Pricing.
A price is a sentence about how you see the work.
Pricing sits at the intersection of value, courage, and clarity. The price you charge is the sentence you write about your work, your buyer, and the relationship between the two. This chapter is about writing that sentence well, and then defending it calmly.
When does discounting help, and when does it train the wrong buyers?
Explore the problem →How do I design offers that let buyers choose their level of risk?
Explore the problem →How do I price the outcome when the buyer wants the hour?
Explore the problem →The pieces to read first.
Practical material for doing the work.
How to Design Pricing Tiers That Help Buyers Choose
Tiered pricing is a packaging and decision-design system. The structure should clarify customer choice while protecting delivery economics.
Discounts Need a Job: Decide What the Price Change Is Supposed to Buy
A discount without a defined purpose becomes permanent margin leakage.
Pricing Tiers Should Clarify Choice, Not Hide Complexity
A tier should represent a meaningful buyer choice, not a longer feature list.
How to Price the Outcome Without Guessing
Value pricing is a disciplined pricing method, not a permission to invent a high price from an attractive ROI story.
When to Standardize an Offer Instead of Accepting More Custom Work
Standardize an offer when repeated customer work contains a stable core problem, repeatable delivery and enough demand to justify a clearer scope. Custom work remains useful when the business is still learning or the value genuinely varies materially.
How to Use a Conditional Discount Without Teaching Buyers to Wait
Tie discounts to a genuine condition such as scope, timing, volume or a defined segment. Keep the standard price stable so the discount does not become the real anchor.
When Should You Use Good-Better-Best Instead of Modular Pricing?
Use Good-Better-Best when customers can meaningfully self-select across complete solution levels. Use modular pricing when customers need to assemble different capabilities or quantities.
Cost-Plus vs Value-Based Pricing: What Each Method Is Actually Good For
Use cost-plus when cost visibility and a predictable markup solve a real commercial problem. Use value-based pricing when customer outcomes and alternatives provide enough evidence to estimate value. The methods answer different questions.
How to Quantify Customer Value Without Pretending the Number Is Precise
Estimate customer value using observable outcomes, relevant alternatives and reasonable ranges rather than pretending the number is exact. Value-based pricing is a decision model, not a license to invent a large figure.
How BATNA and a Reservation Point Keep Founders From Negotiating From Fear
Define the best realistic alternative and the point at which a deal becomes worse than that alternative before negotiating. This gives the founder a decision boundary instead of relying on pressure in the room.
When Discounting Helps and When It Trains the Wrong Buyers
Discounts are useful when they solve a specific commercial problem. They become dangerous when they replace a weak value proposition, unclear qualification, or an untested price.
Setting Prices
Pricing is the sentence you write about your work. Write it well, and the right customers agree with you. Write it poorly, and the wrong ones do.
Thinking structures for the decisions ahead.
Offer Design Framework
How to structure offers so buyers can enter at their comfort and climb.
Pricing Memo
A one-page document that forces you to think clearly about what you charge and why.
Pricing Ladder
How to structure offers so buyers can enter at their comfort and climb.
The questions that sharpen the problem.
How do I raise my prices?
Decide once, then defend the number calmly.
How do I price for value instead of hours?
The buyer is not paying for your time. They are paying for the outcome they can see at the end.
How do I design pricing tiers?
Good tiering lets people enter at their comfort and climb to what they need.
How do I price?
A method for pricing that respects the work and the buyer.
When should I discount?
A discount is a message. Make sure it says what you intend.
Working material you can adapt.
Price Rise Script
The calm, one-sentence script for telling existing clients about a price change.
Tier Design Template
A framework for structuring offers so buyers can choose their level of risk.
Pricing Calculator
A calculator that helps you set prices that cover costs and reward the work.
Pricing Memo Template
A one-page document that forces clarity about what you charge and why.