121. VAs & OBMs: You're Not Undercharging. You're Under-Articulating

"I know I could charge more, but I don't know how to ask for it."

I hear this constantly in business audits. From experienced VAs and OBMs who get results, whose clients renew and refer. They're the backbone of their client's businesses, but they're still not charging what they should be.

The problem isn't confidence or money mindset. The real issue? Their work has spoken for itself. They've grown through referrals without ever having to articulate the impact they make. So they've skipped developing the language.

And you cannot charge for what you cannot articulate. If you can't say it, you can't sell it. So you default to proving it by doing, staying late, overdelivering, trying to justify higher rates while staying at the lower one.

In this episode, I'm breaking down the 3 questions that will give you the language that matches the depth of what you create.

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Podcast produced and edited with love by @FerAssists

Transcript

[00:00:00] Andrea Elibero: Hello and welcome to Solepreneur Scaling Stories. I'm Andrea a certified OBM turned business coach, helping VAs OPMs and done-for-you. Service Pros turn their unstructured expertise into a signature method and a business that pays them for outcomes, not hours. So if you want a business that gives you freedom instead of taking it, you are in the right place.

[00:00:23] 

[00:00:23] Andrea Elibero: Welcome back to Soulpreneur Scaling Stories. So we are going to talk about charging today, specifically instances where I see my VAs and OBMs undercharging. I see this a lot. so I do these business audits, these free business audits, and I always obviously ask them about what their offers are, what they're charging, things like that.

[00:00:47] Andrea Elibero: And when I get to the part where I ask them about what they're charging, I. Oftentimes the response that I'll get back will be a little bit embarrassed to be like, I know I could charge more, but I just don't really know how to [00:01:00] ask for it. Or like, I know that I get my clients' results, but I don't know how to explain like what I actually do for them.

[00:01:07] Andrea Elibero: Or like, it's so simple what I do. I don't want to feel like I'm exaggerating or that I'm overcharging my clients. Or they have a fear, right? They have this fear of, my current clients, they're not gonna be able to afford to pay me more. I'd rather keep them around, or I won't be able to get new clients at a higher price.

[00:01:29] Andrea Elibero: And so I am just going to stay where I am at, even though I really, really would love to charge more. And the thing that I find so interesting about this all the time is that the people I talk to are not beginners, right? They're experienced, they're capable, they get. Results from their clients. Their clients refer them, they renew with them, and they're like the backbone of their client's businesses.

[00:01:52] Andrea Elibero: But yet the same pattern arises where they know that they provide value, but they are not [00:02:00] charging for this value. And the interesting thing about it is that most of the time it's not just, there are elements of this, but it's not just a confidence problem or it's not just a money mindset problem. 

[00:02:13] Andrea Elibero: The thing underneath all of that is that their work speaks for themselves and they've grown their business in a way where they haven't needed to explain the impact that they make. You know, the clients have been there, they've stayed, they've referred, they've renewed, and they've grown their business to a point without ever having to develop the language.

[00:02:37] Andrea Elibero: And be able to really articulate what it is that they do. So they have skipped this phase, right? They have skipped this practice of really being able to articulate and explain all the things that come because they're in their client's businesses, and this is great until it's not anymore.

[00:02:55] Andrea Elibero: Because there comes a time in so many. [00:03:00] Done for you service providers, businesses where they want to evolve, they want to switch into, you know, maybe they want to create a newer offer or they want to work with a different type of client than they've been working with. And when that happens, and now they can no longer rely on their current audience, they can't rely on their current clients, they can't rely on referrals.

[00:03:21] Andrea Elibero: 'cause now these people are no longer a good fit. And now this becomes a really big issue. Right? Because you've never had to articulate how. Amazing. You are before, and because you can't do that, you haven't been able to charge. The money that you should be charging because you cannot charge for what you cannot articulate.

[00:03:40] Andrea Elibero: So if you can't say it, you can't sell it. And if you can't sell it now, you're just defaulting to proving it by doing. And when you're doing all of that, when you're staying late, when you're overdelivering, when you're, taking on more work than you need to because now you're trying to justify being able to charge [00:04:00] more.

[00:04:01] Andrea Elibero: You end up staying at this lower rate while doing this higher level of work. And it doesn't really, it, it's not sustainable in business, right? It's okay for a while, but it's really, really not sustainable. So what can we do about it? Let's do something about it. Right now. I invite you to pick just one service that you offer, just one of them.

[00:04:20] Andrea Elibero: And there is a rule here, so you are not allowed to describe what you do. You can only describe what changes because you did it. So I have. Three questions for you in this little exercise. The first one is, what does my client stop experiencing because of the work that I do? So what is it that they stop carrying?

[00:04:44] Andrea Elibero: Maybe it has something to do with how they're feeling. Maybe it has something to do with anxiety that they have or a mental load that they're holding. Or, you know, you, maybe you are doing strategic things or things that they wouldn't otherwise be able to do. So what are some things that my [00:05:00] clients stop experiencing because of the work that I do?

[00:05:03] Andrea Elibero: And then number two, what do they start experiencing? And this is not like, oh, they have better systems. No, no, no. What does it feel like for them? Do they have more clarity, more breathing room? Are they making more money? Are they able to serve more people? Are they being able to make a decision without, and like actually get things done that they've never done before?

[00:05:21] Andrea Elibero: Are they being able to take a vacation without their laptop? Things like that. So what do they stop experiencing? What do they start experiencing? Then what becomes possible in their life, and not just their business, but in their entire life because of this. So again, maybe this is the vacation thing.

[00:05:38] Andrea Elibero: Maybe they stopped working through dinner. Maybe now they're able to spend more time with their kids, which is what they wanted to do when they first started their business. Maybe they're their clients. Start referring other clients because the experience of working with them has gotten so much better.

[00:05:54] Andrea Elibero: Maybe they have grown like crazy, like anything little to big, like whatever it is. Those are the [00:06:00] three big questions. So what they stop, what they start and what becomes possible. And all of this is, yes, this is a big part of your messaging, but this is also what your pricing needs to be attached to. Your pricing isn't just about the hours that you work.

[00:06:16] Andrea Elibero: It's not about the tasks that you do. It's truly, truly about the transformation that you bring. And so when you are able to really embody those things, that's when you're able to stop under articulating and. Start being able to charge more money. And I'm not talking about charging what you're worth. I'm talking about charging fairly for what you do and being excited about it and having the confidence underneath it because that's what these words are giving you.

[00:06:45] Andrea Elibero: They're giving you the confidence.

[00:06:47] Andrea Elibero: and then along a similar note. When now you have these words, when you're able to articulate all of these things, now you're able to more easily show up and create more content. [00:07:00] You're able to write things and be like, Ooh, this doesn't sound like everybody else. Right? You're able to post, you're able to connect with people, you're able to network.

[00:07:09] Andrea Elibero: You're able to do all of these things and be able to articulate what you do and have the confidence behind it. And that's the thing that's going to let you charge more. And on top of that, the last piece of this is now when also when you're on discovery calls, now you're able to talk about these things.

[00:07:28] Andrea Elibero: And then when it comes to the part where you talk about what you charge, you get to just say it. And it feels so good. It feels so much better. That's what happens when you have the language that matches the actual depth of what you create for your clients. And until you have that, you're going to continue to soften your prices.

[00:07:46] Andrea Elibero: You're gonna continue to hold yourself back in your content, and you're gonna continue to be somebody who relies only on referrals from clients that you no longer desire to work with.

[00:07:57] Andrea Elibero: I am hoping that in doing this experiment [00:08:00] and sitting with this exercise, you see the gap that is there. You know the value that you have. You've seen what you've brought to your clients, you've felt it in the work, and maybe now you are inspired to do something that you haven't been able to do before, which is putting it into words in a way that feels really clear, that feels grounded, and that feels really true to you.

[00:08:21] Andrea Elibero: And if that's something that you are like, Ooh, I might need a little help with this. This is what I do with my clients in Effortless Attraction, which is an eight week marketing intensive, specifically for VAs and OBMs The first part of this program is building your messaging foundation, and we do this in a way that reflects the depth of what you do.

[00:08:40] Andrea Elibero: So your content, your pricing conversations, how you start showing up comes from this confident place that maybe you haven't had before. Because once you have the language, then everything flows so much better. So if you have been. In the cycle of doing exceptional work of underselling it, and of hoping that clients just figure out how good you are [00:09:00] so you can raise your price little by little.

[00:09:02] Andrea Elibero: We are going to change that today. Effortless attraction is open until April 17th. We start on Monday, April 20th. All of the details are in the show notes. It's linked there, and you can reach out to me if you have any questions about it and I'm really excited about this round and I hope to see you in there. 

[00:09:21] Andrea Elibero: That's a wrap on today's episode, and thank you so much for listening. If anything we talked about today made you think, okay, well, what does this actually look like in my business? That's exactly what a free business audit is for. In just 45 minutes, I'll help you identify your unstructured expertise, pinpoint what's keeping you capped, and map out what your signature method could look like.

[00:09:43] Andrea Elibero: There's a link in the show notes to grab your spot, and I will see you in the next episode.