The Consultant's Guide to Commanding Premium Rates: Lessons from the Trenches

March 20, 2025

Introduction: The Pricing Paradox

For most self-employed consultants, there's a moment of truth that arrives with every new client conversation. Your prospective client asks the inevitable question: "What's your rate?" And in that instant, a battle begins in your mind.

"Should I quote my standard rate? Offer a discount to secure the work? Go higher because this project seems complex?"

If this internal dialogue sounds familiar, you're not alone. According to industry research, nearly 65% of independent consultants believe they're undercharging for their services, yet only 15% have a systematic approach to pricing their work.

This blog post delves into the proven strategies of two self-empoyed consultants—Erin Colvin and Lexi Boese—who overcame their pricing hesitations to build thriving, profitable consulting practices. Their journeys reveal that earning what you're worth isn't just about raising rates; it's about fundamentally transforming your approach to business development, client selection, and value delivery.

The Psychology of Pricing: Lexi's Breakthrough Moment

For digital strategist Lexi Boese, the journey to premium pricing began with a single, uncomfortable conversation.

Early in her consulting career, Lexi had been charging $35 per hour—a rate she had selected based more on market averages than on the value she delivered. During a meeting with a potential client, when asked about her rate, she decided to test a higher number.

"I confidently stated '$50' as my hourly rate," Lexi recalls. "The client was so surprised they asked, 'Did you say 50 or 15?'"

What happened next was transformative. Despite the overwhelming urge to backpedal or offer justifications, Lexi remembered advice from a negotiation book: state your price, then remain silent. Fighting against her instincts, she simply repeated "50" and maintained eye contact without saying anything else.

After what felt like an eternity of uncomfortable silence, the client simply said, "Okay."

This experience taught Lexi a profound lesson about the psychology of pricing: people often trust that you deliver value commensurate with your rate. A higher price point can actually enhance your perceived expertise, while discounting can undermine it.

Lexi's Strategic Price Testing Framework

Based on her initial success, Lexi developed a systematic approach to finding her optimal pricing level:

1. Incremental Testing: She raises her rates by approximately 10% with each new client or contract renewal.

2. Observe Response Patterns: When "everyone keeps saying yes," she takes it as a market signal that her rates are still too low.

3. Find the Resistance Point: She continues increasing until she finds a rate where approximately 1 in 5 prospects decline. This 80% acceptance rate becomes her sweet spot—high enough to maximize revenue while filtering for clients who truly value her services.

4. Analyze Client Quality: Lexi made a counterintuitive discovery during this process. "Sometimes charging less attracts clients who are more difficult to work with," she notes. Higher rates often brought clients who were more respectful of her time, clearer in their objectives, and less prone to scope creep.

5. Remember the Power Dynamic: Throughout all negotiations, Lexi reminds herself of a crucial principle: "The person who holds the power in negotiation is the one willing to walk away." This mindset prevents her from accepting projects that don't align with her value.

Building a Resilient Revenue Model: Erin's Dual-Stream Approach

While Lexi's approach focuses on optimizing hourly rates, HR consultant Erin Colvin has developed a complementary strategy focused on service structure.

After leaving her corporate role, Erin initially struggled with the feast-or-famine cycle common to new consultants. Project work was lucrative but unpredictable, creating cash flow challenges and constant pressure to find the next client.

Her solution was to develop what she calls a "dual service model" that combines:

1. Subscription-Based Core Services: Erin offers an embedded HR service where she functions as her clients' "personal HR department" on a monthly retainer basis. This provides stable, predictable income and ongoing client relationships.

2. Premium Project Work: Alongside her retainer clients, she pursues higher-value project engagements focused on talent development and leadership—areas where she can command premium rates based on specialized expertise.

The Strategic Advantages of Erin's Model

This approach offers several advantages beyond just financial stability:

• Reduced Business Development Pressure: With predictable base income from retainer clients, Erin can be more selective about which project work she pursues.

• Deeper Client Relationships: The ongoing retainer work allows Erin to develop stronger relationships with clients, leading to better project opportunities and referrals.

• Natural Upsell Pathway: Retainer clients frequently become aware of additional needs that Erin can address through her premium project services.

• Clear Value Differentiation: The model helps clients understand the difference between her operational HR support (consistent, reliable service) and her strategic projects (specialized expertise with transformative outcomes).

• Target Market Clarity: Erin focuses specifically on "innovative, growth-oriented companies under 100 employees that either lack HR or have only tactical HR support"—particularly startups, technology companies, and financial services firms.

The Daily Disciplines of Premium Consultants

Both Erin and Lexi emphasize that commanding higher rates isn't just about pricing strategy—it's about developing daily habits that position you as a premium provider in your market.

Erin's Daily Business Development System

Erin credits much of her success to a disciplined approach to visibility and outreach:

• Focused LinkedIn Strategy: She interacts with multiple posts daily, follows interesting people, responds to messages, and creates her own content. She posts almost every day (except Sunday) and writes a weekly blog.

• Systematic Network Engagement: Erin aims to contact five people daily from her network to reconnect, explain her new business, and seek potential opportunities or referrals.

• Prioritizing Uncomfortable Tasks: She plans her day using the "Eat the frog" approach—tackling uncomfortable business development tasks first thing in the morning before moving on to client work. This ensures critical growth activities don't get pushed aside by immediate client needs.

• Strategic Local and National Presence: While planning to join the local Chamber of Commerce for face-to-face connections, she's also leveraging her multi-state and international HR experience to maintain a broader potential client base.

Lexi's Productivity and Client Management Approach

Lexi's daily practices focus on maximizing both productivity and client satisfaction:

• Morning Self-Care Routine: She starts each day doing something for herself (exercise, yoga, or a walk) before diving into work, which she finds improves focus and decision-making throughout the day.

• "Survival Tasks" Prioritization: She organizes her to-do list with "survival tasks" (urgent items with hard deadlines) at the top, followed by client-specific tasks in order of priority.

• Weekly List Reset: Every week she creates a fresh to-do list, removing completed items and reprioritizing what remains.

• Client Advocacy Mindset: She differentiates her service by adopting what she calls a "fighting for clients" approach. "I will stop at nothing to get them the results," she explains, which justifies her premium positioning.

• Opportunity Monitoring: She stays active in relevant professional Slack channels with notifications set up for potential leads, allowing her to respond immediately when opportunities arise.

Overcoming Rejection: The Persistence Factor

Both consultants emphasize that charging premium rates requires developing resilience to rejection—something many consultants struggle with.

Erin draws on her early career experience in sales, where she made 70-75 cold calls daily. While "miserable" at the time, this experience taught her a crucial lesson about the "ratio of outreach to success."

"Not everybody's going to say yes," she explains. "If I send 20 emails or LinkedIn messages, I might only get one response—but that's still progress." This perspective helps her maintain momentum even when facing rejection.

Similarly, Lexi notes: "It's not always going to be fun, it's not always going to be easy, but if you wake up every day and commit to trying to move something forward, at some point, you're going to look back and realize how far you came."

Practical Implementation: Your 30-Day Plan to Higher Rates

Based on the experiences of both consultants, here's a structured 30-day plan to begin commanding higher rates for your consulting services:

Week 1: Foundation Setting

• Day 1-2: Conduct a thorough audit of your current rates, client profitability, and service offerings
• Day 3-4: Define your ideal client profile with specific criteria (industry, size, budget, pain points)
• Day 5-7: Create a clear value proposition that focuses on outcomes rather than services

Week 2: Outreach System Development

• Day 8-9: Develop a template for daily network outreach (customize Erin's "five people daily" approach)
• Day 10-12: Create or optimize your LinkedIn profile and content calendar
• Day 13-14: Identify 3-5 professional communities (online or offline) where your ideal clients gather

Week 3: Pricing Strategy Implementation

• Day 15-16: Determine your new baseline rate (at least 10% higher than current)
• Day 17-19: Practice your rate presentation and silence technique (use Lexi's approach)
• Day 20-21: Develop a dual service model with both retainer and project components

Week 4: Execution and Refinement

• Day 22-25: Begin active outreach using your new system (minimum five contacts daily)
• Day 26-28: Present your new rates to at least one prospect or existing client
• Day 29-30: Review results, refine approach, and set specific targets for the next 60 days

Conclusion: Beyond Pricing to Value Creation

While this post has focused significantly on raising rates, both Erin and Lexi would be quick to point out that premium pricing must be built on a foundation of exceptional value delivery.

As Erin puts it: "Validate your offering—make sure that what you're offering is viable and something you genuinely want to do." When you truly believe in the value you provide, communicating that value—and pricing accordingly—becomes much easier.

Lexi offers complementary wisdom: "Focus on the lifestyle you want, and the money and projects will follow." This perspective shift from rate-focused to value-focused thinking is perhaps the most important mental transition consultants need to make.

The journey to commanding premium rates isn't always comfortable. It will require pushing beyond your comfort zone, facing rejection, and sometimes walking away from opportunities that don't value your expertise appropriately. But as both Erin and Lexi have demonstrated, the professional and financial rewards make it well worth the journey.

What pricing challenges are you facing in your consulting practice? Share your experiences in the comments below, or reach out directly if you'd like to discuss strategies specific to your situation.

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