Price the work, not your worth. Set a floor from what it costs to run your business and deliver the job, find the ceiling your best customers would pay, then place your price by what they’d do instead of hiring you and what the result is worth to them. Your self-esteem never goes in the spreadsheet.
You know the spreadsheet. It’s called PRICING_FINAL_v7_actualfinal, it has three tabs, and the number in it drops every time you have a bad week.
Why it’s harder than it sounds
Money talk is awkward, and for plenty of us it was trained in early. Serena put her hand up on the show: “I’m English and I think talking about money is just so taboo here.” Not ideal for someone who sends invoices for a living.
It gets worse if what you sell came out of your own head. Serena described creative work as selling “something that came from your soul,” which means a no on price feels like a no on you. So you knock a chunk off before anyone has even asked.
And whatever number you say first sticks. In their classic 1974 paper in Science, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman had people estimate the percentage of African countries in the United Nations after a wheel of fortune gave them a starting number. Groups who got 10 guessed a median of 25%. Groups who got 65 guessed 45%. That was a random wheel. Now think about what your nervous lowball quote is doing to a client’s idea of what you’re worth paying.
What actually works
Separate your worth from the work
One behavioral economist who prices for a living tells clients to separate what you’re worth from “what the work is worth.” Her take on the first one: “You’re worth a billion gajillion dollars, right? You’re a human being.” The second one is different: “But what is the value of the services delivered to a customer? We can put a number on that.”
Time saved. Revenue added. Agency fees no longer wasted. Price against those.
Build the house
Her firm treats pricing like a house. The floor is your costs: rent, insurance, everything it takes to keep the lights on, plus what it costs to deliver the work. “You cannot go below the costs floor, otherwise you’d be operating at a loss,” she says. The roof is the most any customer would ever pay, which she calls the “willingness to pay ceiling.”
In between are the pillars: your competitors, and the alternatives to you. “Would it be having AI generate something? Would it be an intern somewhere kind of dragging and dropping things?” Your client is making those comparisons whether you do or not.
Ask what the problem costs them now
In the sales call, find out what they already spend on the thing that isn’t working. Her example is a business spending “about 12,000, 20,000 pounds on emails” that nobody reads. That’s the number you’re positioned against, and it’s rarely the number in your head.
Say your price first, then stop talking
Given what anchoring does, open with the price for the full outcome, not the apologetic budget version. Say it once. Don’t fill the silence with a discount. (The silence will feel like a week. It isn’t.)
Let some people off the train
Not everyone will pay for results, and that’s fine. Her line: “You can either be on the train or you can be off the train, respectfully.” The ones who stay off weren’t your clients anyway.
Hear it from someone who’s done it
Etinosa Agbonlahor is a behavioral economist, founder and CEO of the pricing strategy firm Decision Alpha, and former director of behavioral science research at Fidelity Investments. She lays out worth versus work, then the pricing house. Jump to 14:54 for the moment, or catch the audio on the episode page.
FAQ
How do I price my services when every client needs something different?
Keep the floor and ceiling fixed, then scope each job by outcome. Ask what problem they’re solving and what it costs them now, and price against that. Serena asked exactly this on the show, so you’re in good company.
What if my price feels too high for customers?
First check it sits above your costs floor. If it does, compare it with their real alternative (doing nothing, AI, an intern, the agency that isn’t working), not with your nerves. If they still won’t pay, they may not be your customer.
What if my costs make my price too high?
Change the offer, not just the number. You can’t go below the floor without working at a loss, so cut the scope, package it differently, or find buyers whose problem costs them more.
How much should I charge?
Somewhere between your costs floor and your customers’ ceiling, nudged by competitors and alternatives. The bigger the result you deliver, the closer to the roof you can go.
The episode also covers anchoring and how to present price options so clients pick the one you want. Listen to the full episode.