I think I’ve finally got my pricing right after 5 months trying and failing.

hey y’all!

I’ll jump right in - pricing my services has always been a sticking point for me for 3 big reasons:

1. I offer a lot of different services and didn’t see how I could cut them down
2. My services have a lot of variables that make pricing difficult
3. I’m building a SaaS I wanted to integrate into my service pricing and wasn’t sure how

Here are the details:

I offer a lot of services

My favorite thing to do is branding + websites, which is a 1x project cost.

But marketing management (which starts with a minimum of 2 weeks marketing strategy) is where I make my recurring revenue.

I wasn’t sure how to break this out in a way that was clear and took into account the labor, time, and project requirement variables. Marketing an idea to get the first 100 customers is a very different ballgame than a rebrand for a 7KMRR company in growth stage and pricing + scope reflects that.

To complicate matters, I am in the process of building Tangram, a marketing automation tool, which I plan on using to manage client projects as well as sell on a subscription basis to clients who would prefer to manage their own marketing.

Plus, I also offer hourly consulting as a one-off or as a long-term fractional CMO.

I know, it’s a lot. 😂 😅

Most people who tell me to offer few services, but I know that each flows into the other well and to cut out one would do me a disservice in my pipeline and in my ability to get clients their ROI. I also already have the staff in place to deliver and execute on each of these services, so I knew the issue was in my service packaging, not in the products/services themselves.

Thinking through my pricing strategy

I’ve spent hours (okay days) trying to wrangle the pricing into a format that would make sense for my business (milestone pricing, monthly revenue, clear scopes) and for my clients (quick ROI, understandable pricing, quick turnaround times).

But after:

• talking with Michael Yagudaev @yagudaev who has worked with startups looking to help with dev consulting and product building with a similar target audience,
• looking at how SaaS marketing products were priced → my target audience is more than likely looking at marketing tools to fix their larger strategy problems
• Looking at how other consultants and services who catered to early stage founders were priced
• And losing a couple of strong leads due to them feeling the initial investment was too high for their assumed quick ROI bump
• And thinking about my overall business goals in the short and long term

I settled onto this pricing (and this pricing page layout, shoutout Relume!):

Monthly option

Project option

Why this pricing works

Why it’s great for the client

Questions answered up front (de-risked) - I used to have a standard scope call, and indiehacker chat, and hourly consulting all broken out. Now a lead can schedule a free call with me and get their questions answered before having to commit. It gives them a lot more confidence that I know what I’m talking about and I can help them in their specific situation.

Not to mention making a great hook for cold outreach.

Spread out the cost - large lump sums are hard to budget for, and the traditional 50/50 split on payments would be hard to swallow too. Subscriptions feel natural, and it’s much easier to budget and pay for.

But if they have the cash on hand, they’ll get a discount.

Quick Obvious ROI - within the first month they’d have

• their branding done (which is when they have the first “OMG this is exactly what I wanted my brand to look and feel like!!!” moment) which cements that they made the right decision for us to work together

AND

• Seen the first drafts of their new landing page (which is the second “OMG!” moment).

And all of this is after 1 (possibly 2+) meetings with me where they had their nagging marketing questions answered and I give them suggestions for growth and marketing strategy on a large scale.

Why it works for me

Puts me in a sales sweet spot - I am ✨ fantastic✨  at helping people with marketing strategy on the fly. I am not very good at sales calls no matter how prepared I am. Being able to work with my strengths makes the process smoother all the way around and decreases my stress.

Makes cash flow and PM easier - I know how much is coming in each month spread out over 3+ months. Much easier to manage workload for my staff and plan for my company’s future than a few bulk payments here and there.

Gives us the chance to test each other out and get comfy - there’s a lot that goes into marketing a startup - we’re dream building as much as business building! - and a 3-month commitment gives us time to get communication down and be comfortable working together before we consider a month-to-month marketing management option.

Plus with milestones there’s an easy out if it’s just not a good fit with both of us leaving with something (instead of a win-lose situation where one of us loses money or doesn’t get the deliverable).

It’s a win-win for everyone! 🤩 🤝

I’m curious, how and why did you decide pricing for your product/service?