I love listening to a client’s rationale relative to how they decided to price their product or service. You can tell a lot about what a person thinks of what they’re selling when they provide you with their fee structure.
More often than not, the price the client should be charging is much lower than the Stated Impact of their product or service. Upon hearing the bad news, the client’s response to that point is often, well, REACTIVE.
The arrow shot back at me goes something like, “If I think my service is worth $1,000 a visit, I should charge $1,000? Is that what you’re telling me? That’s RIDICULOUS!!!!”
No, that’s not what I’m saying.
First and foremost, when considering what you charge for a product or service, you have to ask yourself the following: “Is my product exclusive or easily accessible?” Are you selling a $300.00 product or service, a $19.95 product or service, or something along the spectrum between those two extremes?
Once you’ve decide where your product or service falls in terms of accessibility, you can then determine where you want to position it along the range of what would be considered “reachable” (within the boundaries of your target market of course). In other words, if I am marketing what I believe to be an easily accessible product or service, do I want to be closer to the $19.95 range or closer to the $59.95 range – once again, given that my target market can afford a product or service within that realm?
STATED vs. INTANGIBLE
Next, after determining the level of accessibility, one SHOULD be considering the Stated Impact that the product or service will have on the lives of customers, clients or patients. Obviously, you cannot measure the entirety of impact that you believe ANYTHING will have on any one individual. That’s just not possible. After all, impact is subjective, hence its intangibility. What you CAN do is look at the statement you are making about the product or service, and then – with that in hand, determine your fees.
EXAMPLE:
Let’s say I delivered a four hour program titled HIGH IMPACT MARKETING. The Stated Impact would be calculated by looking at (and BEING RESPECTFUL OF) the assets invested in the program, including my education, experience, and knowledge. I would also consider the actual time invested in preparing for and delivering the seminar, and – at the very least, the ability of the information to transform an attendees current circumstances.
The Intangible Impact is anything subjectively perceived to be “above and beyond” the Stated Impact. In other words, let’s say that someone attends that presentation and then goes out and starts a company on the scale of Amazon.com. The Intangible Impact would be pretty BIG (and I would expect the delivery of a NEW Aston Martin DB9 Carbon directly to my driveway – wrapped in a nice black bow).
On the other hand, it could very well occur that some attendees leave feeling like I delivered nothing more than what I stated OR even feeling that I under-delivered (sniffle, sniffle).
Sh*t happens. That’s life.
THE POINT:
DO NOT compete with common pricing. That, on its own, sends a message. It says, “I and/or my product/service am nothing special and worth no more than anyone or anything else of equal price!” A product or a service can have varying levels of impact. At the very least, I strongly recommend that you respect your product or service to the degree that you charge for what you “stated” it should deliver.
Have a GREAT Day!
…Dr. Marc (the DARK LORD) & The Mind Virus Team