Pricing Strategy and Planning

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Agency and Community Success Manager at Pantheon.

dwayne@pantheon.io@mcdwayne on Twitter.

Some things I enjoy, aside from tech, are● Improv comedy and theater● Comic books● Karaoke!!!

Hi, I’m Dwayne

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Pantheon Background



Pantheon is a platform for developers and agencies to quickly build, launch and run

sites in a sane and scalable way

Pantheon has over 400 signed agency partners + over 3000 agencies worldwide

using the tools

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What we’ve learned about agencies



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Surprise….

THERE IS NO MAGIC

‘ONE SIZE FITS ALL’

NUMBER FOR THIS!!!

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Outline

● How to uncover the right pricing strategy to ‘fund your life’.

● Articulating differentiation and focus on value instead of price.

● Choosing hourly vs fixed bid pricing based on the situation.

● When and how to bundle additional services like hosting, SEO and support services.

Fund Your Life

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How much to fund a life?

Think “Thriving” not “Subsistence”

VS

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Work - Life Balance

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No magic ball, but…

Expenses÷

Working Hours≈

Minimum Viable Hourly Rate

Special shout out to Heather Acton’s Financial Business Planning for Freelancers http://wordpress.tv/2015/05/08/heather-acton-financial-business-planning-for-freelancers/

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Example

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RZ-uyuywS06_JS8PO79QHi_Go3uWFhW8Kob4ysj9C2Q/edit

Value vs Price

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Secret of all sales...

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Secret of all sales



People spend $ on things they value

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How much is a project worth?

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What does a website cost?

A dream written down with a date becomes a goal.

A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan.

A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true.

– Greg S. Reid

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Sales Basics: Sales funnel



● Leads

● Qualified Leads

● Proposals

● Growth goal ($$$)

● Outreach and Networking

● Qualification

● Discovery

● Procurement

● Profit!!!

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Value Based Discovery



Some basic rules:● Ask open ended questions to guide the client

● Focus on the ‘Why’

● Resist talking about your value until you have enough information to match your value to what they want to accomplish

● Listen 75% of the time. Talk 25%

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Discovery process



VS

What about your value?

Proving your value to clients

Portfolio, Client Reviews, Case Studies

+Expert Content

Hourly vs fixed bid

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Poll time

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Every situation is different, but...

General rule of thumb I have heard:

● If the client has not defined scope of project- Hourly might be best.

● If the project has a specific, defined - scoped they will probably also have a

real budget. These require very tight boundaries

Bundling additional services like hosting, SEO and support services

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Sales Basics: Sales funnel



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Discovery is the time to ask:

● What do you expect to do for site updates?

● How will you react to SEO optimization evolutions?

● What frequency are you expecting me to check in with you?

● What do you expect me to do if the site goes down or gets

hacked?

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And do you even want to?

● Are you good at all these areas or should you make a referral?

● Are you set up to handle hosting or should you rely on a partner company?

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No matter what though….

DEFINED AND ENFORCED SCOPE IS CRITICAL!!!!

Scope creep is a killer

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“Yes, I can do that.”

Vs.

“Yes, I could do that, but only for a price...”

Never give away your time

Tips for new and small agencies

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Freelancer or Consultant?

Freelancer Does Not Sound

As Valuable As A Consultant

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Do’s and Don’ts

● Do - Trust your instincts.

● Don’t - Take a bad deal.

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Do’s and Don’ts

● Do - Fire bad clients.

● Don’t - Be afraid to ask for referrals.

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Do’s and Don’ts

● Do - Raise prices, at least annually.

● Don’t - Reduce your rates. Ever.

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Do’s and Don’ts

● Do - Give yourself regular raises.

● Don’t - Pay yourself last.

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Do’s and Don’ts

● Do - Plan regular vacations.

● Don’t - Work weekends ‘for free’.

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Do’s and Don’ts

● Do - Have a pet project to continually enable you to learn new skills.

● Don’t - Don’t let your pet project control you.

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What did we talk about?

● How to uncover the right pricing strategy to ‘fund your life’.

● Articulating differentiation and focus on value instead of price.

● Choosing hourly vs fixed bid pricing based on the situation.

● When and how to bundle additional services like hosting, SEO and support services.

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Further Reading/Listening



*MJHoffman - https://twitter.com/mjhoffman

*You Can't Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a SeminarBook by David H Sandler and John Hayes

*The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer Conversation - Book by Brent Adamson and Matthew Dixon

*Predictable Revenue - Predictablerevenue.com

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Agency and Community Success Manager

at Pantheon.

mcdwayne on Twitter.

dwayne@pantheon.io

Some things I enjoy, aside from tech, are

● Improv comedy and theater

● Comic books

● Karaoke!!!

Goodbye, I was Dwayne

Thanks