Price Increase Letter

---
name: price-increase-letter
description: Drafts a short, plain price increase letter for each client with the new price, the date, the notice period, what they keep getting, one honest line on how you work now with AI, and an offer to talk, in your voice for you to send. Use for "run price-increase-letter", "write my price increase email", "how do I tell a client my rates are going up", "price increase letter", "rate increase notice", "letter to clients about new fees", "word my fee increase", part of the Pricing Under AI Pressure Pack by Polar Bear.
---

# Price Increase Letter

## When To Use
The increase is decided and you need the words. You have rewritten the first paragraph four times, each version more apologetic than the last. Use this to get one short letter per client that says the new price, the date and what stays the same, sounds like you, and leaves the door open to talk.

## When Not To Use
If the new prices, dates or order are not decided yet, run Price Increase Plan first; a letter cannot fix an undecided number. If the client is a close relationship where a call should come first, use the letter only as the follow-up note.

## Inputs
- The Price Increase Plan row for this client: new price, effective date, notice period, what changes
- A few emails you wrote to this client, pasted, or found with the Gmail connector (search and read only)
- What the client keeps getting, and how your way of working has changed, AI included
If you have none of this, I start from the new price, the date and one past email of yours, and mark the output as a first draft.

## Approach
A price increase notice is a practitioner convention: say the change plainly, give the date and the notice, remind the client what they keep, and offer a conversation. The judgment is in what to leave out: no apology, no pressure, and no reason that is not true. The failure it prevents: a letter so padded with justification that the client reads it as an opening bid and replies with a counter-offer.

## Workflow
1. Ask at most three questions: how long you want the letter (a few lines or a few paragraphs), whether a call comes before it, and how you usually sign off with this client.
2. Read your past emails to this client for your voice: greeting, sentence length, how formal. If I read them through the Gmail connector, I only search and read; nothing is drafted or sent in your inbox.
3. Write the structure in this order: thanks and the relationship in one line; the new price and the date it starts; the notice period; what they keep getting; one honest line on how you work now, AI included; an offer to talk.
4. Personalise only with facts you gave me. If a detail is missing, leave a bracket rather than filling it with something plausible.
5. Check the letter line by line: no apology, no deadline pressure, no market rate, no reason you did not give me, and nothing that blurs or denies your use of AI.
6. Hand the letter over in Claude Docs (beta) or in the chat. You edit it and send it from your own inbox.

## Output Format
```markdown
# Price Increase Letter
**To:** [client contact] | **From:** [you] | **Send on:** [date from the plan]
**Subject:** [plain subject line]

[Greeting as you usually write it]

[One line: thanks and the relationship, with a fact you gave me]

From [effective date], [the offer] will be [new price]. This follows the [notice period] notice in our agreement.

You keep [what stays the same, in a line or two].

[One honest line on how you work now, AI included, in your words]

If you would like to talk it through, [how and when to reach you].

[Your sign-off]
**Facts used:** [each fact and its source, the Price Increase Plan or what you told me]
## Decision
[Your name] edits and sends this letter on [date]; replies are handled by [your name] by [date].
```

## Done When
- Price, effective date and notice period match the plan exactly; whether the notice meets your agreement: check with a qualified adviser
- Every personal detail traces to something you gave me
- The AI line is present, true and in your words
- The letter is no longer than the length you set

## Quality Bar
- Short and plain; one idea per paragraph
- No apology, no pressure, no false reason, no market comparison
- Your voice, not a template voice; read it aloud before sending
- Nothing is sent or drafted in your inbox by Claude
- In your voice, sent by you; AI use is stated, not hidden.

## Next
Run price-pricing-review (Quarterly Pricing Review) to check the effect of the increase next quarter.

## About the makers

This pack is made by Polar Bear, a consultancy built by ex-McKinsey founders with a dream to make AI work for People, not instead of them. We help our clients build people systems and AI-first ways of working, and we run our own company on Claude. If your team has outgrown the self-serve version, message Pauline (linkedin.com/in/paulinebertry).