How to Sell a Value-Based Price

How we talk about price in the creative industry

A client once asked us for a branding proposal, so we set up a discovery call where we inevitably got to that awkward moment where they asked how much the project would cost. We said €10k, and they replied with one question: what's included? And then we choked.

Not because the price was wrong. It wasn't. €10k was fair for the scope, and we knew that. But in that moment we couldn't explain why in a way that made sense to them. We listed the deliverables, talked about timeline, justified the process. And the whole time we were doing it we knew we were losing them. We were defending a number instead of selling an outcome, and the reason we were in that position is because we had never actually sold the outcome to begin with. The price may have been right, but the conversation leading up to it wasn't.

This comes up again and again in the creative community when we talk about value-based pricing. People see a number and while they get it, and the price makes sense to them, they follow up with “but there is no way my client would pay this”. The challenge creatives face isn’t necessarily in understanding why value-based pricing makes sense, it is in setting up the conversation so that the client understands why the price is fair. Because a price is only as strong as the conversation that surrounds it, and if that conversation never happens, we are letting clients determine what is valuable about our work.

Value-based pricing will never work if the client doesn't understand what they are buying. And most of the time they don't, because we never told them. We sent a number and hoped it would speak for itself, which it never does.

What value-based pricing actually means, and what it doesn't

Value-based pricing is when you price a project based on the impact and outcome of your work, not the hours you spend on it. Sounds simple, but is often more complex in practice. It involves understanding that the value of your work will be different for each client. Price depends on things like client size, industry, your experience and team size instead of deliverables and scope only. Two projects might have the same output but are priced entirely differently depending on who is doing the work and for whom.

Value-based pricing is partially at fault for the price descrepencies we see in our industry, and it’s not wrong. A freelancer and an agency won’t charge the same price because their impact is very different. A local business and a multi-million dollar corporation won’t pay the same for a website, because the expected outcome is not the same.

Value-based pricing is not a made-up number, or an excuse to charge more, or something only established creatives can do. The common misconception in our industry among both clients and creatives is that we are buying and selling output like a logo, a website, a campaign. While that is the visual outcome of our work it is not the measurable outcome. What we are actually selling as creatives is a business impact that in most cases can be measured in real numbers and data. Whether the client’s goal is to get more customers, leads or sales, or target a new market, our work always promises some kind of return on investment. It is what separates us from artists who create for the sake of creating. We create to convert, to sell, to increase something. It is very capitalistic in nature.

Not being able to communicate the difference between output and outcome is where pricing conversations break down. When we quoted €10k for branding we were assigning a price to an output instead of explaining the impact the branding will have for our client. This left them feeling confused about the price, and us having to defend it. We weren’t able to defend it, and had we set up the conversation correctly we wouldn’t have had to.

In order to sell value you first need to understand what that is, and communicate it, which happens before you even write a proposal or schedule a discovery call.

Positioning: knowing what you are actually selling before the client asks

Positioning is what makes a value-based price defensible. If you are not positioned clearly, the price just looks arbitrary or even worse it looks like a scam.

When we live in a world where you can prompt an AI and get creative output for free, or buy it for $50 on Fiverr the juxtaposition of $50 and $2.000 for a logo can be jarring to clients. If you try to sell output only you will fail to communicate value. When you sell the outcome the conversation is about what you can do for your client that a logo from an AI or Fiverr cannot.

Positioning is all about who you work with, what problems you solve and what outcomes you can deliver. It should never be framed around output. You don’t just “do branding”, instead you “help e-commerce brands increase conversion through design”. The more specific you are about your positioning the easier it is to connect your work to a business outcome and more obvious to your client what they are actually paying for which is results not branding.

When we started we were generalists, without clear positioning. Now we are an agency that designs and builds custom e-commerce for global clients, but that’s not where our positioning ends. What we actually do is we build websites that are dynamic and can grow with every business. They are scalable and performance-driven. Our philosophy is invest big one time and then maintain a robust product. Instead of investing smaller amounts every two years because the product is no longer managable. The conversation is framed around the long term impact of a well-built website both financially and logistically. The difference between a website from us and an AI vibe coded one is clear as day. So when a client hears a price, they aren’t surprised, they even expect it.

Our niche is e-commerce design and developmemt, but the outcome is a sustainable product that can adapt and grow with changing business requirements, guaranteeing conversion and performance. You don’t even need a specific niche to sell a value-based price, you can be a generalist as long as the impact of your work is clear to potential clients.

The discovery call: asking the right questions so the client understands what they are buying

The goal of discovery isn't just to understand the brief, it's to help the client connect their problem to a business outcome, so that when the price comes up, they already understand what they are paying for. Of course things like who you are and what do you is important here, but it shouldn’t take up the entire call. The goal isn’t to sell them on working with you based on your achievements, skills or portfolio, it is to sell them on your ability to achieve their desired outcome. The focus of most of your questions should be on the client and their business. It is important to ask questions that reframe the conversation around the outcome vs. the output. So while discussing the brief, scope and timeline are necessary, those aren’t the things that will sell your client on the price.

Questions that uncover output vs. outcome thinking:

• "What does success look like for this project in six months?"
  • This emphasizes the return on invesment for the client, and makes them focus on the outcome.
• "What is the cost of not solving this problem?"
  • This makes it obvious why the investment is needed and what the potential consequences could be if it’s not done well.
• "Who else is affected by this, internally or externally?"
  • Puts the big picture in focus, so the conversation is no longer about deliverables, but about impact.
• "Have you tried to solve this before? What happened?"
  • Often clients have DIYed something or bought services cheap in the past, this highlights why that failed.
• "What would it mean for your business if this worked?"
  • Opens up the conversation around value, because the client will have to explain in their own words why this work is so important.

The goal: by the time you send the proposal, the client should already have told you themselves why the project is worth investing in. Your job in discovery is to help them articulate that, not to convince them of it after they see or hear the price.

If a client receives a proposal or is told a price and they are surprised, outraged or shocked by it then you failed in the two steps leading up to the proposal that should have setup an appropriate expectation on price.

Step 1: good positioning
When done successfully this should weed out clients who cannot afford to buy your services.

Step 2: the discovery call
When done successfully your client should understand why they need you to achieve their goals and what the return on investment will be.

Framing the price: outcomes not deliverables

Most creatives present price as a list of deliverables with a number next to each one. This is the worst way to present a value-based price because it invites the client to question each line item individually. This doesn’t mean you can’t include a price breakdown at all, but it shouldn’t be at the center of the budget conversation.

Instead of listing deliverables, frame the price around the process, the outcome and the investment required to get there. Your proposal should be more than just "logo design, 3 concepts, 2 revisions, final files" it should communicate the outcome like "brand identity system that positions you to attract [specific client type] and can be implemented consistently across all channels". The deliverables are the still there, but they aren’t at the center of your work or what the client is buying. This is a very similar concept to other marketing strategies we see that work when selling products. Someone buying a subscription for a productivity tool may be buying a tool but the marketing will frame it as “buying time for your business”. Paying for a positive outcome will always sound more appealing than spending money on a product or deliverable. Suddenly we aren’t looking at the money as an expense, instead we see it as a necessary investment to reach a desired goal with a positive return.

You can use what you talked about in the discovery call in your proposal that way you aren’t coming up with something new, instead you are using your client’s own words to establish the big picture around the budget. Maybe the client talked about their website costing them sales. Your proposal should communicate this is what it will cost to fix that. We wrote another blog post on how to structure a proposal, it matters more than you might think.

Even when the proposal is well structured and the outcome is clearly communicated, pushback happens. That doesn't mean you failed, it means the conversation isn't finished yet.

When the client pushes back on price

Pushback on price almost always means one of two things: they don't understand the value, or they are not the right client. How can you tell the difference? A client who doesn't understand the value will ask "why does it cost this much?" A client who isn't right for you will say "can you do it cheaper?" These require completely different responses.

For the first: go back to the outcome. "The price reflects X, which we established in our conversation is worth Y to your business."

For the second: don't negotiate yourself down. Offer a reduced scope instead, or walk away. Discounting without reducing scope teaches the client that your prices are flexible, which will follow you through the entire project. It is important to remember that you cannot sell a value-based price to a client who does not value your work.

In the first example the client may not understand the value but they can still be educated on what your input is and why that costs what it costs. In the second example the client thinks you are overcharging and believes you should be able to offer it cheaper.

Pushback from clients is normal, and it isn't a signal to lower the price, it's a signal that the value conversation isn't finished yet. Ideally you will have covered everything in your positioning, discovery call and proposal, but when the invesment is big it is normal for clients to need reassurance. If your first instinct when a client pushes back on your prices is to start offering things cheaper then you are letting the client dictate the value of your work, when you should be the one leading that conversation.

Pricing as communication

Pricing and positioning go hand in hand, which is why how you price communicates something to the client before the project even starts. A confident, well-reasoned price tells the client you know what you are doing. An apologetic or flexible price tells them you aren't sure. Clients will feel nervous about making an investment with you if you aren’t confident in what you are doing.

Offering a value-based price is a positoning tool. The clients who are willing to pay a price based on value and usually the ones who are worth working with. There is nothing worse than working with a client who tries to tell you how long things should take, wants to see your tracked hours and asks how long you estimate your work will take so that they can make sure you don’t work more than what they are willing to pay.

You want to be working towards a common goal with your client where you aren’t just a set of hands implementing their art direction (we have AI for that now). You want to be a strategic partner. But this type of client relationship is only possible if you move away from the hourly-based pricing model which is only becoming less sustainable now that we have tools that makes our work even faster.

Hourly rates can be useful for knowing your numbers and creating a financial plan based on your availabilty and resources, but it is not a pricing strategy. Understanding how to talk about your prices is what actually gets you the clients that value your work and enables you to offer value-based pricing.

Faktor gives you the structure and the starting point for your price, but ultimately you need to learn how to have the conversations and build a positioning strategy that allows you to offer that price. The creatives who are confident in their pricing aren't the ones who never get pushback, they are the ones who stopped letting pushback be a reason to charge less.