How to Price Something you Poured your Heart and Soul Into

How do you price something that you poured your heart and soul into?

In my experience, it can be really hard to find that pricing sweet spot that makes both, you AND your customer feel great.

Trust us, we know from experience. Pricing has been an ongoing conversation we’ve been exploring for years. 

In this video and article, we’re going to:

  • Lay out the difference between true value vs false value.
  • Share the questions we ask ourselves when figuring out our prices.
  • Make the pricing game feel a lot better in your body, mind and heart

Enjoy this video lesson, taken from The Great eCourse Adventure.

Download and Enjoy the Audio Version:

“True Value vs False Value”

We believe there are two types of value:
1. False Value
2. True Value

Here are the three kinds of false values…

Inflated Value:

This is when someone puffs up their ego and says the value is worth more than what it actually is. We see this kind of hype in the eLearning industry far too often.

Often times the seller doesn’t even believe what they’re charging is worth the price they’ve put on it, but they get attached to making a certain amount of money or they’ve bought into some salesy story that the online marketing man taught them about packaging and pricing.

Deflated Value:

This is when you don’t charge enough for what you’re offering. Because you undercharge, people don’t see your work as valuable and instead, they see it as a “Good Deal.” Creating a ‘good deal’ unfortunately attracts the type of customer who is just searching for a deal. These kinds of people can become draining.

Charging less than you’re “thing” is worth can also turn people away. They think, if it’s cheap, it’s not going to be good.

 

Comparative Value:

This is when you charge what everyone else is charging who does similar work as you because that’s what you feel you have to charge or what you think your customer will pay.

This is when knowing your WHO (ideal customer) is important. Understanding their income, values and desires. Also knowing thyself is crucial. Understanding how your course is different, better or more valuable.

Just because there is an “industry standard” does not mean you have to fall in line.

So what is True Value?

This is the sweet spot you’re searching for.

True value is when the value of what you believe your creation is worth aligns with what your customer believes it’s worth and everyone walks away happy (and whistling dixie).

Basically, when True Value is present, the exchange feels more like gratitude on both ends and less like a ‘transaction.’ More importantly, this exchange does not require any force or pressure.

True value can only happen when there is alignment on all levels:
1. Doing what you want to do,
2. Offering it for the price you know its worth,
3. To the people you made it for,
4. Who also know the value themselves.

Questions we ask before pricing a digital offering:

Answer each of the questions below. Don’t think about the answers. Just go with your gut response. 

  1. How much do I want to be paid for this?
  2. What amount would I be grateful to receive?
  3. What is the lowest price I would be willing to accept?
  4. What would I be willing to pay if I was my customer?
  5. What are my costs associated with the product?
  6. What is the best price for my customer?

Based on these numbers, the price that feels good is $__________.

With the price you decided on above, how many students would you need to have enrolled(per month, quarter, year) in order to replace your current “active income” with eCourse sales? Does that align with your goals? 
 
Remember: If the pricing model you choose doesn’t work out, you can always change it later. As you’ll read (below), we changed our prices a whole bunch of times before finding our sweet spot.

If you’re looking for more on this topic, here’s an article we wrote when we dropped our prices from $1,000 to a $35/month membership with a 14-day free trial.  

Questions? Comments? Start a conversation below!

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