August 4, 2020
Can I value price X?
Do you think value pricing sounds great in theory but doesn’t apply to your particular type of business?
This is a reaction I get all the time from people. It usually goes something like this:
“Value pricing sounds great BUT I do X so unfortunately it won’t work for me.”
Where X equals things like:
- R&D
- Physical therapy
- Marriage counseling
- Wedding photography
- Personal training
- Personal branding
- Leadership coaching
- Product development
- Landscape architecture
- Film direction
- Security camera installation
- Fashion design
- Fine arts
- Ghost writing
All of these things can be value priced, because anything can be value priced.
The question is:
Is it worth it to do so?
Value pricing is a pain in the 455. It requires emotional investment from you and emotional investment from your potential buyer.
If the potential value of the service for both parties does not exceed the emotional investment, then it doesn’t make sense to try to value price it.
In a situation like where the potential value of your service doesn’t exceed the emotional investment, you’ve got at least two options:
- Dramatically increase the value to justify the emotional investment
- Create a productized service that you offer at a published price
Either can work, and they are not mutually exclusive.
The important thing to note is that neither of them involves trading time for money.
Yours,
—J