change is inevitable. value pricing has reached this critical stage.
by jody padar
radical pricing – by the radical cpa
can you remember doing business before cell phones or social media? you really don’t have to be too old to remember because change happens fast. in fact, if you are over 50, you probably remember when every home had a landline, firms advertised in the yellow pages, and accountants charged hourly for mundane compliance tasks.
more: stop selling time | why pricing is so disruptive | the radical pricing model: start with $25k | three critical factors drive the value pricing trend | accounting disruptors are heading your way … with deep pockets | the convergence of trends makes pricing changes imperative | stop looking for talent that does not exist | advisory work must be priced by value, not hours
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it really wasn’t that long ago when the internet was intriguing rather than indispensable.
at some point, change becomes inevitable, and i would argue that value pricing has reached this critical stage.
the key driver has been the increasing automation of the compliance work accounting firms used to consider their bread and butter. this makes value pricing instrumental to your future, as one day, too, there will be a generation who doesn’t know what a billable hour is.
as compliance work moves from an hours-based profit driver to an automated loss leader, firms have turned to more value-driven services. these kinds of services are most amenable to value pricing, too. use this as a detailed guide to ease the transition.
let’s begin with the six basic steps needed to lay the foundation for value pricing.
- define your customer. who are they? what’s their industry? what do they want and need?
- standardize your offering. productize what you’re selling, making it uniform and streamlined – as close to one-size-fits-all as possible. this makes pricing easier because you’re selling the same thing repeatedly. you’ll get to know your costs and timing pretty quickly and be able to complete deliverables efficiently.
- define your deliverables, output and scope. knowing the scope of the engagement is extremely important because if it isn’t defined, you’ll waste time and never have uniform pricing.
- determine your costs. what does it take to produce your deliverables? keep track of tech stack, labor and overhead. even though you are pricing on value or fixed/upfront pricing, you do not want to underprice yourself by leaving overhead out of the equation. maintaining a clear picture of your costs sets a price floor.
- set your price. figure out your pricing buckets. determine your fixed-price to value-price threshold. clarify your deliverables and set your price. use market research and talk to your teams who work on the files. finally, talk to non-accountants who perceive the value of what you provide from a very different perspective because they cannot do what comes so easily to you.
- market and position your packages. marketing is knowing how to talk about your services and where to talk about them. it focuses on brand building and attracting new clients. use social media, encourage word of mouth, get creative and ensure you find your demographic.
while these six steps seem easy enough in writing, it does take time to work through them. too often, accountants want to jump to the marketing phase of an idea without taking time to make sure they are selling something people want and at a price that reflects the value they see.
as you start your value pricing journey, focus first on understanding who you are selling to. there is a reason this step is first – it makes it easier for you to complete everything else.