Lesson 4 · 18 min
Nobody can tell you the exact price of what you do. What exists is a process: you propose a number, watch how the market responds, and adjust. This lesson gives you ranges by service as a guide, shows you how to turn the pain into a number, and separates maintenance from improvement, where most people get tangled up.
Start the lesson
Goal: build your price table by range, with the value calculation and the separation between maintenance and improvement.
Price is not a formula: it is a loop. Click each step.
How you sabotage yourself: changing the price in every conversation, giving a discount before anyone asks, copying the price of someone with ten times your reputation.
Guides, not rules: they keep you from asking for a tenth of what you are worth, or three times what you can deliver. Illustrative range in dollars; adapt to your market.
The top of the range comes from the deliverable: a structured report, an inventory, risks with evidence, and a 30-day plan.
It is your entry door: free while you learn, charged once the process is repeatable.
The best effort-to-return ratio: it builds trust with several people at once and it is reusable. The first one takes about ten hours of prep; the eleventh, two.
One training per department multiplies the same material across three contracts.
The top only holds up when it involves organizing the client's messy data or connecting actions to their systems, not just writing instructions.
It is the range that drops the most when a ready-made subscription alternative shows up.
A type of solution is rare and expensive for a few months. Then the tutorials and ready-made tools arrive, and what was worth thousands starts to look like something you get with a subscription. Use the money from the window to build relationships and reputation.
The top requires a proven track record and social proof. Volume drops as the price goes up.
Charging by the hour has a low ceiling: the faster you get, the less you earn. That is why the next section exists.
The monthly contract gives you predictability, and it is where most people end up doing a new project at a support price.
Anything you already delivered that stops working, you fix.
It covers failures of the solution, not changes the client made on their own.
Something new, a scope change, a different screen.
The monthly plan includes a quota of hours; anything beyond that is billed separately.
A US$ 1,500 plan = US$ 1,000 of maintenance + 4 hours of improvement included. Illustrative range; adapt to your market.
Month 1 the client is delighted; month 2 it has become the expectation; month 3: "what have you done for me lately?". It is not dissatisfaction, it is value saturation.
Antidote: in month 2, show the month 5 plan, and keep prospecting running even when your calendar is full.
First the value calculation, then your price list. You practice the price sentence out loud.
You are my pricing analyst. CLIENTE = <type of company and size> PROBLEMA = <the pain in two sentences, the way the client described it> MINHA SOLUÇÃO = <what you will deliver> MINHAS HORAS ESTIMADAS = <number> CUSTO DE TERCEIROS = <amount or zero> Do this in order: 1. The 3 to 6 NUMBERS I need to ask the client in order to know how much this problem costs per month, with the questions ready, no jargon. 2. With plausible values for the size, SHOW THE CALCULATION step by step of the monthly and annual cost of the problem, marking what is an assumption. 3. THREE price ranges (conservative, likely, aggressive), each one justified as a proportion of the value generated. 4. My net margin in each range. If it falls below 35%, say so. 5. The SENTENCE I say when presenting the price, without apologizing and without promising what is not in the scope. If essential information is missing, ask before assuming.
You are my pricing consultant. Build my price list of AI trust services (audit, review, training, advisory). MEU MERCADO = <country/region and currency> MEU NICHO = <sector> MINHA EXPERIÊNCIA REAL = <what I have already delivered, or "none"> MINHA PROVA SOCIAL = <testimonials, cases, or "none"> HORAS POR SEMANA = <number> Reference ranges from a mature market, in dollars: - Audit: 0 to 3,000 · Training per area: 2,500 to 25,000 - Consulting per hour: 50 to 500 · One-off automation: 2,000 to 15,000 1. ADJUST the ranges to my market and my level of social proof, justifying each adjustment. 2. Table with 5 services: name, what it includes, what it does NOT include, timeline and launch price. 3. My ENTRY PRICE for the first client. 4. The price sentence in 3 versions: phone, message, meeting. 5. My answers to the 4 most common price objections in my niche. None of them may start with a discount. Point out any price that leaves me with a margin below 35%.
Minha hora é <X>. Tenho experiência com <A> e com <B>, e garanto esses dois pontos. Sobre <C> eu tenho incerteza, porque nunca fiz exatamente assim: por isso vou cobrar <5> horas, mesmo sabendo que provavelmente vou trabalhar <7>.
After this exercise there is no more "I'll think about how much to charge": there is a number.
Run the price list prompt with your market and your niche. Check the answers to the objections: if any of them ends up offering a discount, discard it and ask for another.
Done when: you have 5 services with what is included, what is not included, timeline and launch price, and no objection answer starts or ends with a discount.
Read the three versions of the price sentence out loud, timing yourself. Cut until it becomes a simple statement.
Done when: each of the three versions fits in under 15 seconds and separates what is guaranteed from what is uncertain.
4 questions. The explanation appears after your attempt.
Question 1 of 4
You heard three "no"s in a row when stating your price. What do you do?
Question 2 of 4
A client cancels the monthly contract in the third month. What is the most likely cause?
Question 3 of 4
The client asks for a new screen under the maintenance contract. How do you handle it?
Question 4 of 4
Why price by the value of the problem and not just by the hour?
Pick one option. The explanation shows up after you try.