. We envy the coaches posting “100 signups this week!” without questioning if it’s real or if its free. We let comparison eat away at our confidence until the only way we think we can win is to undercharge to keep up. I know of one coach brags about making $1M in four months. But I knew his pricing. I knew his numbers. The math didn’t check out. I’ve seen others act in similar ways. They post fake screenshots of stripe accounts thinking we’ll buy it. At best, my friends’ friend was projecting twelve months of potential revenue and calling it real. At worst, he was flat-out exaggerating. Either way, it created the illusion of success. Comparison is part of what drives us to do more, but not always the right things and for the right reasons. That’s the dark side of comparison. It drives us to lower our own value, to chase volume, and to settle for less than we deserve. Why a Membership? Many people often start with this idea of a membership business model. In some cases they were in one and saw how it worked and thought it would be a good way to grow a business. But herein lies the first problem: understanding the problem you are solving. Instead of asking "How do people want this problem solved? could I solve a problem a different way?" you start with a predefined business model because you understand it. This is an easy way to hide behind a low cost option. My wife coaches female entrepreneurs. She charges $2000 a month per person. This is the same as 40 people in a community at far less work. Yes, one-on-one coaching doesn't "scale" but getting one customer is easier than getting 40. Easier to acquire and easier to deliver and easier to extend. And my wife's testimonials are top shelf. (And it's not to say you should go into coaching. It's to illustrate an example of how you spend your time and what you get paid for what you deliver). The Hidden Cost of Cheap Clients Here’s what most people don’t talk about: cheap clients cost the most.
It’s backwards, but it’s true. The more someone pays, the more they respect the exchange. It's a common observation that higher-paying customers are often less likely to complain, not because they are inherently more satisfied, but because they value the purchase more, understand the concept of paying for value, and are typically easier to satisfy with good service. Whereas lower-paying clients often look at the "stuff" they get and may feel they are not getting a fair deal and are more likely to scrutinize and complain about perceived shortcomings. The cheap end of the market is chaos. Nobody really knows what $50 “should” buy them, so they constantly push for more. That confusion shows up in endless emails, refund requests, and last-minute cancellations. And even if you strip everything back to something as simple as a PDF, you’re still answering “lost file” emails, still chasing failed payments, still dealing with the administrative drag of too many people paying too little. Multiply that across hundreds of customers, and you’ve built yourself a treadmill you can’t get off. Finding a salesperson who is any good and will help you for a % of $50 a month is also going to be tricky. The Big Shift That Changes Things At some point, you have to stop measuring success by volume. Revenue is about how much value each client sees in you.
And that shift doesn’t just change your bank account. It changes your life.
That’s how you move from “barely breaking even” to “finally breathing.” By charging in line with the transformation you actually deliver. When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and your. life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life.Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. How do you charge $10K a month and get 5 clients? Why We SubNiche Theres a big difference between being a "Consultant" and a "Bottom-of-funnel meta ad content consultant". That difference is often how much you can charge. When you understand nuance of a particular situation it gives you the ability to solve things faster and cleaner for clients. This translates to a higher fee. Solving one specific problem (or at least marketing yourself like you do) can drive up your value and make closing sales easier, because the more niche you are, the fewer options people have. For generalists like myself, picking a niche is psychologically challenging. And this push to broaden our offers often pushes us to drive down our price as the sea of competition widens. But the one niche that nobody can compete with? The sub-niche of you. My sub niche is "creating marketing funnels to capture and retain high ticket clients". It's part psychology and part analytics. I have the background to do it and I find it fascinating. It's a long way from "coach". Closing Reflection What would change for you if you finally charged what you’re really worth? What if you people were't buying a "Bottom-of-funnel meta ad content consultant" but instead a "Bottom-of-funnel meta ad content consultant with your background, experience, beliefs, views and talents"? You don’t need to grind harder. You just need stronger approach to what you charge and find those people who want what you have AT THE PRICE YOU HAVE IT. This sometimes means you have to find a new audience. The people who were following you who think it should be free for your time need to be replaced with those who will pay for the value you bring. Or suffer the fate of never owning your time or being able to support your business. What would change for you if you finally charged what you’re really worth? Shoot me a note back. I read every response, and sometimes these replies turn into future newsletters. Matt PS: If you are still trying to grow your business, I'm finally releasing something that can help once and for all. Let me know and I'll send you something that might help. |