Pricing
Did you know that I’m the font of all knowledge when it comes to pricing?
No, neither did I! 🤣
I had 2 messages when I was on holiday recently though and they both said something along the lines of … “I’ve been asked to go and speak at xyz event – how much should I charge?”
I should add that neither of these messages was from a current client and neither was speaking at an event that I knew anything about. But both were people in my networking group so they’re very familiar with my regular rants about businesses constantly undercharging.
And they perfectly demonstrated the popular myth of The Perfect Pricing Equation. You know the idea … that there’s a really easy method to calculate what you should be charging for everything, so you’d always know you’d nailed it.
Well guess what – that’s absolute tosh!
There is NO one-size-fit-all calculation that will tell you what you should charge for every service. The truth is that there’s some science, some data, some gut feel and a healthy dose of taking a punt that goes into getting it right.
To give you an example of how many factors can be involved, some of the things I suggested these 2 people would need to factor into their pricing were:
- Location/ travel (and if it’s a London location you’ll automatically need to increase your price or you’ll accidentally fall into the ‘too cheap to be any good’ bracket)
- The amount of prep needed
- How many attendees
- Were attendees paying or was it a free event? (And if it’s paid is the price a token gesture or a meaty figure?)
- Complexity of subject matter
- Experience of the speaker and how specialist their knowledge is
- Possibility of additional business after the event (which doesn’t mean you charge peanuts on the off chance of more business, but you might make your price slightly more appealing if there’s a strong chance of extra work)
So, as you can see, there’s definitely no 2 minute calculation to reach a price. For anything! But there are some solid steps you can follow, and I’ve gone into them in more detail in this week’s tips video. The video has extra pointers beyond the ones above because those just relate to speaker opportunities. For services there are other things to factor in too. So, head on over to the video, see which of my suggestions most highlight a need to increase your own process and then come back and let me know.
I’d love to hear about any changes you make on the back of my advice. Especially if it’s a price increase because that’s one of my favourite topics! 😃
