Value Pricing

Charging by the hour caps your revenue at your hours. You're at $150/hr, 30 billable hours a week—that's $18k/month. To hit $25k you'd need 167 hours in a month or a rate jump that might scare clients off. Value pricing ties your fee to the outcome you create instead of the clock: you can charge more when you deliver more impact, and scale your income without scaling your time. It also aligns you with the client: you're paid for results, not activity.

Same 20 hours, two ways to sell them. A strategy consultant has 20 hours for a project. She could say "20 hours of strategy at $750/h"—that's $15k, and the client will try to trim hours. Or she could say "Launch-ready positioning and go-to-market plan—$18k." They get a plan they can execute; she gets a number that isn't tied to how many hours she actually spends. Clients don't buy hours; they buy a result. Name the result.

How to shift

1. What does the client get? Name the deliverable, not the input. Before: "I'll do 10 hours of strategy work." After: "You get a one-page positioning doc and a 90-day launch plan your team can execute." Or: "A diagnostic report and 90-day roadmap" instead of "a day of analysis." The outcome is something they can hold, use, or hand to their team. The input (hours, days) is invisible to them—and when it's visible, it becomes the thing they negotiate.

2. Anchor to their upside. Do the math on their side. If your work saves them $50k or earns them $200k, a fee that's a fraction of that is easy to justify. What's the cost of not fixing this? What's the revenue or savings if they do? Your fee should sit inside that range so the ROI is obvious.

3. Package it. Turn the outcome into a clear productized service or retainer. "Retainer: 2 strategy sessions per month + async Slack, $3,500/month" beats "We'll figure out the scope as we go." Packaging removes scope creep and re-sell fatigue. The client knows what they get; you know what you deliver; the price is fixed until you change the package.

Two mistakes

Underpricing out of fear. You've done the outcome-based math and the number feels high—because you're still thinking in hours. A designer quoted $8k for a rebrand; the client pushed back; she dropped to $5k. She then spent 30 hours and resented it. The client would have paid $8k for the outcome; she anchored to hours and left money on the table. Test with one client. Charge the outcome-based price and compare their reaction and close rate to your previous quotes. Most domain experts undercharge; the ones who raise prices often find that the right clients say yes and the wrong ones filter out. If you never test the higher number, you never learn.

Mixing value and time. "$15k for the positioning project, plus $200/h for any extra calls" undermines the message. The client books eight "extra" calls; you're back to selling time and feeling nickel-and-dimed. Either the outcome is fixed (and so is the price) or you're back to hourly. If you need a second outcome—e.g. "Additional workshop: $4k" or "Ongoing advisory: $2,500/month"—name it and price it. Clean boundaries: fixed outcome, fixed price; new outcome, new price.

When to revisit price

Value-based prices aren't set forever. You've run the positioning sprint six times. It takes you 12 hours and clients get a clear result. Raise the price for the next client: $14k, not $12k. Grandfather existing clients if you want; new clients pay the new number. Price increase strategy is just: decide the number, announce the change, and stick to it.

Where to go next