Module 3 of 7
Value-based pricing when you cannot measure the value
Anchoring to the buyer's alternative rather than to your effort.
Value-based pricing means the price follows what the outcome is worth to the buyer rather than what it costs you to produce. The standard objection is that you cannot measure the value, and usually you cannot measure it precisely. You do not need to. You need a defensible anchor, and the buyer already has one.
The anchor is their alternative. What are they doing now, and what does that cost them? If a shop loses roughly two hours a day reconciling stock by hand, the alternative has a number attached to it. If a coaching centre loses four enrolments a season because enquiries go unanswered on a Sunday, that is a number too. Your twelve conversations from ENT-101 are full of these, which is why that course comes first — people told you what the problem already costs them, and that is the anchor.
The move that makes this usable is to price the outcome and let the effort vary. "Stock reconciled daily with a fifteen-minute close" is a thing with a value. "Six hours of my time" is a thing with a cost. Quote the first and you can improve your method and keep the gain. Quote the second and you have sold your hours, which is the one input you cannot make more of.
Anchor on the buyer's current alternative and what it costs them. Price the outcome, not the hours, so improving your method benefits you.