Captain’s log, stardate 20191002

Follow-up question from Adi

Sent by Jonathan Stark on October 3rd, 2019

Fellow reader Adi Yagil wrote back with a follow-up to the question that I answered last time for him (edited slightly for clarity):

Let’s assume that during my sales call, I discover that the client wants a website in order to increase purchases for his eCommerce store. Great - however, I’m still not sure how to build the pricing options differently from one another in a way that would provide value - without going down the road of using a list of deliverables. Based on this example, can you share what you would have built as 3 options in the proposal?

I don’t have enough information to actually build three options for this client because I don’t know what the client would see as a “home run” from the website work.

Is this an Etsy store selling hand knit dog sweaters? Or a Shopify Plus store selling jeweled bracelets for luxury watches? The store owner’s financial expectations have a big effect on how much value they will place on the project.

That said, I think a common pattern that might work for Adi in this case would be:

Option 1: Do it yourself
Option 2: Done with you
Option 3: Done for you

Following is an excerpt from a proposal that I put together recently for someone looking to increase online sales of an app that he had built. I don’t think it’s an exact parallel to Adi’s example, but it does illustrate the DIY/DWY/DFY pattern:

Option 1: Marketing Plan

I will research the target market, review the application, and design a plan to increase awareness of the features and benefits of APPNAME with your ideal buyers.

Features/Deliverables

Spreadsheet of ideal buyers with contact info for each
Interviews with ideal buyers to determine which APPNAME benefits they care about most
Roadmap of prioritized marketing activities and tasks for you to execute
Resources to whom you could outsource some or all of the marketing execution tasks

Benefits

You will know exactly who to target with your message
You will know exactly what to say to attract the attention of your target
You will know what to do and in what order to do it
You will have a head start on where to outsource tasks so you can stay billable

Key success metric: 100% clarity about what to do to move toward your objective.

Option 2: Marketing Plan + Oversight

This option includes everything from option 1, plus I will make myself available to you 24/7 via my private coaching Slack room to offer advice, provide direction, and review marketing materials as the need arises during the execution of the marketing plan from option 1. I will respond to any inquires within 24 hours, but more like 90 minutes during business hours. This will help you move forward with the marketing plan more quickly, more effectively, and with less stress than by going it alone.

Key success metric: 20-50x increases in traffic to the APPNAME page in the app store marketplace.

Option 3: Marketing Plan + Oversight + Execution

This option includes everything from options 1 and 2, plus I will manage the execution of the marketing plan, including sourcing, vetting, hiring, and paying for the required marketing support services (e.g., video, graphic, design, email, ppc, etc). The benefit of this option is that you can stay 100% focused on billable client work. You will have absolute minimal distractions related to marketing APPNAME.

Key success metric: 100 qualified leads interested in purchasing APPNAME.

As you can see, I did list some activities and deliverables in the proposal. That’s normal. These are things I’m sure I’d need to do, so listing them gives the buyer a sense of security and context about what expect in the engagement. But the EMPHASIS of the options is on the benefits and business outcomes. This is the important point. The outcomes (i.e., “key success metrics” above) are what I priced, NOT the amount of work required for me to undertake the activities or create the deliverables.

Yours,

—J