Pricing Strategies for Consultants

The biggest pricing scam in modern consumer brands isn't hidden fees. It's the MRP. Open any quick-commerce app and you'll see products at 30%, 40%, even 50% off. Perennially. If a brand can sustainably sell a product at 50% off every single day, was that ever the real MRP? Many brands have stopped building pricing around value and started building pricing around discounts. Step 1: Inflate the MRP. Step 2: Offer a massive discount. Step 3: Let consumers feel like they found a bargain. The discount is very real. The savings often aren't. This creates a dangerous cycle: • Consumers stop trusting prices. • Brands become addicted to discounting. • Competitors are forced to follow. • And eventually nobody is building pricing power, brand equity, or customer loyalty. They're just buying revenue. At Go Zero I've consciously taken a different approach. I believe a product should be priced based on the value it delivers and the actual increase in cost of production vs existing products in the market, not on the discount you plan to offer later. Our products are zero sugar. That means our sweeteners, cocoa, dairy ingredients, and formulations often cost more than conventional ice creams. The premium we charge broadly reflects that additional cost. For example: 1. Kwality Walls Magnum bar is priced at an MRP of ₹90. A Go Zero Madagascar Chocolate Bar is priced at ₹110, roughly a 22% premium for premium cocoa and a zero-sugar formulation. 2. Naturals Tender Coconut ice cream cup typically retails around ₹95 online. Our Sitaphal and Tender Coconut cup is priced at ₹105. Again, a premium in the range of just 10-11%. That's how I think MRPs should be set. Start with the product. Start with the cost structure. Start with the value being delivered. Then arrive at a fair price. Not the other way around. Of course, we use promotions. Discounts are a powerful tool to encourage trial, acquire first-time customers, and support platform-led campaigns. But discounts should help consumers discover a product. They should not be the product's entire reason for existing. Across Go Zero, our everyday discounting is generally in the 15-20% range. Yes, there are occasions where we participate in deeper promotions, but those are strategic, event-led decisions with platforms, not a permanent pricing strategy. What puzzles me is when brands set an MRP that is 2x what the product is genuinely worth, only to sell it at a perpetual 40-50% discount. If consumers are consistently buying at the discounted price, then perhaps that's the real price. And if that's the real price, why not be honest about it? The strongest brands in the world are not built on discounts. They're built on trust and consumer value proposition. A simple test for every founder: If all discounts disappeared tomorrow, would customers still buy your product? If the answer is no, or very few, the problem isn't pricing. It's the product 🙂

Assuming your firm still follows the practice of billing for time, you can run the calculations that will chart the eventual demise of your revenue model. If you’re like most firms, Generative Artificial Intelligence currently shaves somewhere between 20 and 30 percent off the time it takes to deliver work to your clients. What do you think that figure will be next year, or five years from now? Consider what kind of revenue stream will you have when time-tracking humans are doing only 5 or 10 percent of the work. Even the most hard-core defenders of hourly billing can see this compensation model is wholly unsustainable in the world of the AI-optimized agency. There is simply no way to monetize the value of AI within the framework of hourly billing. The solution to this dilemma requires agency professionals to remove the blinders that have them trapped in the illusion that they are selling time, efforts and activities to their clients. That’s not what clients buy; they buy solutions to their business problems. So the way to capture the value you create for your clients is to stop charging for the cost of your services and start charging for the value of your solutions. Every firm of every size can make this change much easier than they think. Instead of a chart of hourly rates, develop a chart of deliverables — a “pricing guide” that indicates the price (market value) of every deliverable your agency produces, and base your pricing on the work or solution delivered instead of the hours worked. In context of an output/outcome driven compensation model, it should be of no consequence to your clients that AI-powered tools are helping you create and produce your work. Again, they’re buying the outputs, not the inputs. So as AI helps you deliver your work faster and better, both parties benefit. Your clients get better quality work faster and the agency incurs lower costs — a win/win. Even if clients insist on slightly lower pricing (because they assume AI lowers the costs of your human capital), agencies can provide lower prices and still make a healthy margin on their work. In fact, agencies should be able to earn a much higher profit, even if they agree to lower prices, because AI is such a powerful force multiplier. It’s not inevitable that agency revenues will decline, because as AI continues to enable faster work, clients are assigning higher volumes of work to their agency partners. The result can be the best of both worlds: higher revenues from a higher volume of work, and stronger margins because AI is such an efficient virtual knowledge worker.

PRICING IS PERSONAL – ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL Last week, I coached one client to dramatically increase her fees. The result? She was paid several thousand pounds for an hour’s work – a huge leap from the few hundred she’d been pitching for. I also coached another client to create a low-cost offer, opening her services to a wider audience. Two very different paths. Both right for the person walking them. This is why I refuse to shove every client into some cookie-cutter pricing strategy or BS formula. Neither life, nor business, work that way. The most common issues I see with pricing, especially in service-focused businesses like coaching, speaking, and training, include: 1️⃣ Not understanding their value. Mindset blocks, fear, or lack of confidence stop them from charging what they’re worth. 2️⃣ High-ticket obsession. They chase the big bucks, ignoring the cash left on the table from clients who’d happily pay for lower-tier offers. 3️⃣ No value ladder. They’re either all bargain basement or all high-ticket – leaving no room to grow or support different client needs. 🪜 Even when people do build a value ladder, I often see them misjudging the rungs. Offers either fall between the cracks, making them unreachable for some, or feel too cheap, putting others off entirely. Much of this comes down to a good understanding of their audience – and mindset. Too much bravado or a lack of confidence can derail everything. Take the client who raised her fees. She found her level – a price that reflected her experience and matched her clients’ expectations. That first “YES” was all it took to believe in her worth. She can tweak it in future if she chooses, but she’s no longer keeping herself small. Now, the client exploring lower-cost options hasn’t reduced her existing prices. Instead, she’s creating offers that serve the audience who’ve always felt she was out of reach – without adding too much cost or effort on her part. And me? In the past few weeks, I’ve been told my fees are too low twice. Guess what? In the past, some have said my pricing was too high for them. What’s that about trying to please all of the people all of the time? 😄 Some of my audience start on a lower rung, perhaps with a book, a group membership, or an event – climbing my value ladder over time. Others dive straight into higher-ticket options. Whatever option they go for is fine - sometimes we even create something bespoke - because my pricing needs to reflect the people I want to work with right now, the clients I want to serve. When did you last check in with your pricing? Does it reflect the audience you want to work with? And is it right for you and your ideal clients, or has something / someone else influenced your price points? #UnleashYourAwesome, Taz X #leadership #coaching #businessowners

Blanket discounts don't just give away margin. They teach customers nothing's worth full price. Here's what blanket bank holiday discounts do to your brand. You've just told customers that your £50 dress — the one you designed, sourced, priced carefully — is actually worth £40. And your £30 top? Actually £24. Everything in your range? 20% less valuable than the price tag says. Now fast forward two weeks. You're back to full price. Customers see that £50 dress again but they remember it was £40 last weekend. So they wait. 'It'll be on sale again soon.' You haven't just discounted one bank holiday. You've taught them that full price is negotiable. That nothing's really worth what you're asking. That if they wait, everything gets cheaper. This is different from tactical discounting. 'Selected styles reduced' says 'these specific items are being cleared.' Full price stays protected on everything else. But 'Everything 20% off' says 'nothing here is actually worth full price.' And once customers believe that, it's incredibly hard to undo. They'll wait for the next discount. Question your pricing. Hesitate at checkout. Compare to your last sale price, not your competitors' current price. You've devalued your entire range. Not just the slow stock. Everything. Blanket discounts aren't just expensive because of the margin you give away this weekend. They're expensive because of what they teach customers about your brand. 💬 Are you protecting your full-price perception, or teaching customers to wait for discounts?

Accountants often ask whether they should do a Black Friday offer. Most shouldn’t ❌ Discounting core services cuts margin, attracts the wrong clients, and reduces the value of work that takes real expertise to deliver. It can actually undermine the skill set of people in the profession But avoiding Black Friday completely isn’t the only option 💡 You can use it you just need to protect your positioning. Here’s what can work… 1. Sell something separate from your core services that’s a smaller version of something you would usually sell A one-off workshop, a paid planning session, a finance function review, or a standalone diagnostic. This creates revenue without touching your main pricing. 2. Offer something scalable Templates, checklists, dashboards, calculators, guides. This has low delivery cost. And little impact on margins. 3. Add value without discounting This could be a bonus resource, an additional template pack, or something that doesn’t require ongoing work being done by you. Before you decide what to run, ask: - Does this protect my pricing and positioning? - Does this attract the right clients? - Is this separate from my monthly services? If the answer is yes, it’s a good Black Friday offer. If not, don’t do it. Black Friday shouldn’t weaken your brand. Keep your core services strong. Use the Black Friday week strategically. And only offer what aligns with where your firm is going. Are you planning a Black Friday offer?

Most retreats get pricing wrong. For a long time, we followed the classic early bird vs. regular pricing model at Hampton. And every time, the same pattern played out: ✅ A handful of discounted spots sold instantly. ❌ Then, urgency disappeared. ❌ Sign-ups slowed. ❌ I was stuck trying to finalize contracts while managing financial risk because I didn't know my attendee count. So when we launched the Women of Hampton Retreat, I ditched early bird pricing and tried something new: 📍 A $1,000 deposit deadline – Members had 30 days to commit before I locked in the venue. 📍 Exact numbers, minimal risk – I knew exactly how many members were attending and negotiated up on rooms without Hampton taking on extra risk. 📍 Budgets reset = easier final payments – The remaining balance wasn’t due until the begining of 2025 (after holiday spending and in a new budget year.) 🚀 The result? We sold 20 spots in a week. Then increased capacity to 30 rooms, and sold out again in 10 days. The same strategy worked for our Golf Retreat. Why? 👉 It creates urgency without discounting. 👉 It’s fairer, no one pays significantly less than someone else for the same experience. 👉 It aligns with how we build community, transparent, equitable, and designed for maximum value. Curious how others approach pricing for high-end experiences?

Your champion loves you. Their procurement team just forwarded your competitor's pricing. Subject line: "Can you match this?" Attached: A proposal that's 30% cheaper, conveniently stripped of all context about what's included. Procurement doesn't care about your value prop or the 6 months you spent building trust. They will, however, try to get you to negotiate against yourself. And most reps do exactly that. They'll start justifying why they cost more. Offer discounts before anyone asks. Treat it like a fair fight when it's actually a hostage situation. Your competitor is being used as a wedge to extract a better price from you. Procurement knows your champion already wants you. They're just testing how much margin you'll give up. So what do you do? 1. Reframe the comparison as incomplete. Don't defend your price against theirs. Make THEM defend their comparison. "Happy to walk through a detailed comparison. I'm noticing their proposal doesn't include implementation support, data migration, and training that you told me were critical. Should we map out what an apples-to-apples comparison looks like?" Force THEM to acknowledge the gaps & do the work of reconciling what's missing. 2. Quantify the delta, not the total. ENT buyers think in deltas. Don't defend your $500K price against their $350K price. Defend the $150K difference. "The gap here is really about implementation support, data migration, & training. Strip those out and we're within 5%. But removing those would add 6 months to your timeline and increase your internal costs by $200K. Want to run those numbers?" 3. Anchor to the cost of choosing wrong. Procurement optimizes for price. Your champion optimizes for not getting fired. "I know price matters. But if this doesn't work, what's the cost? You're betting your Q3 launch on this. A 30% discount doesn't matter if the vendor can't deliver." 4. Don't just say no to the discount. Give them options that expose the trade-offs. "If we need to get closer to that number, here's what that looks like: - Remove premium support: $50K savings, but your team handles all troubleshooting. - Extend implementation to 6 months: $40K savings, but you miss your Q2 deadline. - Reduce user seats by 30%: $60K savings, but only your core team gets access." Let them see what "cheaper" actually costs. 5. Arm your champion with the ammo they need. "Here's a one-pager comparing both options side-by-side, including the risks. Feel free to share this with procurement and finance. I'm happy to jump on a call if it helps." Make it easy for your champion to be your internal advocate. Remember that your job isn't winning over procurement. It's making sure your champion has everything they need to win the internal fight. If you fold on price just to make procurement happy, you've signaled that your pricing was bullshit to begin with. And once you've done that, you're not the premium choice anymore. You're just expensive.

Never compete on price. (unless you are Costco or Ryanair) When everyone in your market starts discounting, most founders make the same mistake: They join them. I would do the opposite. Because the moment every competitor looks cheaper, the real opportunity is to stop looking comparable. Here is the strategy I would use instead: → First, narrow the problem. Do not sell “marketing,” “software” or “consulting.” Sell a specific outcome for a specific customer. The more precise the problem, the less useful the competitor’s cheaper quote becomes. → Second, quantify the cost of doing nothing. If your solution costs $50,000 but the problem is leaking $300,000 a year, the conversation should not be about your fee. It should be about the $250,000 gap. Founders lose pricing power when they present the price without presenting the economics. → Third, change the offer before changing the price. If a buyer cannot afford the full scope, reduce the scope. Remove custom work. Extend the timeline. Change the service level. But do not quietly sell the same thing for less. That trains the market to wait for a discount. → Fourth, create proof around the outcome. Not more testimonials saying you were “great to work with.” Show: Time saved. Revenue created. Costs removed. Risk reduced. Speed to result. Proof makes price harder to argue with. → Fifth, make switching away from you feel expensive. This does not mean trapping customers. It means building knowledge, workflows, data and relationships that compound over time. The strongest pricing power often comes after the sale, not before it. → And finally, know your walk-away number. Every founder should know: The minimum gross margin worth accepting. The maximum delivery effort per customer. The discount level that makes the deal financially unattractive. Without those numbers, pricing becomes emotional. You start negotiating against yourself. When competitors cut prices, do not ask: “How do we match them?” Ask: “How do we make the comparison irrelevant?” Because price competition is usually a sign that the market cannot see enough difference. The answer is not always to charge less. Sometimes it is to become harder to compare.

Business Case: SAP SD Pricing Enhancement_Add Field to Pricing Catalog Introduction In SAP SD, pricing is essential for determining the right price for sales transactions. However, to improve this process, organizations may need to add custom fields to the condition field catalog—especially if the field isn’t available in the standard catalog. This case outlines the steps required to add such a field and use it for condition record determination. Enhancements like this provide businesses the flexibility to implement complex and customized pricing strategies that cater to specific operational needs, customer segments, and market conditions. ⚙️ Basics of Modification in Pricing SAP SD pricing is driven by various condition types influenced by: Customer-specific data Material details Quantity & delivery terms Key communication structures are: 📑 KOMK - Pricing Communication Header 🧾 KOMP - Pricing Communication Item 🏷️ KOMG - Allowed Fields for Condition Structures These structures are crucial for extending pricing logic to fit unique business needs. 🔧 Enhancement Requirement To meet specific pricing needs, it may be necessary to add custom fields that are not available in the standard SAP field catalog. Custom fields can enable advanced models, such as: Customer-specific discounts Region-based pricing Dynamic market-based pricing 🛠️ Steps for Enhancing Pricing Functionality Define the New Field Identify the field you need and define it in the appropriate data structure (e.g., customer master, material master, or custom tables). Modify Communication Structures 📑 KOMK: Add new field at the header level 🧾 KOMP: Add new field at the item level 🏷️ KOMG: Update allowed fields to include new field for condition record determination. Adjust Condition Type Configuration Modify the condition types to integrate the new field into the pricing procedure. Implement Enhancements in ABAP Develop custom ABAP code to fetch and integrate field values into the pricing process. Update Pricing Procedure Adjust pricing procedures to factor in new fields for accurate price calculations, discounts, or surcharges. Testing & Validation Ensure the new field integrates properly by conducting end-to-end testing across sales orders, deliveries, and billing documents. 🚀 Benefits of the Pricing Enhancement 🔄 Customization: Tailor pricing logic to your unique business needs. ⚡ Flexibility: Apply dynamic pricing models based on customer, region, or product. ✔️ Improved Accuracy: Reduce manual errors by automating pricing processes. 🏆 Competitive Advantage: Respond faster to market changes with flexible, customer-specific pricing strategies. 📈 Conclusion By adding new fields to the condition field catalog, businesses can enhance pricing accuracy, optimize pricing strategies, and boost profitability. This flexibility allows companies to adapt quickly to market demands and improve overall operational efficiency. Cheers & NJOY SAP!! #SAPSD #PRICING

How to charge more without changing your service Raising your prices can feel risky, especially when you’re offering the same service. Many businesses worry about losing clients or being seen as too expensive. But you don’t need to change what you do to charge more. You just need to change how you present and deliver it. Here’s how we do it: 1. Refine our positioning and value If clients don’t understand your value, they’ll focus on your price. Position yourself as an expert in your field. Show how your service solves real problems, helps clients reach goals faster, or creates results they can’t achieve alone. 2. Focus on results, not features Clients don’t care about your process or how many hours you work. They care about the outcome. Talk about the results you deliver, such as more revenue, saved time, or happier customers. When you sell results, price becomes less important. 3. Use testimonials and case studies Share examples of your past work, client results, and positive feedback. Show that others have paid your price and achieved real success. 4. Offer tiered pricing Keep your main service, but add higher-value packages with extras like faster delivery, more personal support, or strategy sessions. This lets clients choose what suits them while raising your average sale. 5. Present your price as an investment Help clients see your service as a smart business move, not a cost. Explain the return they’ll get in time saved, revenue gained, or risks avoided. 6. Create a sense of exclusivity People value what feels limited. Work with fewer clients, make your offer by invitation, or offer VIP access. This makes your service feel more premium and worth the higher price. 7. Improve the client experience You don’t need to change what you deliver, just how you deliver it. Communicate better, make the process smoother, and stay proactive. A great experience adds value and makes clients happy to pay more. You don’t have to work harder or change your service to earn more. You just have to show your value clearly and make your clients feel confident investing in you. What’s one thing you can change today to make your service feel more valuable?