What do I do with clients I want to keep, except they're at legacy prices?
Over the last few emails, I’ve been walking through the most common pitfalls I see when CPAs move into tiered pricing.
Here they are again:
Designing tiers for different buyers instead of three options for one buyer
Stuffing your Gold tier with deliverables to justify the price
Trying to use price — instead of hours — to manage capacity
Here’s the 4th: a question that almost everyone asks at some point:
“I’ve got legacy clients at old prices…
New clients coming in at much higher prices…
How do I catch the legacy clients up?
I like them, I don’t want to lose them, but the disparity in price is uncomfortably large.”
And the short answer is:
There isn’t one right answer.
But there are some important things to understand.
First — paying a low price does not automatically mean someone is fee-sensitive.
Some legacy clients will happily accept a much higher price, especially when given the option to get the level of guidance they’ve been wanting but hasn’t been available.
Clients often say to me they’re surprised (shocked!) that so-and-so went for the gold package.
Second — the ones who are fee-sensitive don’t magically become less fee-sensitive at higher prices. Those clients will eventually fall away, stair-step or not.
But you can’t know for sure who’ll fall into which camp until you share your packages with them.
Which brings us to the big question:
Do you stair-step legacy clients up over time?
There’s no single answer. It depends on a few things, including:
Timing
If tax season starts tomorrow, a 50% price increase may not sit right with you. (Or, it may sit just fine with you!)
If tax season is eight months away, there’s more latitude - clients have more time to find a more suitable option, and you have more time to replace clients who chose not to stay.
Your preferred approach
Some of the people I work with “rip off the Band-Aid. “
“This is where my business is going; I need to make a clean break; let’s get this over with.”
Others prefer the stair-step method over a year or two.
“If clients don’t want to stay, I still want to give them plenty of time to find a new provider. And stair-step feels like less of a jolt to my system.”
But there’s another option that doesn’t get talked about enough.
You’re allowed to grandfather legacy clients.
And there are real upsides to this:
Stability
Predictability
Long-term relationships
Clients who know you and trust you
Emotional ballast during stages of change
As long as you like the reasons for your choice, and your choices line up with where you want to go, you don’t need anyone else’s permission.
So if you’re looking for a neat, tidy rule — I don’t have one for you.
What I do want you to do is this:
Listen to your intuition, not your fear.
They are different voices.
…
Pricing isn’t about getting everything perfect.
It’s about making thoughtful, intentional choices… and adjusting as you go.
Could you use a sounding board for navigating #allthedecisions when it comes to re-pricing?
It’s a lot to think through on your own. Get insightful feedback from peers who have walked this trail before you, and can help you make better decisions, faster — without overthinking every step.
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