June 24, 2025
Success story from reader Upton Ethelbah
Long time list member Upton Ethelbah wrote in to share a value pricing success story (shared with permission):
Dear Jonathan,
I wanted to share a quick success story about the very first time we tried value-based pricing, and it couldn’t have been a more textbook example.
A charter school approached us to help with a social media campaign to boost student enrollment. They needed to meet a specific enrollment target by a looming deadline in order to secure $120,000 in state funding.
It was the clearest “value-price me” scenario I’d ever encountered.
I proposed a fee of $12,000—exactly 10% of the value we’d help generate.
They agreed before I even finished my sentence. So quickly, in fact, that I immediately wondered if I’d left money on the table. But still, $12,000 was more than we’d ever charged for similar work, and more than we’d ever received in a single check.
Best of all, the campaign worked. They hit their goal, secured the funding, and were thrilled with the outcome.
I was proud to finally put your teachings into practice and see them validated so clearly. Hopefully this will be a useful and encouraging data point for others in your audience who are on the fence about making the switch.
Thanks again for your generous guidance, clear thinking, and all you do to champion value-based pricing for creative professionals like me.
Sincerely,
Upton Ethelbah III
Congrats to Upton!
Yes, this is a textbook case for value pricing:
- A clear success metric (i.e., “specific enrollment target”)
- Very high urgency (i.e., “looming deadline”)
- A business outcome with an obvious dollar value (e.g., “$120,000 in state funding”)
re Did We Leave Money On the Table?
Regarding the question about possibly leaving money on the table...
You can minimize this risk by presenting a three-option proposal.
In Upton’s case, Goldilock Pricing would have looked like this:
- Option 1: $12,000
- Option 2: $26,000
- Option 3: $60,000
Since the client jumped at $12k, it’s reasonable to assume that they would have at least considered spending more than twice that for option 2.
Yours,
—J