How to Raise Prices Without Losing Your Best Customers

Raising prices can feel uncomfortable, but it’s often the only way to protect your margins and keep your business sustainable. The challenge isn’t if you should raise your prices, it’s when and how to do it without damaging trust or losing your best customers.

In this episode, we share the signals to look for and the strategies to use when it’s time to raise prices. From inflation and rising costs to overwhelming demand and value-add packaging, we show you how to approach price increases with confidence—and without fear.

We cover:

• The differences between B2B and B2C price increases
• Why inflation and shrinking margins should guide your decisions
• How to repackage or bundle services to justify a higher price point
• When strong demand signals it’s time for a significant increase
• Why losing some customers can actually boost your profits
• How to model scenarios so you know exactly where your break-even point is
• Why moving up-market often brings easier, better-fit clients

Raising prices is about staying profitable, delivering value, and building a business that lasts.

Not sure if now is the right time to raise your prices or how to do it strategically? Apply to work with us through Thrive360 Business Solutions. We’ll help you evaluate your numbers, design the right packaging, and grow with clarity.

“If demand is overwhelming, it’s a sign your price is too low.” – Anna Angelova

Transcript for “How to Raise Your Prices Without Losing Customers”

The transcript below was automatically generated. Please ignore any errors or inconsistencies in the text.

Anna Angelova   0:08
Hola.
This is more than just task management and it’s Friday and I have to do my Spanish lesson after I finish recording this, so that’s why I switched to Spanish.

Jores Minasvand   0:09
It would.

Anna Angelova   0:23
My name is Anna Angelova, business coaching consultant, and I’m co-host of this daily podcast More Than Just Task Management, where we help you build a thriving business. And I have Joris Minasvand here with me, my fellow co-host and business consultant. Happy Friday, Joris.

Jores Minasvand   0:41
Happy Friday and now a great week. We had beautiful, great week and we’ve covered a lot of beautiful, beautiful topics and we’re closing the week today with I think the most important topic ever.

Anna Angelova   0:42
Happy but.

Jores Minasvand   0:57
How do we milk our client? No, I mean I’m I’m joking. How do we raise our our prices without losing our our customers and without damaging our brand? So there is a distinction.
Between whether you’re a AB2B or AB2C for for raising prices. So let’s jump in and you know, talk about this and let everybody get back to their Friday.

Anna Angelova   1:31
Yes, definitely B to CB to be a little bit of different different things there. And you mentioned this on Sunday when we were sharing the topics that would be to be your clients usually understand that you need to keep up with inflation, rising costs so that it’s already especially when.
You have contracts that go year after year, it’s already implemented in there like the increase in the price is already in in in there in the contract. So it’s a bit of a different compared to to consumer like B to C like where where you’re working directly with consumers.
And then of course there are some businesses that are regulated. So ultimately that you have a ceiling, you can go above certain things. So there are some nuances on one of the things like when it comes to increasing your prices.
Like, of course, what’s going on in the economy matters. And when everything goes up, like all the raw materials go up, the utilities you’re paying for go up, like all these kind of things go up, your margins shrink.
So unless you increase your prices, ultimately your business can go under. So what’s happening in the economy matters. And as a business owner, of course you pay attention to these with all the financial reports, you have monthly financial reports, which I think we talked about this.
Last week, last Thursday, what monthly financial reports you should have. One of the things I wanted to mention is thinking about when to raise your prices and also doing it in a way that you don’t lose your customers.
So of course one thing is with the economy like when when things are rising of course like you do this and usually what happens is that it’s gradual like it’s not like you don’t double your prices suddenly like it’s it’s a gradual increase and a lot of people kind of get used to like inflation.
Is normal part. So yes, there might be people who and customers who’d complain about it, but majority of people will probably be OK because like it’s part of the inflation, the other time where you can raise your prices.
And actually lose customers in the process, which is OK, is ultimately when you think about supply and demand, when you have too much demand, like let’s say like if you’re offering a service like you have so much demand that your calendar is booked for the next five months or six months or something.
Like this and your pipeline is full and you have people booking for like next year this time or something like this. It might mean that you can actually raise your prices and again in this in this example.
You can increase your prices, not not just by 2% or 3%. You might be able to increase it by 50% or by even like doubling it because like there’s a lot of demand and ultimately price is a reflection of.
Supply and demand and when you have that much demand for what you’re offering, it might be an indication that your price is too low. So this is where you can look into your prices and bump them up.
And bump them up again. No, not gradually, but take even double them. And one way to do this without angering your customers too much is ultimately by bundling more value into what you offer.
What you have in a way that the perceived value, and this is one rule of thumb in general, that the perceived value, especially when it comes to services of your service, should be at least 10X of the price that you have. So if you are offering something for $1000, the perceived value should be at least $10,000.
Dollars. So this is where.
My thoughts are right now. I think there was another thing that I wanted to mention, but I want to hear what you have to say, Joris, and then then I’ll chime in.

Jores Minasvand   6:03
Very well put. I I agree when it comes to, especially with B to C, especially if you have a consumer product, if the demand is high, if you’re solving a problem that nobody else does in a very unique way.
You can increase it, but again logically and usually they say that you should couple your price increase with this new service offering or new value. We call it a value, but it’s a new service or feature offering. You can always do that.
And and and even in the corporate world, I do that today. I’m locked in for the next until the end of 2026. I cannot raise my prices. OK, I’ll renew the currency with the new prices. But what I do is now we have a new service offering for a new technology.
The customer adopted, well, there’s an extra that one. I have a range of what I can add because it’s a new service offering and that way my revenue will go up so I can increase my revenue but not necessarily my prices.
Hopefully maintaining the same gross margin, I can be profitable. It’s really tough with corporations and large contract commercial contracts, but there are ways around it and they are with.
A lot of corporations, but with B to B, a lot of corporations are already in business. They understand the the the effect of the inflation and tariffs and this and that into the price of things and to a certain degree they agree before increase.
Try the increase that you want. That’s not ridiculous. And then eventually you’ll come up with a something in the middle. You know it’s not negotiation, right? It’s not like negotiating a new contract every year. So it is possible. You have to be careful. You have to do some research so it doesn’t.
Hurt your brand and it doesn’t alienate your customers and there will be some customers who will be resistant, who are not reasonable and those are customers you don’t want in long term. That’s OK.
Let them make their choice, go off to other suppliers, but you cannot. Basically, we’re all in the business to make money, right? You cannot run on on deficit. So if you’re not making the gross margins, then why do it?

Anna Angelova   8:37
Yeah. And that’s why you shouldn’t be actually afraid when to raise your prices. You shouldn’t be afraid that you might lose some customers. And this is where you need to really play with the numbers and see because like when you play with the numbers, like when you do the calculations, if you increase your prices by.
By 50% and you lose 20% of your customers, for example, like the number of customers goes down to 20%, you might actually still be more profitable and have more revenue than before. So play with your numbers and see what’s going on.
And again, it’s all about the value we deliver and it’s all about perceived value as well. And we know this, we know this because ultimately when you think about people lining up for iPhones and all those Apple products functionally.
Other products are better, like they have better functionality, they have better features and technology and things like this. But it’s all about perception, it’s all about the marketing part of it. So the other thing is when should you raise your prices? It also depends on your marketing.
When you nail down your marketing in a way that people see the increased value, you have a winning formula for sure. It’s it’s definitely a game that this is one of the things why why business is so interesting, right?
And a lot of us are afraid of raising prices and and thinking that all people are, you know, they’ll be angry or something like this. But then your customers sometimes or a lot of times actually will surprise you when you raise your prices. They were like high time like for the value you’re delivering.
Even this is inexpensive. Even this is cheap. Others, others charge like twice or three times more than what you do now. So when it comes like again, when to the question of when you should raise your prices.
Based on the economy, what’s going on with the economy and increasing prices around you, based on the demand you have, like what kind of value you’re delivering, the demand you have, the reviews you’re getting from from your people.
Joris, I I also really like what you mentioned that if you are upgrading in some way, like adding a new offer or or repackaging your offer in a way that delivers more value.
This is also a chance for you to increase prices, and The thing is that for you to increase prices, of course you need to have demand at the previous price. If you don’t have enough demand on the previous price, it’s like why? Why increase prices?

Jores Minasvand   11:15
Because he knows the chance. And the thing is that for you to increase prices, of course you need to have demand at the previous price. Don’t have enough demand on the previous price.
And and this goes back to you realizing, did you even set your original price point correctly? I mean that’s a different conversation, but if considering the fact that you have, yeah, if you don’t have demand on your current price, what are your?
Pricing, you need to completely reimagine and redo your market research and product and service offerings, right?

Anna Angelova   12:02
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And again, the other thing that’s part of the title today of the conversation was losing customers. It’s OK to lose some customers as long as the numbers make sense. And The thing is that when you increase prices.
Actually, you’re dealing with people. Usually you deal with people who are less demanding, people who are less of a pain in the *** customers. So this is one of the other things that you can move to more affluent market.
Where it would be even easier to work with these people so.
Don’t do it. Just like don’t increase your prices just because so I want to increase my prices. Like look for these things like economic changes, adding more value, repackaging things, having that demand on the demand on the current price that that’s overwhelming you.
Like don’t wait for it to overwhelm you actually like once you see that your pipeline is actually full or if you have like a product that you’re a physical product that you’re selling where like you’re actually sold out, then maybe you need to increase your prices.
So look for these things and go from there and again run the numbers to see that, OK, if I increase my prices with 50% and my customers drop by 20%, I’m still making more revenue. If my customers drop by 50%, I’m.
Kind of even. And then if my customers drop more than 50% then I’m in deep sheet. So I could run the numbers to see what they look like and experiment. Like this is one of the things as well that as business owners we are testers, we experiment, we run all these tests to see what happens and.
See how it goes. And again, a lot of times people surprise you and they react in a way that is like, oh wow, you should have doubled your prices, not increase them only by 50%. So what I would encourage you for today, I know it’s the end of the week. I know the weekend is coming.
So very small action item for today is just think about it like is any of these factors playing a role like are your margins shrinking, margins shrinking because of increased costs?
Is there too much demand for your current price or is there anything more valuable that you can add, like something that that you can package it, that you can create more, even more perceived value? Think about these three things.
And if there is anything that’s playing a role right now and a factor, it’s a factor right now, then think about increasing your prices and not just think like go experiment and go increase your prices. If none of this applies at the moment, then this is OK, it’s not the.
Time right now. So again, just for today, small action item. Evaluate these three factors and see if any of these applies to you.

Jores Minasvand   15:16
Very nice session, Anna. Thank you for your insights. Really enjoyed it and happy Friday to everyone. Enjoy the rest of your Friday and we will see you on Saturday.

Anna Angelova   15:29
Yes, we’ll see you tomorrow when we’re wrapping up the week by reviewing what we talked about Monday to Friday. So if you missed any of the episodes, tomorrow is for you so you can see whether there was anything interesting. Thanks, Joris. Have a wonderful Friday and yeah, we’ll be back tomorrow with another.
Another episode of More Than Just Task Management, your favorite daily podcast where we help you build a thriving business. Bye.
Mind.