Captain’s log, stardate 20181205

How do you price strategy when the project scope is undefined?

Sent by Jonathan Stark on December 5th, 2018

The following question was asked in a comment on this video:

How do you actually cost a strategy meeting itself if there’s no clarity the size of the project (thus you’re unable to do value based pricing)

I understand where this question is coming from but... you can value price anything that is worth something to someone.

In the case of a strategy session, you would first determine roughly what the client thinks the strategy is worth by asking the client questions like:

“Why not proceed with the project without deciding on a strategy?” or
“Why do a strategy session at all?” or
“Why not NOT do a strategy session?” or
“What do you think would happen if we move forward with the project without a clear strategy in place?”

Once you know about how much value the client places on strategy, you can set a price that is a fraction of the value.

If you can execute the strategy session profitably at that price, then you’ve got a fit. If not, a strategy engagement doesn’t make sense.

Yours,

—J