How To Structure the Value Conversation

If you want to get a proper value-based price, then you need to speak to the client. You can’t possibly understand what a client values until you’ve had that conversation with them.

It’s really important to have this conversation face-to-face if possible.

There are three key stages to the value conversation.

You can watch the video on this topic here. Or if you prefer you can keep on reading.

#1 - Uncover the value

You do this by asking questions. You need to ask the client the right questions to understand…

• What do they want?
• What do they need?
• What are their pain points?
• What challenges they are facing?
• What do they want out of life?
• What are their goals for their business?

The better you are at asking questions and understanding what is important to your clients, the better you will become at understanding value. You can then build them a perfect solution that meets their specific needs.

You can charge a higher price for providing them with such high value.

I call this process the fact find.

Uncovering the value might take an entire meeting. In fact, I recommend that with brand-new clients or big projects, you make sure it is one meeting for the fact find.

#2 - Build a value

Now that you understand the client better and know exactly what it is they value, you can build it.

There are two aspects to this: building the package and communicating the value to the client.

The first thing you need to do is create the perfect package, the perfect proposal for your client, using the information you learned in the fact find. What are you going to do to solve the client’s problems?

Think about what things can you do, what reports can you give them, what advice? How can you best help them?

Secondly, you need to make sure to communicate the value of that package to the client. You need to sit down with your client and go through a proposed solution and focus very heavily not on what you are going to do, but how those things are going to benefit the client and take their pain away.

You really need to build the value in the client’s mind. If you don’t do that, and they don’t understand the benefit of what you’re doing for them, then your prices will always seem expensive.

#3 - Capture the value

Once you have built up the value, the client will be ready to buy.

You need to come up with a price that really reflects the value to the customer. The more value, the higher the price. That’s value pricing.

You have to involve the client in the pricing process.

You have to now have the price conversation with the client. That means taking them through some choices, working through the price so that they can see how the price is building up.

If at the end of that process the price is too high, because you are sitting with the client working through the price, you can easily change things. You can find which parts of the proposed solution are of less value to them and take them out.

You can edit the package and work with the client until you find a price that they agree on.

The mistake we often make in the profession is ignoring step 3 because the pricing can be uncomfortable. Instead, we put the price in writing and we send it through the mail. Doing that means you lose control of the process, of the conversation and the client will always see the price as too expensive.

You need to go through each phase thoroughly.

If you found this valuable and would like to learn more about value pricing, I run a free live online training session every month with a topic chosen by you. Attend live and you can ask me any questions you have. Click here to register and I will send you an invitation to the next session.

Wishing you every success on your pricing journey

Mark Wickersham

Chartered Accountant, Public Speaker and Author of Amazon No.1 Best Seller “Effective Pricing for Accountants”