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independence2 unconnected · 1 more author in those circles
standing

contested · 6 claims against 4

applies to

b2b, no audience needed

assumes $20 to $100

outcome not stated

confidence

high

evidence

10 claims · 9 articles · 4 receipts

window

2012-10-03 → 2013-08-19 · nothing since 2013

2 builders who never spoke to each other · contested

Price on value, or on what the market will allow

One school sets the number from the money the buyer makes or saves, which is why a book aimed at consultants outsells a novel many times over at the same page count, and why repackaging the same material as a course lifts what it can carry. The other school points out that buyers compare you to the nearest familiar thing whatever you intended, that a category accustomed to tens of dollars a month will not move to thousands, and that a new entrant asking people to switch cannot open above the incumbent by much. Copying a rival's structure is the fastest way to answer whether anyone pays at all.

Where this splits

Barry and Jackson price against the value the buyer receives, while Jackson elsewhere and Gimenez hold that the market and the nearest substitute set a ceiling no value argument moves.

  1. side 01 · 6 claims

    Set the price from the value the buyer gets

    Justin Jackson · Nathan Barry

    1. 1Price on the value delivered rather than the going rate for the format
    2. 2Set the price from the value delivered, not from what the thing cost you to make.
    3. 3Anchor the price to the value the buyer gets combined with the work it took you to assemble it, not to what competitors charge.
    4. 4Set the price against the money the reader will make from it - the nearer your subject sits to their income, the higher you can charge.
    5. 5Reframe the deliverable as a course with videos and worksheets rather than an ebook, and the same material supports a higher price.

  2. side 02 · 4 claims

    The market and the nearest substitute cap your price

    Jordi Giménez · Justin Jackson

    1. 1Copy a competitor's pricing structure for your first attempt. The question you are answering is whether anyone will pay at all, not how much.
    2. 2Accept that the market sets your price ceiling - if buyers in your category are accustomed to paying tens of dollars a month you will not move them to thousands.
    3. 3Expect buyers to price your product against the nearest familiar thing, so an ethical or technical story will not carry a price premium on its own.
    4. 4As the new, unproven entrant asking people to abandon an incumbent, price below the impulse to charge a premium - your entry tier can still sit above theirs, but not far above.

What it returned

  • $39

    The App Design Handbook was priced at $39 against a market rate of about $12 for ebooks

  • $50

    Brennan Dunn's $50 book pays for itself within an hour for a consultant who moves from $50 to $100 per hour; fiction at that price would be a hard sell.

  • $29

    Justin priced Amplification at $29 as a downloadable course and ran pre-sales at $10 below that.

  • Justin quotes Nathan Barry for this rule.

Sources

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

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More in pricing

all pricing plays

the second source

Three plays a week, for the phase you are in

No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.

963 corroborated plays to draw from · 3 a week

One email a week. Unsubscribe in one click, and the address is used for this and nothing else.