Wedding Business Solutions

Asking how much doesn't mean they can't afford you!

• Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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Asking how much doesn't mean they can't afford you!

Have you ever considered that when customers ask, “How much do you charge?” it might not be a red flag but rather a common starting point for a conversation? Are you missing out on business opportunities because you don't provide pricing information up front? In this episode, I explore the importance of transparency in your pricing strategy and how to make sure potential clients understand the value you offer.

Listen to this new 13-minute episode for insights on structuring your pricing to attract the right clients while showcasing the value of your services.

Episode Summary: 
In this episode of the "Wedding Business Solutions" podcast, I tackle a common concern that many wedding vendors face: potential clients asking, "How much do you charge?" I argue that this question doesn't necessarily mean they can't afford your services. Instead, it often reflects a lack of available price information. I dive into the importance of being transparent with your pricing to avoid losing potential clients who might assume your services are out of their reach. I share different pricing strategies, like full pricing, starting prices, and price ranges, and their effects on client inquiries. Ultimately, I emphasize that perceived value is key and that clients often go over their budgets for the results they truly desire. By better understanding and managing these inquiries, you can attract and retain the right clients.

If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or visit my website Podcast.AlanBerg.com 

Please be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave a review (thanks, it really does make a difference). If you want to get notifications of new episodes and upcoming workshops and webinars, you can sign up at www.ConnectWithAlanBerg.com  

View the full transcript on Alan’s site: https://alanberg.com/blog/


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I'm Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you'd like to suggest other topics for "The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast" please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:

©2025 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com

Asking how much doesn't mean they can't afford you. Listen to this episode, see why I'm talking about this. Hi, it's Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions podcast. This is another ask me anything suggestion. And it's that the first thing that people ask when they reach out is how much do you charge? And for that person that suggested this, they said it's a big red flag for them. And I want you to just step back for a second. I want everybody to just step back for a second and let's not talk about your business, let's talk about you as a customer.

And if you're buying something you've never bought before, you don't know what else to ask and you very often ask how much because it's that variable, not a variable. It's actually the common denominator between all of us is that if we're making a purchase, we need to pay for that purchase. Now whether you're paying in cash or credit or crypto or whatever, you're still paying. So there's still a value that needs to be put there. And by, by the way, value is the thing. It's not just price. We decide if we want to pay that price because we feel the value is equal to or greater than whatever that price is. So they're asking you how much? For various reasons.

One is if you have no pricing on your website, in your marketing, on your storefronts, on the not wedding wire, weddings online, wherever it is that you're allowed to put pricing or you're given the option of putting that, if you have no pricing, some people will like what they see, they read, they hear, they watch whatever, and then will reach out and say, okay, well, so how much is this? Can I afford this? Because if you put great photos out there and if you have great reviews and if you're responding to those reviews, the good ones, not just any that are not great, but the good ones, if you have videos there, if you filled out your search criteria, if you have all the things there but you don't have price, some people are going to like all of that reach out to say, should we take the next step? One of the big mistakes that people make is like the person who said ask me anything is considering that a red flag instead of realizing that's a self inflicted problem. If you put no price in, of course people are going to ask how much. The other thing is something you don't see. And this is the problem. You don't see which is that people who look and because you don't have any pricing, because of the lack of transparency, because they don't have any idea of whether you're at the low end, middle and high end, or wherever they are in the market that they will pass you by because of the lack of transparency, looking for someone else. And if you personally have ever been looking for something online, just trying to get some information and some sites had pricing and some sites don't, have you ever passed by one that had no pricing and reached out to someone at a site that did because of their giving you at least an idea of what their pricing is? Now I realize on lower ticket items it's easier to put that price there. If it's an e commerce thing or signing yourself up on online, you have to put the price there. My books obviously have to have prices online.

Whether it's an audio book, a Kindle, a paperback book, whether it's on my shop or on Amazon or on Audible or Kindle, the price obviously has to be there. You can't buy without that. If you want to hire me for a two hour consultation, website review, business consulting, whatever the price is on my website, you can click, you can pick the calendar date, you can pay for it right there. So of course the price has to be there. On a higher ticket item, there is, here's the different ways that you can have pricing. If you don't have pricing, you risk missing out on people that might reach out to you who can afford it, but because they don't see any price, they go looking for someone who does. You also risk having people reach out who can't afford you and then you get ghosted because you give them a price at some point and then they ghost you. Or, you know, maybe you give them a price right away and then they ghost you or they tell you, hey, we can't afford that.

So if you don't have pricing, you're encouraging everyone to reach out. Now I do that for my speaking and for my sales training because I know that the number is going to seem high to a lot of people. And even though they will or a lot of them eventually end up doing it, they are not expecting a number that's that high. And if you're at the higher end of your market, you're probably experiencing the same thing. The difference probably for me comes down to the fact that when people reach out to me, it's, they've already had some exposure to me through speaking, through training, through Wedding Pro, through my books, through my Podcast or whatever. And they're probably not shopping around as much, if at all. They might want to say, hey, can we make this work? Can Alan help us? And how much is that? So I encourage all of those price inquiries, especially the ones that are much lower, because for associations and things like that, I know you have no budget. And we figured out some ways to make that work.

So I can get what I need, which is I can get my value in terms of money. For doing what? Giving the value back to you, to your members, to your company, to whatever it is. So I know that people are reaching out, asking how much? Because I don't have a price there. But that was done intentionally. If you have more competition, that would maybe not be as good of a plan. So hang on with me here for a minute here, okay? If you put full pricing out there, what you risk. I know what I risk is people just not even reaching out, not even having the conversation with me, because they see the price and that they're scared off. Okay.

But again, I believe more people are looking for me first. Not looking for someone like me, which is why I don't pay a lot of attention to SEO. Even though I had Brian Lawrence go through my site, did the SEO, I don't get a lot of business. I only can think of one client that I've gotten through SEO through somebody finding me on Google. People are really looking for me. Now, if that's the case for you, if they're looking for you, then maybe you don't need the price there either. That's up to you. But again, if they're looking for you, if they were referred by someone else, maybe they already have an idea what you charge.

Just because the price is higher than the average doesn't mean that people won't pay it. If you've been working at all in the industry and people have been paying your price, the price is right for some part of the market, and that's what I want. I can't fulfill all of the need if I had my price significantly lower. There just aren't enough hours in the day or days in the week or weeks, in the month or months in the year for me to be able to do that. So part of the reason that my price is higher is the value I provide. Part of it is the inventory is lower. And that's on purpose. I just can't be everywhere when it's just me.

And I've chosen that. That's a business model that I've chosen. And if you are a photographer and chose not to have more photographers to have out on different events, or maybe just one. Or if you're a DJ and chose to be a single app instead of multi or any, any other business in the wedding and event industry where you chose not to expand your staff and your ability to do more events than you currently do, we all have an inventory. Third way to talk about prices is starting price. And if you've heard me talk about this before, I hate starting prices because it's the lowest thing you have and the thing you don't want to sell. And if it's the only number they see, that's how much they think they're going to pay. So unless there isn't a big range of price, starting price is not a good way for you or for the client because now you have to tell them it's more for the typical thing that you would do.

Price range is my favorite if there is a range of pricing because it sets the anchors and says, hey, we're playing in this area. So if you want people, fewer people to reach out who can't afford you, but you don't want to put your full pricing out there, a price range for many businesses is the way to do it, to say, hey, listen, this is a realistic range for people who hire us for these things. Now you could qualify that by saying in these months, in these seasons, on these days of the week or whatever. And if you have two different points, like one of my clients has two different rooms, one's much smaller than the other, so the starting price for that smaller room is much lower than the starting price for the big room. We're going to have two separate ranges and say for this room or these type of events, this is the range. Or for this room for these type of events, this is the range. And you're having a level of transparency to satisfy people to say, give me an idea. But again, don't assume that because someone asks how much they can't afford it.

I remember there was a time, I think I mentioned this before on the podcast, but I remember there was a time when the higher end cars, you would never see a price in an ad. You wouldn't see a buying price or a leasing price in an ad. And now it's nothing to see an ad that says it's 800 hundred dollars a month for this Range Rover or this Mercedes or whatever, or $1200 for this Maserati because the people that can afford it aren't scared off by those numbers. So that level of Transparency says, okay, we're in the ballpark there. And even if it's a little higher than you wanted to go, if you're in the ballpark, you still might get that inquiry. The key is to fill your calendar with the people you want to do business with who have a budget to get the kind of results that only you can provide. That's what the key is. It's not to do business with everybody.

Nobody that's listening to this is trying to do business with everybody. You might have a wider net than some people or a narrower net that you're looking for, but nobody's trying to do business with everybody. So can you fill your calendar with the people you want to do business with by being a little bit more transparent about what that range could be? So, again, I encourage certain conversations because I understand if someone's looking for me, they're going to reach out. We'll have that conversation. If I was in a business where there were, they could be looking for somebody like me more often than not, which is probably the case for most of you. Having at least some idea of price is going to reduce your number of inquiries, which is a good thing, because the people not reaching out are the people that can't afford you. And if you're filling your calendar by doing it that way, you don't worry about those people. If you're not, then you have to rethink your pricing strategy and say, do I need to cast the net a little bit wider, or is there some other reason that I'm not having this conversation? Continue with the people that ask, how much are you not putting forth your value, that these are the kind of results that only we can do, And I'm not.

If you listen to another podcast I did that says, are your results really better or are they just different? And the truth is, they're just different. We don't know if they're better because nobody else is going to get a chance to do that wedding or event. So if they perceive that they want your results, they have to pay your price. And since over half of couples go over their budgets, and when they do, it's significant. The last Wedding Pro survey I heard, I think it was 30 to 50% that they go over. And that's because if you've never bought something, you don't know what the results you want cost, and therefore you budget too low because you budget for a number. You don't budget for the results that you want. And you go back a few episodes on this, you'll Hear about my son's wedding? They had a wonderful wedding.

Again, they originally set their budget. They were originally going to do a more traditional wedding. And their planner in Kevin Dennis, thank you so much for helping them out there. Their planner told them, your budget doesn't allow for a ban band. You want a band but doesn't allow for a band. We told them, okay, if that's the route you're going to go, we'll pay for the band. Now the budget just got expanded, even though it wasn't coming out of their pocket. Doesn't matter, right? Many, many weddings have other people helping out in different ways.

That's one of the ways that the budget can get expanded. Other ways is just simply the couple saying, you know what? I want that I'll pay more. Just like any of us with anything that we bought that cost more than we originally wanted. And it might have been a big ticket item like a house. You ever buy a house, spent more than you wanted to. Buy a car, you spent more than you wanted to. Big ticket items, it's because we want those results. Those results aren't available.

Lower price. We choose to have those results or lower price. We can't have both. Same thing. If they're asking you how much, it doesn't mean they can't afford it. And then one last point on this. Just because they can afford it doesn't mean they're going to spend it with you because they still have to perceive that yours are the results they want and that they're willing to pay more to get those. Just because they can afford it doesn't mean they're going to spend the money because sometimes they don't see the value.

And you set the price, they determine the value. Thanks for that Ask me Anything suggestion. Keep them coming. Go to podcast.allenberg.com There's a button there. Click on Ask me anything. Submit your suggestion. Look forward to hearing it on another episode. Bye.


I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is Alan@WeddingBusinessSolutions.com or you can  text, use the short form on this page, or call +1.732.422.6362, international 001 732 422 6362. I look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.

Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:

©2024 Wedding Business Solutions LLC & AlanBerg.com


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Alan Berg, CSP, Global Speaking Fellow

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