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Lex DeVille

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PRICING MODELS MASTER THREAD

I searched for a list like this the other day. Google returned a scattered mix of results. Didn't find one here either. So I thought it might be useful to list different pricing models into a single place.

Please Note: There are other threads for pricing strategy and Psychology. Like this one, this one, and this one. This thread is NOT that. This thread is for pricing models. Share your best or most creative ideas. Here are some to start:


Hourly
Customer pays by the hour for the work you do.
($100 per hour)


Upfront Pre-Service
Customer pays a fixed price up front before receiving the product or service.
($1 for Starbucks Latte)


Upfront Post-Service
Customer knows price, but does not pay until they have received the product or service.
($1,000 if we win your case)


50/50
Customer pays an amount upfront and another amount after job is completed.
($500 to start and $500 upon completion)


Estimation
Business provides cost estimation subject to change based on the actual work completed.
(Estimation $100 but $150 of work was required so total is $150)


Value-Based
Business decides what it’s worth to do a job based on the value they provide.
($10,000 to have ME solve this problem for you)


Subscription
Customer pays a set amount each day, week, month, year etc.
(Netflix costs $8.99 per month)


Commission
Customer pays a set amount based on the total price of a product or service.
(Total sales 10,000 with 20% commission = $2,000)


License
Customer pays a fixed amount to purchase a license to use/reuse a product.
($70 to buy an individual license. $100 to buy a developer license)


Pay Per Lead
Customer pays for each lead they receive whether they close the sale or not.
($100 for 10 confirmed leads)


Pay Per Use
Customer pays each time they use a product or service.
($0.10 per search)


Per Users
Customer pays based on the number of users for their account.
($100 for every 1000 email subscribers)


Revenue Share
Business shares a percentage of revenue with you in exchange for a product or service.
(If they make a $100 sale, you might get $50 of that if it’s 50/50 split)


Freemium
Customer pays nothing for initial service with hopes they’ll buy other stuff later on.
(In Fortnite the game is free, but upgrades cost money.)


Per Click
Business pays each time a potential customer clicks a specific link.
($0.10 per click)


Per Word
A set amount per word typed.
($0.10 per word)


Per Page
A fixed amount per written page.
($100 per page)


Per Email
A fixed amount per written email.
($100 per email)


Word Retainer
A fixed amount of cost for up to a fixed amount of words.
($1000 for up to 10,000 words)


Monthly Retainer
A fixed amount of cost for ongoing services monthly.
($1000 per month)


Milestone
Customer pays at set intervals (milestones) of a project.
($50 now, $50 at phase 2, and $50 at completion)

Payment Plan
Customer accepts an up front cost but extends it over a set number of installments often with interest or added cost.
(Price = $2500 or just 3 monthly installments of $1000 [20% increase])


Consider this a jumping off point for the topic. I've overlooked many ideas (that's why I was searching in the first place), so feel free to add your own. Especially unique, creative, disruptive, or innovative concepts, or even just traditional models that still work really well.

Conversation Questions:
What pricing models have you seen or used?
What industry did they work well for?
What other industries could they apply to?

Also feel free to expand on any of the models listed above. For instance, I listed "subscription" but there are many variations of subscription models. How would you use this or others to gain a competitive advantage in your market?
 
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Lex DeVille

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Writing Industry

For this industry I've used the following models:

Hourly
Good for when you don't know the value of your efforts. Can be scaled quickly to $100/hr or more to create a 6-figure income. You are limited by the hours available in any given day. You are also limited by the number of clients you can personally work with unless you outsource the work.

Pay Per Word
Good for competing for low-budget jobs, or when you really want to confuse a client. Most people can't quickly calculate a price per word in their head, so I almost never price writing by the character or word because it makes things harder.

Monthly Retainer
Good for when you want to secure monthly recurring revenue, though you'll need a contract in place or some clients will ditch after a month or two. Can be used with high or low prices. In the past I would do something like $1,000 for up to $10,000 words. You have to be careful with the amount of work you'll do on retainers like this so you don't overwhelm yourself.

Pay Per Page
This is my favorite model, though it doesn't create recurring revenue. With pay per page I charge anywhere between $100 to $300 or more for each page / email / blog etc. Usually I add an additional restriction to the number of words per page (I set mine up to 500) so I separate my time from my pay a bit more. Also I like that this is paid up front and it's disruptive when compared to other writers charging .05 cents per word.

Pay Per Booking
This can be a great option if you're a copywriter. Some clients want to give a commission on sales, but sales often require the client to succeed on the call. As a writer you can't control how good they are at sales calls, so it makes sense to get paid for getting calls booked instead of their ability to close sales.

Pay Per Conversion
If the client's sales model doesn't involve talking on the phone (thinking ecommerce) then a commission on sales might be a good choice for you. If you write an email that generates 10 sales at $500, then that's $5,000. If you get a 20% commission on that, then you earned $1,000. Most clients won't pay you anything up front with a model like this.

---
This I haven't tested with any clients.

Royalty
As an ebook ghostwriter you get paid up front (usually $150 - $300). But you could also work with your client on a royalty option. In most cases it might not be very lucrative for you, but if the book takes off, you could enjoy a high return, and it could be recurring.
 
Last edited:

Andy Black

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Free
Make the service or product free (or almost free) and make money some other way (as detailed in the book "Free" by Chris Anderson).


Flat-Rate Tiers Based on Spend
Used a lot by digital marketing agencies.
(€500 fee for spend up to €2k/mth, €750 fee for spend up to €5k/mth, etc)
 
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MidwestLandlord

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Consignment

Paying the supplier of goods after the goods have been sold.

Mostly used in consignment shops/car lots and the like, but also common in wholesale CPG's. Often used in conjunction with a minimum sales threshold before payment is required.

(For example: they start paying supplier after 20 units are sold, then payment by period or unit turnover count thereafter)

I've used this to get "on the fence" retailers to say yes.

"No money up front, pay as you sell. If nothing sells, I come pick up my product and life goes on."
 

MidwestLandlord

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Buyback Contracts

Supplier buys back unsold goods after a certain agreed upon time. (end of season, month, product expiration, year, etc)

The buyback can be in the form of cash or account credit for the following period.

I've used this to sway seasonal retailers in my favor, as having product left at the end of summer is a huge concern.
 

ElectroGrower

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Performance based revenue share.

Improve performance x %, split the amount gained from the performance increase.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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BizyDad

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This thread deserves a bump.

Playing off this:
Pay Per Lead
Customer pays for each lead they receive whether they close the sale or not.
($100 for 10 confirmed leads)

Pay per appointment
Customer pays for each kept appointment

Pay per client
Customer pays flat rate for each client signed

Performance increases
Instead of taking a percentage of growth, set agreed to goals and increase the fee based on hitting certain metrics.

Trial period
Offering a service/product at a reduce/free rate for a short period of time

Barter/Trade/Quid Pro Quo
Pricing based on mutual benefit. Example, I give discount on my fee to certain industries which are positioned to send me more qualified clients
 
G

Guest-5ty5s4

Guest
Didn't see this mentioned, but it's big in construction and larger manufacturing:

Cost-plus
Do a project, track the hours and materials, report them at the rates you're charging, add a percent at the end to the total. Customer pays you whatever that final amount is.
 

Walter Hay

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Tiring of giving free samples of my industrial chemicals only to see them gather dust, I changed to selling discounted small production quantities that could be, and usually were, tested in the factory during a real production run.

The small production sample quantities were paid for on delivery. Unlike the free samples they invariably led to much larger orders.

Walter
 
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Walter Hay

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In my later B2B importing business, selling terms were 25% to 50% paid with order. The % depended on set up cost. Balance was paid in full on delivery.

This method was successful because the products were bespoke and therefore unsaleable if the customer changed his/her mind. The customers recognized the fairness.

A huge file of testimonials helped the deal making.

Walter
P.S. Free set up in an industry where competitors universally charged a set up fee was our USP. (Everyone, even big time executives love the word FREE)
 

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