Part Three: Value versus Price

This post is the final installment of a 3 part series examining some of our common thinking and misperceptions on important elements of creating our business!

In Part One of this series, we examined, “Market versus Niche” 

• Your Target Market is the group of people you serve.
• Your Niche is the service you specialize in offering to your target market

In Part Two we explored, “Mission versus Vision”.

• Your Vision is the super goal, possibly one you may never witness or experience in your lifetime. Like achieving actual World Peace. Think of that as a perfect pie. 
• Your Mission is your contribution to the pie. What is your sliver of a slice that you can commit to achieving that will add to the completion of the whole pie.

In today’s A Little Bit O’ Biz Wiz… we look at the VALUE versus PRICE of your programs by determining the BENEFITS OF YOUR FEATURES! 

Enjoy ~xo
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A Little Bit O’ Biz Wiz…

Value versus Price

I’m going to make a broad statement here and declare that the transformational experience you and your horses offer humans is ‘priceless’. The benefits can be so great and far-reaching it’s nearly impossible to gauge the actual ‘value’. 

For some, setting a price on their service is confusing and even paralyzing. It can be the one thing that prevents you from actually inviting someone to enroll with you. 

In the simplest of terms...

• Price -  is the actual exchange of money for your service or product. It’s a concrete number.
• Value - is the actual desirability of your service or product to the client or customer.

The biggest reason most practitioners struggle with how to price their service is that they don’t truly understand the value of what they offer. I’m not talking about your ‘worth’. I’m talking about the value of your service to your client. 

The 3 Top Contributors to Wishy-washy Pricing Strategies

• Trying to figure out what the potential client can afford.
• Calculating an hourly rate based on the face-to-face time with the client.
• Copying what other practitioners charge for their service.

Don’t beat yourself up if you have employed any (or all) of these pricing strategies. The truth is, there are elements of all 3 included in a realistic determination of price for your ideal client. But none of them take into consideration the actual value of the client’s experience.

In entrepreneurial marketing 101, I was taught that I needed to ‘charge what I am worth.’ I agree self-worth is an essential factor in how we receive (or don’t receive) money. But I feel that focus is a bit ‘self-absorbed’ and misses the point of our service. Which is to help our clients achieve the result they want! 

Your potential clients are not really interested in your process or the features of your service until they know if you can help them solve their problems.

Benefits - Benefits - Benefits

People aren’t buying ‘what you do’, they are investing in how they want their life to be different. When you clearly understand the benefits you provide then the real value of your service will shine through! 

Every single feature and process of your business better have an identifiable benefit to your client. Otherwise, it’s just ‘busy-work’. 

Do this...

• Create 3 columns in your journal or computer doc. 
• Title the first column “Features”, the second column “Benefits”, the third column “Value”. 
• List all the features of your service in column one.
• In column two write out at least 3 to 5 benefits for each and every feature of your business. (See if you can come up with at least 30 different benefits total). 
• Place a monetary value for that feature (based on the benefits) in the third column. 
• When you finish, total up the value column. 

This is the overall VALUE of your program or service. As a general rule for pricing, the actual price to the client is somewhere between 15% up to 50% less than the calculated value. 

Why? 

Because you’re offering an entire package of features necessary to help them achieve their desired result. To purchase each element separately would not only cost a lot more but be totally insufficient in achieving the desired result. Even if some features are not available outside of the program/service, it still has it’s individual benefits - therefore it has value!

People will invest in solving a problem, and they still want to know that they are investing wisely and getting a good ‘deal’. 

What’s the Benefit to You?

When you are rock solid on the value of each element of your service and the 30+ different benefits your client experiences as a result of working with you, your confidence in your pricing will also be rock solid! When you are confident in the value of your offer, your potential client will be too! 

~xo

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A Quote to Lick n’ Chew on… 

Quality in a product or service is not what the supplier puts in. It is what the customer gets out and is willing to pay for. Customers pay only for what is of use to them and gives them value. Nothing else constitutes quality.     

~Peter F. Drucker

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Business Mentorship and Coaching

COVID19 note: This training will serve you for both online and in-person program/service delivery. And if you’re wondering how to bring your expertise with horses online… now is the time, for sure!!

If you are eager to define your own signature service and create a solid foundation for growing and sustaining your business for years to come, I hope you will consider what I’m about to offer.

12-Weeks of PRIVATE Quantum Leap Readiness Business Mentorship 

You can learn more about it and request an application here: → Apply Here ← 

The program is designed to help you create and implement all of the bullet points below with the language your potential clients will understand. 

• What you market (your Signature Service)
• Who you are marketing to (your ideal Client and what they WANT)
• How you will reach them (Awareness Strategies)
• What you will say to inspire them to work with you (your Messaging)
• What your follow-up strategy is (free-taste, email campaign, micro offer, etc.)
• What your enrollment process is (web page, application, registration, phone call, etc.)

BONUS:

We have to address the ‘money stuff’. This is not just a ‘teaching’ program, it’s also a coaching program that requires your own personal growth in alignment with the growth of your business. Believe me, marketing ‘yourself’ entails more personal growth than you might expect, and so much of that is wrapped up in our beliefs and behaviors with money. Enrollment includes the 3-part series, “Reflections of Money” for the Profitable Equine Practitioner!

There are many marketing programs that will teach you the foundational basics, but few include the personal/professional coaching necessary to instill the confidence and mindset required. AND even fewer that understand the significance and value of the horses as part of your business model and programming. 

I’ve named it the ‘Quantum Leap Readiness Business Mentorship’ because it prepares you with a foundation to be able to leap into the next highest version, and then the next highest version of your business over and over again. 

Learn more about it and request an application here: → Apply Here ← 

To Your Horse & Soul Success,

~author of, “The Business of Coaching with Horses. How to Reach More Clients, Feed Your Horses, and Change the World!”

My mission is to empower and educate equine inspired practitioners in the art of profitable program design and marketing. My dream-come-true is to see equine-assisted personal and professional development be recognized and celebrated for the unique transformational modality that it is, and to become as popular as yoga and Starbucks!