Why convincing someone to pay you $1 is the hardest part of selling yourself

The following is an excerpt from TEM253: The real reason your rates are so low:

The hardest part is not convincing someone whether you're string quartet is worth $1,000 or $1,500 for a wedding ceremony. The hardest part is actually convincing them that what you offer is worth even $1. No, really.

In this example of a string quartet, weddings are just ridiculously expensive. It is quite common for someone to get back a quote for the full list of what they want for their wedding day and then they have complete sticker shock. That's often followed by looking at what things can be eliminated from their wedding to get the cost down while still being the kind of day that they're looking for. If they are reaching out to you, they've already decided that they want to pay money for something that they could just as easily stream from a music platform that they already pay to subscribe to and just play it over a set of speakers. But they are talking to you.

You've already made the cut. The hard part is already done. So charging less than you're worth is not going to help you nearly as much as you think it is. And charging only $500 to play the ceremony, when you really want $1500, is still not going to convince the person who says, "Wait, can't we just get that song I want to walk down the aisle to off of YouTube?" Because $500 is ridiculously expensive to that person and they are never, ever going to hire you anyways.

So don't fall for the trap of keeping your rates low. and thinking it will avoid the hardest part of the sales process. It won't, and it will only end up costing you money for each and every happy customer who was going to be happy they paid the rate you actually think you're worth.