How to Price Your HR Services with Confidence (and Get Paid What You’re Worth)

Ever wondered what to charge for your HR services… without scaring the client off?

You don’t want to undercharge and resent the work.

But you don’t want to overcharge and lose the sale either.

So you second-guess yourself.

You tweak the number.

You stall sending the proposal — just in case it’s “too much.”

Sound familiar?

Well, this episode of Marketing Made Easy for HR Consultants is going to help you price your HR services with confidence — and still keep prospects warm and interested.

Because if you’ve ever said “I’m not sure what to charge” — this is the episode that sorts that out once and for all.

So hit play now and discover:

✅ Why I compare my book to the price of a bottle of wine - and why you should compare your prices to something too.
✅ 3 other sneaky (but ethical) tactics you can use to make your fees feel like a steal.
✅ How TK Maxx gets you to feel smug about spending £50 — and how you can use the same principle in your sales calls.
✅ The real reason pricing feels hard (hint: it’s nothing to do with your prices).
✅ How to confidently quote higher fees without losing sleep over it.
✅ Why pricing isn’t really about numbers — it’s about psychology, positioning, and perceived value.
✅ When to charge per day vs per project — and how to avoid the hourly-rate trap.
✅ Why you need to get at least 50% of the agreed fee up front. And what to do if you can't.

And much, MUCH more.

Timestamps:

00:00 – Why Pricing Feels So Hard for HR Consultants
01:14 – Price Anchoring: The Simple Psychology Hack That Works
02:41 – Real-World Anchoring: What HR Consultants Can Learn from TK Maxx
03:48 – How to Use Anchoring in Sales Calls and Website Pricing
04:41 – Itemise What Clients Get to Justify Your Fee
05:39 – A Simple Method to Work Out What to Charge for Your HR Services
06:29 – When and How to Offer a Pay-in-Full Discount
08:20 – Stop Charging for Time – Start Charging for Transformation
10:02 – How to charge high Prices and Attract High-Quality Clients
11:30 – What to Say When Clients Push Back on Price
13:03 – How to Use Case Studies to Back Up Your Fees
15:00 – Confidence in Delivery = Confidence in Pricing
18:55 – Stick to Your Fees or Risk Losing Authority
21:40 – How to Price HR Services

Want My Help to Build Your £70K+ HR Consultancy?

1️⃣ Grab a copy of my book – The Complete Guide to Building a £70K HR Consultancy – and discover how to get every lead and client you need.

2️⃣ Apply to Join The Fastlane Formula – so we can work together 1-to-1 to get you earning £70K+ faster (and easier) than going it alone.

Transcript

00:01 there and welcome back to another episode of Marketing Made Easy for HR Consultants with me, Nick Poninski. Today's episode is all about pricing your HR services, so working out how much to charge and how to work out what to charge.
00:16 I'm also going to share some sneaky but totally ethical tactics you can use to charge more, feel more confident quoting your fees and you can finally get paid what you're worth.
00:27 So if you've ever found yourself nervously second-guessing your prices, wondering how others seem to command higher fees without pushback, this one's for you.
00:36 But, let me quickly say that if you are worried about pricing, more than likely, the reason that you're worried about pricing is that you don't have enough leads in your business.
00:45 Simple reason, because if you had all the leads that you wanted, then you wouldn't be worried about what to charge.
00:51 You would just charge whatever the hell you wanted to charge, and then if they paid it, or they didn't pay it, wouldn't matter because you'd just move on to the next lead.
00:59 So, yes, if you are worried about pricing, about leads, because that's why you're worried about what to charge for your pricing, then pay attention to the end of today's episode, because I've got something coming down the line that's going to change the world for you.
01:14 But first, let's talk about anchoring. This is a secret. It's a tactic, a hidden sneaky tactic, totally ethical, that helps you charge higher fees while still charging the high fees, but having your recipient, your lead, your prospect, feel like they're getting a So, anchoring is something that you've
01:37 probably seen on the high street a million times before and never really thought about. More than likely, it's all you think about when you see the anchoring is, oh my god, I'm getting a bargain.
01:48 So, for TK Maxx used this to great effect. What they do is you look at a coat, you look at a t-shirt, you look at a shirt, whatever it is that you're looking at, and you have one price, which is the retail recommended price, and it says something like 400 English pounds, and then it has our price, and
02:08 it says 50 pounds. Now what happens there is your brain latches onto that 400 pounds, then looks at the 50 pounds and says, oh my god, I'm getting a bargain.
02:20 Because your brain has seen that 400, now it's looking at 50. If the t-shirt was simply presented at 50 English pounds, you'd probably say, oh my god, 50 pounds, that's a lot of money.
02:33 But what your brain has been doing, it's been tricked, it's thinking about the 400 pounds, then it equates the 50 pounds to be a bargain.
02:41 It starts thinking about the 350 pounds it can save, rather than the 50 pounds it's going to spend. So, how can you use that for your HR services?
02:53 Well, obviously, when you are putting your prices publicly, when you are sharing your prices on your website, or your LinkedIn, or wherever it is, introduce a high price, and, you know, put a line through it, and say, oh, it's not this price, it's this price, or you can put something along the lines 
03:12 of today's price, or tomorrow's sale. Whatever it is, however it is that you want to justify it, the sheer fact that you will have had a higher number, and now a lower number, makes that lower number seem more Alternatively, if you're sharing your prices verbally, you For example, you are taking somebody
03:31 through a, ah, sales call, you're presenting the solution to them, then you're about to share the cost, the investment required to, ah, to get your services, to get the, the solution that they're looking for.
03:48 simply, you say something along the lines of, yeah, listen, we're expensive, we're super expensive. We don't cost £20,000, but for the service that you need, the service that I recommend, it is £1,997, £97, whatever it is.
04:07 Again, what's happened there is, because of the anchoring, the prospect, the lead, the client, whatever it is, they have heard the first fee first, £20k. And then, then, after that, £2k sounds a lot cheaper.
04:19 Do you see how it works? This makes your actual offer feel more affordable in comparison. And this works really well because people make decisions based on perceived value, not actual absolute cost.
04:32 So if somebody perceives something as having a high value, but then is presented with a lower it seems like a bargain.
04:41 next tip I have for you is to lay out everything that they're getting. So itemise the full service. Don't just say that you are going to resolve their grievance for them, or you're doing a training day.
04:53 Include everything that they're getting. Which is included in that service, so you can include the time that's going to be spent.
05:01 You can include the access to yourself. You can include whatever templates or documents you're going to be creating for them.
05:07 Any resources, any follow-up support, etc. Email, Q&A, reporting, etc, etc. And then you've got to put some sort of value alongside these more your prospects, the more your lead sees, the more justifiable you can It's not just a conversation, it's your IP, it's your thinking, it's your prep, it's your
05:33 support. So they're not just getting rid of a grievance, what they, and that is obviously what they want to get rid of.
05:39 They want to get rid of the problem in their organisation. You have to explain to them what that actually means.
05:44 Most of the time, a client, a prospect, a lead, they won't know what goes resolving a So spell it out for them.
05:53 Give them the full rundown. Lay out everything that they're getting and put a value alongside it. Then, you can put a subtotal.
06:03 Again, going back to anchoring, you can cross that out. And then you can put the actual fee that they're going to pay.
06:09 Yeah, if they want what you're 
06:14 of sharing the full fee that they are going to invest to get their problem resolved, what you can do is you can offer a discount, say 5-10%, if they pay the full balance in full before the work starts, i.e.
06:29 they know they're going to make their payment for this problem to go away, let's say for example, for this grievance to be resolved, they know that it's going to cost them, let's say for example, £1,000, you say that to them, listen, if you make the payment with me in full today, I'll let you have it
06:45 for £900. Now, one thing to say is, perhaps you want to consider pricing the full job at £900 before you even offer the discount, that way you are getting what you want, but if they don't pay you in full, you are then getting an extra payment.
07:03 This rewards commitment and secures cash flow for you, which is super important. You can frame it as a win-win too.
07:10 If you're happy to sort payment in one go, I'll take X amount. Now to speak on this a little bit, ideally you will always be taking full payment up I know that's not always possible, so please take this with a pinch of salt, but it's the idea that The ideal situation is that you are getting paid up front
07:29 . Reason being, if you do the work and then get paid afterwards, like you would if you were still working in corporate, i.e. somebody comes to see you with a problem, you do all the work to resolve that problem.
07:41 Your salary comes at the end of the month, ipso facto, no problem. But it's very different in the self-employment world.
07:48 We all know that. So if you do all the work and then ask for the payment at the end of it, like would potentially make sense to you, you are leaving yourself with yourself open to abuse.
07:59 You are leaving yourself open to not getting paid. So, encourage full payment up front, or at worst, always take a deposit, a minimum of 50% up front.
08:11 I've heard too many horror stories. It's from HR consultants now, where they say that they've done the work and they've not been paid for it.
08:17 If you don't get paid for your work up front, if you don't take at least 50% deposit up front, if you don't hold back on resolving the situation for them until the full back payment is paid off in full, again, you are leaving yourself open to exploitation and abuse.
08:34 And as I say, I've heard from too many HR consultants now who've done the work, hope that they get paid for it, and then they get ghosted.
08:42 And if you do get ghosted, your options are, your options are severely limited. You know, you can take the client to a small claims court perhaps, but that takes stress, it takes effort, it's, it's, it's a really painful process.
08:55 It's not great. Equally, just because they go to a small claims court, even if you win, there's nothing foolish about forcing that client to actually make the payment.
09:03 You know, I think we've all seen it on TV. I'm not an expert. My understanding is though, that if you want them to actually make the payment, small claims court, no enforcement.
09:13 So you have to apply for the high court, get a high court. Again, a situation. So make sure to at least take 50% up front.
09:25 Don't start either way. Don't start work without some money in the bank. Consider using an escrow for the rest of the balance.
09:32 This protects your time, your energy, your business. If you don't get paid, you, you know, your kids don't get fed.
09:39 Your mortgage doesn't get paid. So it is super important. I know this goes against the grain for a lot of HR consultants, but it's how they feel that they should work, especially when they're very new to this.
09:49 But yeah, let me share this one more time. If you do the work and then submit your invoice at the end of it and hope to get paid, that's exactly what you're doing.
09:59 You are hoping to get paid. You have no leverage. When it comes to economics, getting somebody to do something for you, you've either got incentive or you've got coercion.
10:08 Well, my friend, you have got no coercion, no incentive if you've delivered the work and they haven't paid. There is nothing you can do to fight that.
10:16 You've got that payment, to encourage that payment. please, please, please make sure to get paid upfront or at least take 50% upfront and consider using an escrow.
10:27 I don't think that asking for 50% upfront is anything wrong with that. It's a standard boundary in service-based businesses as far as I can tell.
10:35 And if a company can't do 50% or 100% for policy reasons, negotiate something an escrow, for example. Remember, you're not on salary anymore, so stop acting like you are on one.
10:50 didn't mean to get so ranty about that, I've just caught myself going off on a little bit of a rant there.
10:56 So, let's move on. Let's talk about using relatable comparisons so your fees seem reasonable. So you can compare the price of your services to something tangible.
11:08 For example, a holiday, a new phone, daily coffee habits, whatever it is. It makes your service seem a bit more realistic and a bit more affordable.
11:22 emotionally understand the value by linking it to everyday spending. For example, I use this when I, with my book sales page.
11:29 The book is on sale for £14. One of my famous quotes is, When you yeah, it's great, but you use it pretty quickly.
11:41 You don't get too many return on it. Whereas compared with the book, well, if I do say so myself, the book is fantastic.
11:47 It's a bargain up for £1.63. seem, yeah, pretty fair. Somewhat more acceptable. It's got a relatable comparison.
11:59 £4.63. What would you rather have? A bottle of wine or the knowledge in the book to build a 70k HR consultancy?
12:06 It's a bit of a no-brainer. So let's bring that around to you. What is the price of your service? Let's make it a daily fee.
12:15 We can use it as a price per day. And what does that actually charge? Or a price per hour? What does that actually mean?
12:21 Give them something affordable. The, the lead, the prospect. Give them something affordable to grasp in their mind that, Oh it's not as affordable as it seems.
12:29 It's not as expensive as it might And this price per day, this is what you can also use when it comes to working out what to charge for your services.
12:40 So you don't need to charge this way. You don't need to share this figure with anybody, but internally calculate your hourly rate, calculate your day rate, and use it as a guide for packages or project pricing.
12:53 Whatever it is that you want to charge. Let's say, for example, you want to charge £100 an somebody hands over a grievance to you and you look at it and you see that there's speaking to 20 people.
13:04 There are 50 odd emails to read from. policy, blah, blah, blah, etc, etc. Before you know it, you're going to be spending around 6 hours on this.
13:16 So, 6 hours, you can use your price per day, you can half it, you can use your price per hour.
13:20 You can work it out what it would cost to resolve that grievance. That way, then you've got a benchmark, you've got an understanding of what you're going to be charging and that it's worth it for you.
13:35 This helps you stay grounded in what you're taught. What time is actually Feel free to even share this day rate when you need to show the value of something or a multi-day project or a retainer, especially if you can show it to them and say that you're charging them.
13:50 I don't know, say for example, 200, 100 pounds an hour, say it's 600 pounds a day, something along those lines.
13:57 You're going to give them a bargain. You're going to say, yep, but if you pay me in advance, I'll do it for this price.
14:03 I'm going to offer you this of X, Y, Z. Now, this isn't to say. Let me catch myself here. Let me catch you as well.
14:10 I can hear you shouting at the radio or wherever it is you're listening to this podcast. I am not saying offer a hell of a lot of discounts here, there, and everywhere.
14:18 What I am saying is, though, that you can artificially inflate your prices and then offer discounts. It's a little bit sneaky, but it's totally legit.
14:27 It's not manipulative in the slightest. It helps your prospects feel like they are getting a And at the same time, you're getting the price that you want to So, this is an easy way for you to do it.
14:40 Understand what your hourly rate is, your day rate, your weekly rate, whatever it is, and then charge appropriately. Work out how much time you're going to spend on that project.
14:52 Use that 
14:54 when it comes to actually sharing your pricing figures, there's a couple of tactics that you can tap into. One is to end all prices in the number seven.
15:02 The reason for this is, we love the number seven. If you asked somebody to pick a number between one and ten, chances are they'd pick It's a phenomenon we have here in the west.
15:13 We love the number seven. If you were in China, for example, they'd probably more likely go for the number eight.
15:18 Either way, it doesn't matter. You, you can use this to make prices. It can seem more palatable, more friendly, something that we like, something in our brain, clicks off.
15:28 We love the number seven. Alternatively, what you can do is come up with an obscure figure of some form or another.
15:36 Say, for example, like with my book, which is priced at four p- 63. Why £4.63? There's a very specific reason for that.
15:44 Makes you think, right? So rather than for your HR services, rather than trotting out £2,000, where's £2,000 come from? Who knows?
15:52 You could charge your prices at one. nine, seven, three, point six, two, so for example. And that looks like a very specific price for a very specific reason.
16:05 People find it difficult to argue with that. People find it difficult to ask for a discount. It looks like the reason why you've come up with that price.
16:13 That means that it is less likely for someone to ask for a discount. Thanks, Scott.
16:18 I'm gonna do an episode about this in the coming weeks, but one thing that HR consultants really misunderstanding about pricing the perception of what they should charge.
16:28 They wonder more about, ooh, what do I charge for this? How much can I, effectively, what they're saying is how much can I get away with charging?
16:38 And the reality is, the pricing differs on a whole range of different factors, right? So let's bring this into the- the real world to give you a real world example, right?
16:51 The difference is positioning and perceived value, not the actual task list. So let's take, say, for example, a Rolex and a Casio.
17:02 Both tell the time, but people- people. They pay a hell of a lot more money for a Rolex than they do for a Casio.
17:09 Same for Primark. It's super easy to decide what to charge for Primark. It's going to be less than a fiver, because it's crap for a t-shirt, right?
17:18 Whereas a t-shirt from something like- Carhartt, you'd be looking at It's still a t-shirt at the end of the day, but because of some sort of emotion, justification, positioning, perceived value, the price has changed.
17:34 So we're going to talk about that in- some coming episodes, we're going to talk about the perceived value and how you can influence that.
17:42 that's a biggie, that is a big factor on how much you can charge for your services, or aka, how much you can get away with.
17:52 it. That's everything you need to know about pricing your HR services. So let's have a quick recap. Number one, anchoring.
17:59 This, you set the stage for your price reveal by having a high reference point. So as I said earlier, TK Maxx are the masters at doing this.
18:08 They have one price that they show you that anchors your brain at a high level. It gets rid of any figure that you were thinking about, and then they show you the actual price.
18:19 So, rather than just seeing £50 on the T-shirt, cold, and just £50, and then you say, oh my God, that seems expensive.
18:28 First, you've been shown £400. Ah, ah, you're not paying £400, you're paying £50. All of a sudden, £50 seems much more reasonable, even though you are paying £50. It's just madness.
18:41 Obviously, this is a made-up experience, but you can do the exact same thing with your HR services. You can do this, whether it's written down, you can, you know, show a crossed-out figure, or you can do it when you're on a sales call.
18:54 You know, but where you can say, you know, don't worry, this isn't going to cost 20 grand. The investment required to work with me is just 2,000 English pounds, whatever it is, blah, blah, what talked about with regards to pricing was to lay out everything they're getting.
19:10 So rather than just saying, it's a grievance, here's the price, you're going to share everything that gets involved with that grievance.
19:18 So include the time, the access, templates, resources, follow-up support, etc. etc. The more they see, the more justifiable your fee becomes.
19:26 It's not just a conversation, it's your thinking, prep, support, etc. etc. You can even include a value on this so that they can see the full, ah, value of each individual item.
19:38 Then you can say, here's the total value, but you're actually going to be paying x, y, z. when you're doing, ah, tickets.
19:48 Right? TV shopping. They love to do that. TV shopping channels. Next, I went on a little bit of a rant and said, get paid up front, or at least get 50% up front.
20:00 I'm therefore lead into offering a bit of a discount if they pay up front. That means that you get paid in advance.
20:10 You frame it as a win. If you're happy to sort payment in one go, I'll take X amount off. This rewards commitment and secures cash flow for you.
20:17 Ideally, you'd take at least a deposit because if you don't, you're making yourself, you're putting yourself in a very vulnerable position.
20:27 Finally, when it comes to working out what to actually charge for your services, we talked about the fact that you can chart, work out what you want to be paid per hour.
20:36 We can talk about what you want to be charged per day. Once you've got that figure, that's what you then quote for services.
20:43 We can talk about and I promise to do a podcast episode on that in the coming weeks. And we Finally, let me go back to right to the start when I talked about the fact that when you're talking about what to charge for your HR services, what you're actually doing is, yeah, you're talking about the fact
21:03 that you don't have as many leads as you would want for your business. You don't have as many leads. You don't have as many clients.
21:08 You are coming from a place of neediness. You are worried about losing the project and that's because you don't have enough leads.
21:14 You don't have enough clients. You don't have enough sales. You don't have any profit profits. And if that's the case, then let me give you a sneak peek to my new offer, which is coming out.
21:23 My new offer is called the pipeline playbook. 2.0. This is high level. This is a service to get you five leads a week, guaranteed all your money back.
21:36 Why am I saying it's going to get you guaranteed all your money back? Simple. Because if you work with me, if you invest with me, and I don't give you the return on investment that you were expecting, then what the hell was the point of it?
21:49 Why should you take on all the risk? Why should it be you who has to say, right, I'll give you, uh, I'll make the investment to work with you, Nick.
21:58 But, you know, I might not get any return. I might not get the expected result. Well, let's change that. Let's say, I'm going to give you the result that you're And you can believe that I can, I'm going to do that, because the HR Consulting world is not is a very small pond.
22:15 So, if I say that I'm going to do that, and then I don't, you're going to post on LinkedIn, you're going to ruin me. I'm not going to do that.
22:22 Equally, I mean, if you knew me well, you would know that I'm not going to do that. But, I'm not going to do it for the simple fact that there's leverage there.
22:29 As I say, you're ruining my reputation. There's going to be more that I'm going to share about exactly what to expect in this upcoming offer.
22:37 But, if you're part of my mailing list, you will find out about this in due course. And, if you're on social media or on the podcast, you'll find out, I don't know, a day or two later.
22:47 This is first come, first serve. Only 10 spots are available. And, as I say, the mailing list are going to get first option.
22:54 So, if you're not on my mailing list yet, Make sure to go to my website and and then you can get started.
23:01 though, that's the end of the episode. That's everything you need to know about pricing. As ever, let me bring this to an end.
23:07 As ever, get marketing. Because without marketing, there's no sales. And without sales, there's no business. So, get marketing.