A few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of being a part of the Businessology Roadshow, a full-day workshop on pricing and positioning, hosted by designer/founder/advisor Dan Mall and CPA/coach Jason Blumer. It was a hands-on event with lots of practical exercises and collaboration among attendees.
While the workshop was geared primarily towards freelancers selling services, Dan and Jason’s advice is equally meaningful for creators selling products. Here we share five major takeaways from the Businessology Roadshow. Thank you to Dan and to Jason for sharing your expertise!
Positioning
1. Find the intersection of what you love to do, what you’re best at doing, and what the market demands. This is your sweet spot.
Make a list of all the things you spend time doing for your business. Get as granular as possible. Which of these things do you love doing? Which of these things are you better at than anyone else? Which of these things does the market demand? The goal is to focus your business efforts on what satisfies all three criteria.
This exercise can be adapted, depending on whether you’re figuring out how to position yourself, your consulting work, or a new product. Are you a blogger eager to launch your first product? Make a list of all the topics you spend your time writing about. Which of these topics are you most interested in? Which of these topics are you an expert on? Which of these topics is your audience eager to learn more about? Is there a product you can develop that lives where all of these meet?
2. Develop a clear positioning statement, not to exclude potential clients, but to connect you with the right people.
A positioning statement clearly conveys what you do and for whom. To begin developing yours, fill in the following statement: I do ________ for ________. Do you direct short films for mountain fitness brands? Do you put together lesson plans for middle school math teachers? Do you compose ukulele songs for paddleboard yoga teachers to use during their lessons? Be specific.
As you develop your positioning statement, Dan also recommends thinking about your dream client (or customer) and what you need to say to get them. Rather than trying to sell your work for mass-appeal, position yourself in a way that targets the clients you want to work with. A good positioning statement will help you target the right clients and will serve as a gentle hurdle for clients who may not be a great fit.
You can apply this same reasoning when positioning a product. When developing and promoting products, it’s important to have a clear target audience in mind. A clear understanding of your target audience guides and focuses both the development of your product and your marketing strategy. Think about the customers who are going to value your product the most, and target your marketing efforts towards them.
Pricing
3. Price your work based on the value you’re bringing.
Think about what can be gained from your product or service. Will you teach people how to grow their audience? Will they learn a new skill? Will they build their businesses by implementing strategies that you teach them? All of these are valuable.
Products don’t have an inherent price. Instead of pricing your product based on factors such as the length of the content or the time it took you to create it, price your product based on the benefit or profit it will provide. If you want to increase the price of a product, figure out how to truly make it more valuable for your audience.
4. If you assume risk, you can charge more for your work.
A generous refund policy shows that you fully stand behind your product. A guarantee will inspire confidence in your audience regarding your product and its value.
Consider implementing a generous refund policy, such as those used by Jonathan Meade and Nathan Barry:
5. Offer three options. Always lead with the highest-priced option.
Three is the magic number. Offer your product in three differently priced tiers. Providing three options provides price context. Buyers will compare the price of one tier to the price of another tier rather than comparing the price of your work to the price of a competitor’s work.
For the lowest-priced tier, include the simplest version of your product. For the highest-priced tier, bundle your product together with additional multimedia content, such as video tutorials, audio interviews, workbooks, printables - anything that makes sense for your product. Include some but not all of this multimedia content in your middle-priced tier. When pricing each tier, don’t price features or individual components. Instead, set a price based on the value that each tier provides as a complete package.
When presenting tiers, always lead with the highest-priced option. This is because customers will base subsequent decisions off the first price they see. This way, the low and middle tier options will be perceived as a good deal, rather than the high tier option being perceived as expensive.
Thank you to Dan and Jason for such a fabulous workshop! Listen to the Businessology Show podcast for more advice on positioning and pricing your work. Be sure to also check out Jason’s four-part series, The Intimacies of Pricing Your Customer, available on Gumroad.