The Hidden Cost of Underpricing Your Med Spa Services (How to Charge Premium Prices with Confidence)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Med Spa CEO Episode - "The Hidden Cost of Underpricing Your Med Spa Services (How to Charge Premium Prices with Confidence)"

Episode Overview

In this insightful episode of the Med Spa CEO Podcast, host Heather Terveen delves into the critical topic of pricing strategies for med spa and aesthetic practice owners. Titled "The Hidden Cost of Underpricing Your Med Spa Services (How to Charge Premium Prices with Confidence)," the episode, released on May 14, 2025, provides a comprehensive exploration of how proper pricing can significantly impact the profitability and sustainability of a med spa business. Heather shares her expertise on shifting pricing perceptions, introduces her Pricing Matrix framework, and discusses the essential belief changes necessary to confidently implement premium pricing.

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1. The Significance of Correct Pricing

Heather Terveen opens the episode by emphasizing the importance of targeting the right market and ensuring that pricing strategies align with the value offered to clients. She highlights that pricing is not merely a number but a reflection of the quality and uniqueness of the services provided.

Heather Terveen [00:00]: "Are you speaking to the right market? ... whether you have built your marketing, your offers, your sales and your marketing system with those folks in mind."

Heather underscores that understanding your local market's willingness to pay for premium services is crucial. She warns against the common pitfall of underpricing, which can lead to unsustainable business practices.

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2. Introducing the Pricing Matrix Framework

One of the central themes of the episode is Heather's Pricing Matrix, a strategic tool designed to help med spa owners establish a robust pricing strategy. The matrix comprises three key filters:

a. Sustainability

Sustainability is the foundational filter that ensures your pricing covers costs and supports long-term business viability.

Heather Terveen [08:21]: "The first part of the pricing matrix is that the pricing has to be sustainable."

Heather shares her experience from her previous e-commerce ventures, where she advised businesses to price their products at 5 to 10 times the landed cost to ensure profitability. She illustrates how lack of sustainable pricing can lead to financial losses, even when sales volumes are high.

b. Demand

Demand assesses the market's response to your pricing. High demand can justify premium pricing, while stagnant demand may indicate the need for adjustment.

Heather Terveen [13:59]: "As demand increases, you should increase your pricing. You should not be booked out for four, four months, six Months, if you will, and not increase your prices."

Heather explains that as a med spa becomes more sought-after, it's appropriate to adjust prices to reflect the increased demand, thereby enhancing profitability.

c. Positioning

Positioning differentiates your services from competitors, allowing you to command higher prices through unique value propositions.

Heather Terveen [15:21]: "If we position your offers differently, then we can actually have a lot more flexibility in being a premium priced place."

She advocates for creating a signature menu of services that stand out in the market, emphasizing unique benefits and superior outcomes. This differentiation supports the justification for premium pricing.

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3. Belief Shifts for Implementing Premium Pricing

Heather identifies three critical belief shifts that med spa owners must adopt to successfully implement higher pricing:

a. Pricing Higher Attracts the Right Clients

Heather dispels the myth that higher prices alienate customers, explaining that premium pricing actually attracts more committed and serious clients.

Heather Terveen [18:13]: "Pricing higher doesn't push people away, it pulls in more serious, committed patients and clients."

She emphasizes that premium clients are often willing to invest more in quality services, leading to better client relationships and higher satisfaction rates.

b. Clients' Money Stories Are Not Your Responsibility

Owners often project their own pricing anxieties onto their clients. Heather advises separating personal beliefs about money from clients' perceptions.

Heather Terveen [19:25]: "Your clients' money stories are not your responsibility."

By reframing how they view clients' willingness to pay, med spa owners can approach pricing with greater confidence and reduce unnecessary concessions.

c. There is a Market for Every Price Point

Heather asserts that no matter where a med spa is located, there exists a segment of the market willing to pay for premium services.

Heather Terveen [21:39]: "There is a market for every price point. The real question is, are you speaking to the right market?"

She encourages owners to identify and target their ideal client base rather than settling for the lowest price point, which can dilute brand value and profitability.

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4. Practical Examples and Personal Anecdotes

Heather enriches the discussion with personal experiences and real-world examples:

• E-commerce Pricing Challenges: Heather recounts her time running an e-commerce business, where she successfully implemented a 5 to 10x pricing strategy to ensure profitability despite higher unit costs.

• Coaching with Becca Pike: She shares insights from her collaboration with coach Becca Pike, who maintains high-ticket pricing for her mastermind and one-on-one coaching programs. This example illustrates that premium pricing does not necessarily deter clients when the value proposition is clear.

• Membership Pitfalls: Heather warns about the dangers of launching membership programs without a solid pricing foundation, highlighting cases where clients have lost money by offering excessive discounts within memberships.

Heather Terveen [13:15]: "I've had so many clients who have memberships that they really should have my recommendation before you launch a membership."

These anecdotes serve to reinforce the importance of strategic pricing and the consequences of neglecting sustainability and positioning.

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5. Actionable Insights and Recommendations

Towards the end of the episode, Heather provides listeners with clear steps to enhance their pricing strategies:

• Develop a Signature Menu: Creating distinct and high-value service offerings helps differentiate your med spa and supports premium pricing.

• Conduct a Pricing Audit: Assess whether your current pricing covers costs and supports sustainability. Adjust prices as necessary to ensure profitability.

Heather Terveen [25:14]: "Step one is really understanding what is sustainable pricing for you."

• Align Marketing with Target Market: Ensure that your marketing efforts are geared towards attracting the right clientele who value and are willing to pay for premium services.

• Educate Your Team: Train your staff to understand and communicate the value of premium pricing, ensuring consistency in client interactions and sales approaches.

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6. Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Heather concludes the episode by reiterating the transformative impact of proper pricing on business sustainability and profitability. She encourages med spa owners to be proactive in reassessing their pricing strategies to align with their business goals and market positioning.

Heather Terveen [25:43]: "Have you inadvertently unintentionally created a pricing strategy that isn't sustainable? ... create an intentional roadmap for having really premium pricing so that you ultimately can be more profitable in 2025 and beyond."

Heather's comprehensive approach empowers med spa owners to confidently elevate their pricing structures, attract ideal clients, and achieve long-term business success without compromising personal well-being.

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Key Takeaways:

1. Sustainable Pricing: Ensure that your prices cover costs and support long-term profitability.
2. Demand Alignment: Adjust prices in response to increasing demand to maximize revenue.
3. Strategic Positioning: Differentiate your services to justify premium pricing.
4. Mindset Shifts: Overcome limiting beliefs about pricing to attract the right clientele.
5. Action-Oriented Steps: Implement Heather's Pricing Matrix and signature menu to establish a robust pricing strategy.

By following these guidelines, med spa owners can avoid the hidden costs of underpricing and confidently position their businesses for greater financial success and client satisfaction.

Transcript

[Heather Turveen]

Are you speaking to the right market? Right, every market. Meaning if you are based in the us, if you are based in Canada, if you're based in a not developing country, there is a market where you are within your local area that is looking for premium solutions for what it is that you do. It's just whether or not you have built your marketing, your offers, your sales and your marketing system or with those folks in mind.

[MedSpa CEO Host]

Welcome to the MedSpa CEO podcast where I teach you how to grow and scale your med, spa or aesthetic practice so that you can have the income and impact you know you were meant for without overwhelm, stress or feeling like you have to sacrifice your personal life and happiness to do so. It's totally possible for you and your business. Plus simpler than you think. Keep listening to find out how.

[Heather Turveen]

Why.

[MedSpa CEO Host]

Hello my beautiful friend.

[Heather Turveen]

Welcome back to another episode of the podcast.

[Danny]

Whoo.

[Heather Turveen]

I am really pumped to talk about this topic, but I want to start with like where the inspiration for this came from. And I was thinking about this. I we're talking about pricing today and I was even talking with Danny and Brianne, who are good in media, who are my podcast team, if you will. They're amazing by the way, if you need a podcast team. And we were talking about this idea of like pricing is made up and the fact that pricing is a very subjective thing. And even when you look at what we spend money on, there are so many like even cultural effects of what we value when it comes to investing in certain things and not investing in other things. So today's episode is all about pricing perception and how can we shift your beliefs so that you can become a premium priced place. And so regardless of who, what you decide your pricing strategy is, I want it to be intentional and for you to understand how to be able to price yourself in a way that's going to make you more profitable in the long term for your business. But what's interesting is even for myself, we all have stories and narratives that sort of make up what our belief system is around pricing and like the cost of things.

[Danny]

Right.

[Heather Turveen]

And so I was having a conversation with a coach that I was working with, this is probably about a year ago, and this coach, it's Becca pike, you can look her up, she's awesome. And she does, she's a coaching business and then she has two different other chain businesses. She has Massage Strong, which is like her massage business, it's multi location massage business where they focus on sports massage. And then she has, I don't even remember the name of it, she has a hot yoga business that is a multi location hot yoga studio business. And anyhow, we were talking about premium coaching pricing and she of course was really pushing me to raise my prices and I did, but at the time I was, we were talking about pricing and her pricing like for her mastermind for example is basically like 25k for every 6 months, so 50k for the year. And then her one on one coaching is even more than that. And so I was telling her, I was like, yeah, for her coaching and what have you. But I'm like, you know, it's different. This is how even the story was showing up for me. So I was like, well it's different for like your hot yoga or your massage where it's like the pricing is lower on that, it's not as big of a deal. And she challenged me, she's like, actually. And I was reminded of this because I have had other things that I've charged less on, if you will. And she's like, but it is a big deal to certain folks, meaning like certain folks who've maybe saved up so they could afford a massage to, to treat themselves to. She's like, the price is agnostic, right? It's what we make the price mean. So like money is neutral. Okay. I heard this other analogy about it and I can't remember who it originated from, so I can't give them proper credit. But she was like, money is neutral, it's a brick. I can use it to build a house for a homeless person or I can use it to throw it through a window, to break the window. And so pricing is very subjective. It's very much made up. So I want to talk about how pricing limitation is probably showing up for you. I'm going to talk about the pricing matrix, which is my framework and approach to pricing as well too. And then share with you some of the key belief shifts that I think you need to make on pricing and then also how projecting your price beliefs is the key for you and your team to be able to actually sell effectively as well too. So pricing is one of those things that is make or break, right? Like let's talk about what happens when we don't price ourselves.

[Brianne]

Well, okay.

[Heather Turveen]

There was a point in time where I had an E commerce business. This was in between. This is before I started doing what I'm doing now. And so I was really interested in online business and I launched an E commerce business and I actually sold over 10,000 units in that business of physical products. I Manufactured things domestically, I manufactured things abroad. And I really learned about pricing even more so when it came to physical products and positioning and branding and all of that. Jazz and I used to coach small business owners that were outside of aesthetics and some, some of them were E commerce businesses or, or physical product businesses. And I remember I would have people that I was like, I used to tell them you should 5 to 10x your landed cost is what I recommended especially for a newish or in the first few years of business, physical product, whether it's E commerce or wholesale based business that they would likely need to 5 to 10x their landed cost. And I would get pushback from folks who were like, I, I can't do that. That's, I'm not going to be able to, you know, they give me all this pushback. When I knew the math behind like one, they're newer, they're not ordering 100,000 units of something at a time, right. So they are not going to get the cost effectiveness of the bigger players. And so it was incredibly important that they actually positioned and branded their products differently so, so that they could price higher than, you know, the competitors that they had in whatever vertical that they were in. But I remember I was talking to one of my clients at the time and she was like, well I just, that's too expensive. She's like, I want to be more affordable and all this. Jazz. But being affordable meant that she was actually break even or at a loss in her business. And so I was like, you know, it's. And you'll learn as we go through the pricing matrix that I'm going to take you through the first part of the pricing matrix is that the pricing has to be sustainable.

[Danny]

Right?

[Heather Turveen]

And believe it or not, that if you are not super intentional and strategic with your pricing, you could actually have a business that never becomes profitable. Right? And so I, what I told her was if you can't sell this for 5-10x the landed cost, then you don't have a business. And I remember she kind of gave me that jaw opened like I was like, it's your job to actually make sure the positioning and the quality of the product and the branding of the product is good enough to be able to price it premiumly in order to actually build a profitable business. And what's funny is that the concern over it being too expensive, I'm like, it doesn't matter if you can't sell it for that price, then you shouldn't sell it because it needs to be that you can Build like there's three different filters that the pricing matrix has. And this is why, you know, a lot of other consultants will tell you to do competitive analysis in your area for like what people are charging and what have you. And it's not that I don't think you should do competitive analysis, it's just that I've never, I've worked with like probably over a thousand Med Spot aesthetic practice owners at this point. I've never had a client tell me that they haven't, that they don't know what's being charged in their local area for what it is that they do. You've already done that. You already have a sense of that doubling down on what everybody else is doing in your local market. Like over engineering your strategy based on that, I just don't think is very effective. So I don't really spend much time looking at the competitive analysis because there will always be a new place that will open up and charge $9 a unit for tax and you'll have really cheap facials and really cheap prices on their microneedling rf. It's a race to the bottom if you are making that a big part of your pricing strategy. So I don't even really pay attention to it. With that being said, I've never had a client who didn't have like a basic knowledge of what other folks in their immediate area were charging. So let's dive into the pricing matrix and then we're going to talk about some of the key beliefs that I recommend that you should make. It sounds like a broken record when I say this, but you really have to start everything with who is your Med Spot or practice built for? Who is that premium client or patient that you want to, you know, build your entire experience around that you know, that you can deliver really incredible results for. Because if we double down about thinking about that person, the, the rest of the process is so much easier. So that is actually what who you want to have in mind as you use these decision filters as well too, because it helps. So. But the first part of the pricing matrix, the first filter number one, is sustainability. And this actually supersedes the other two filters that I'm going to give you to use as a framework for pricing when you're thinking about pricing. So sustainability was like the example that I was using with the physical product folks that I was working with. I was like the other two things don't matter. Like if you don't have pricing that is sustainable, this happened. I mean it happens more times than I can Count on both of my hands for sure. Where as an example, you maybe had somebody who told you you should have a membership, right? And so you launch a membership and you decide to offer discounts across the board on your membership and you don't actually take the pricing matrix into mind as you are using that to consider the pricing with your membership. Can't tell you how many times I've had clients who have memberships that they really should have my recommendation before you launch a membership. If you already have a membership, then, you know, keep this in mind. But if you haven't launched a membership yet, a word of warning, you likely need to actually increase your prices across the board before you launch a membership that incorporates any sort of incentivized loyalty pricing baked into the membership.

[Brianne]

Okay.

[Heather Turveen]

Because I've had so many clients who, who've gotten so hot to trot on having a membership and they have hundreds and hundreds of people in a membership and they are losing money or breaking even on those patients or clients because of this pricing problem.

[Brianne]

Okay?

[Heather Turveen]

And so I recommend price anchoring your retail individual price on each thing that you have before you launch a membership. Before launch, you create your signature menu as well too. And so asking yourself the question, is our pricing sustainable based on our cost of service?

[Danny]

Right?

[Heather Turveen]

Like actually knowing what the cost of services so that we can make sure that we are building out a pricing strategy that is going to keep you sustainable. So that's, you know, filter number one, sustainability. Number two is demand, okay, demand. And number three is positioning.

[Brianne]

Okay?

[Heather Turveen]

So demand happens as the busier you get, the more your demand increases, the more we can increase your pricing. And so I, you know, when I'm working with clients and they're starting to them and their providers are really starting to get booked out, that is the demand showing up. Like your supply has gotten less, you are booked out farther. It's time to do a pricing increase.

[Brianne]

Okay?

[Heather Turveen]

And this certainly happens for my clients who were helping strategically eventually get out of the room as much as get out of delivery, if you will. They're an NP or a PA or an esthetician that is spending a lot of time still client or patient facing in a room and they need more time to actually lead the business. And so what we can do is when they're booked out, we can actually have increase the pricing for them, crease what they're charging, if you will. Sometimes that makes sense as well too.

[Brianne]

Okay?

[Heather Turveen]

But as demand increases, you should increase your pricing. You should not be booked out for four, four months, six Months, if you will, and not increase your prices.

[Brianne]

Okay.

[Heather Turveen]

As demand increases, you will want to increase your pricing.

[Brianne]

Okay?

[Heather Turveen]

Filter number three is positioning. All right, this is like a huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge. Part of why we are so bullish on having a signature menu over here around creating irresistible offers. What does that do? It automatically positions your offering differently from everybody else. If you have a generic menu, that means essentially you have a commodity menu problem, right? And if everything's commoditized, then you are competing on price.

[Danny]

Right?

[Heather Turveen]

But if we position your offers differently, then we can actually have a lot more flexibility in being a premium priced place because it means your offers are actually different than everybody else. And they're positioned and put together in a way that is also an incredible integrity because you're positioning them so that they're not only they're different, but they're actually designed to be a lot more productive problem solving and benefit focused and results driven as well too. And what's great about this is that the more results you get, results create demand, right? Results create revenue. I'm always saying this with my clients. Results create revenue, results create demand. The more we make you like a factory for creating incredible outcomes, the more we can increase the demand, the more we can actually increase your prices. The, the more we can actually increase your profits as well too. So that is the pricing matrix. So let's talk about some of the belief shifts that you personally will need to make or that your providers, you'll need to coach your providers to make when you have pricing belief limitations as the leader. Let's just start with you for first. That matriculates out to everybody on your team.

[Brianne]

Okay?

[Heather Turveen]

I know this because I in msa, we coach your team members too. So we coach leaders, we coach the CEOs and then we also coach the team members as well too. And so I can tell when a leader has a pricing, if you will, belief problem. And then of course they have a team of providers that, that have that same, the same problem as well too. So it does start with the leader first. But then I do have, you know, where I've coached CEOs and leaders that don't have that pricing belief problem, but then some of their team members still have it. So belief shift number one is that pricing higher doesn't push people away, it pulls in more serious, committed patients and clients.

[Brianne]

Okay?

[Heather Turveen]

And so it's going to repel the people away who aren't as serious, who aren't as committed, or who are just hell bent on finding the cheapest place in town.

[Brianne]

Okay?

[Heather Turveen]

There's just some people who are going to be that way. In every market there are people who are willing to invest in experts and leaders who have the solutions that are going to deliver incredible outcomes for them, right? And so when you price yourself too low, you actually don't end up attracting the premium patients. And like, if you are priced too low, I consider myself a premium patient or client. If you are priced too low, like, I wouldn't even look at you because I'm like figuring like if you're priced low there must be a reason, right? Where if you're priced more premiumly, I'm like, ah, you, you know, like, and this is subconscious, right? Like, I'm like, this is just us as humans as we look at pricing for things. There's a lot of social science research that actually backs this up, that there's a lot of psychology around pricing as well too. Demand can be created.

[Brianne]

Okay?

[Heather Turveen]

So belief shift number two, your clients money stories are not your responsibility.

[Brianne]

Okay?

[Heather Turveen]

Now what's funny is that oftentimes we project our own beliefs on the customer.

[Brianne]

Okay?

[Heather Turveen]

And so if we believe, you know, and this can happen when, let's say we're helping a practice or clinic launch a new, their new signature package menu and now their team members who've never really sold like, you know, beyond premium solutions, maybe they've sometimes sold a series of things but not really comprehensive packages that are more premium. Maybe they kind of did customize treatment plans or did customize treatment plans, but then would help their client pick and choose. Like, where do you want to start first?

[Danny]

Right.

[Heather Turveen]

They will already be thinking, well, this is really expensive. All of our customers are going to think this is expensive and it's because they're projecting their price sensitivity on the customer. I mean, time and time again this pops up where I will be coaching a team member and I'm coaching them on something that hasn't even happened yet. Like they're projecting, like they're asking me for help on like, well, what do I do? When you know, our customers or our patients or our clients are going to think this is really expensive and it hasn't even happened yet.

[Brianne]

Okay?

[Heather Turveen]

If you've built your business on discounts, like that is your primary promotional strategy to get customers in the door, then you do have probably a patient or customer base that is filled with discount shopping folks. And so in the beginning it's going to feel like maybe you do actually have more price sensitive people because you've built the Strategy around your marketing was that way, right? But there is the story you have about it, right? And so you have to be careful and you're. And you have to look at your providers and be sure your providers are not projecting their own price sensitivity on to the client or the patient in front of them. Belief shift number three is this. There is a market for every price point. The real question is, are you speaking to the right market?

[Danny]

Right?

[Heather Turveen]

Every market, meaning if you are based in the US if you are based in Canada, if you're based in a not developing country, that there is a market where you are within your local area that is looking for premium solutions for what it is that you do. It's just whether or not you have built your marketing, your offers, your sales and your marketing system with those folks in mind. Okay, there's two things you guys like to tell two things you guys like to tell me when it comes to your market and the problems with your market. It's either one, you, you're in an XYZ area. You know, I'm in a rural area in the Midwest and people are really conservative here and they don't like to spend like conservative with their money. They don't like to spend money on things. That is a total story. Okay, like yes, there's probably some of those people there and there's a whole market of people where you are in your rural, you know, conservative shopping area that will totally pay for premium solutions.

[Danny]

Right.

[Heather Turveen]

Then the other type of market woe I get is for folks who are like in areas like Scottsdale and other areas where it's like, it's so competitive here we have to compete on price. And those are both belief shifts you want to make though neither of those things are true. And you want to be intentional with the market that you are targeting and understanding the, that you might have some folks now in your customer base that aren't actually the premium clients and patients that you actually have built your boutique results driven place around.

[Danny]

Right?

[Heather Turveen]

And so it's understanding that there is a market for every price point and who have you, what market are you going for in your local area as well too? And so, you know, final thoughts on this. I know that when I talk about creating a signature offering and creating a signature menu and pricing and all of these things, like when it comes to being able to use the pricing matrix, right. To help you actually use that as a filter for having a very strong pricing strategy. A signature menu is one of the ways that it does a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to having the backend things that you need in order to have a premium positioning so that you can be more premiumly priced as well too. So it's why I'm so bullish on it, because it helps you actually differentiate your offers, it helps you position offers differently and it helps you to create offers that are going to create better results as well too. And so that we can have really great pricing so that you can have pricing that makes it so that you're very sustainable, so you're profitable so that you can pay yourselves really well. You can pay your team really well too. And it is totally possible for you. So what, what should you do from here? I would really roll up your sleeves after this episode and think to yourself right now, like, you know, step one is really understanding what is sustainable pricing for you. Have you inadvertently unintentionally creating a pricing strategy? Unintentionally, you know, not strategically. Really? That isn't sustainable, right? And then where can you, from a positioning and demand perspective, create an intentional roadmap for having really premium pricing so that you ultimately can be more profitable in 2025 and beyond? That is what I have for you this week, my friend. Good luck with your pricing and I will see you next week.

[MedSpa CEO Host]

Hey, if you're enjoying this podcast and you're a boutique resource results driven Med Spot owner who is looking to drive more sales profitably each month without hustling yourself into the ground to do so, then you should consider applying to join us inside of the Med Spa Advantage. It's the only program designed to help you grow your revenue and profits while gaining back more time so that you don't feel scattered and drained while running and growing your business each month. To learn more about whether or not you're a fit for joining us, you can head over to heatherturveen.com apply to apply to get on a call with us to learn more. That's heatherturveen.com apply to learn more.