1. Pricing Strategy and Planning

2. Pantheon.io
Agency and Community Success Manager
at Pantheon.
dwayne@pantheon.io
@mcdwayne on Twitter.
Some things I enjoy, aside from tech, are
● Improv comedy and theater
● Comic books
● Karaoke!!!
Hi, I’m Dwayne

3. Pantheon.io
3
Pantheon Background

Pantheon is a platform for developers and
agencies to quickly build, launch and run
sites in a sane and scalable way
Pantheon has over 400 signed agency
partners + over 3000 agencies worldwide
using the tools

4. Pantheon.io 4
What we’ve learned about agencies


5. Pantheon.io
Surprise….
THERE IS NO MAGIC
‘ONE SIZE FITS ALL’
NUMBER FOR THIS!!!

6. Pantheon.io
Outline
● How to uncover the right pricing strategy to ‘fund your life’.
● Articulating differentiation and focus on value instead of price.
● Choosing hourly vs fixed bid pricing based on the situation.
● When and how to bundle additional services like hosting, SEO and
support services.

7. Fund Your Life

8. Pantheon.io
How much to fund a life?
Think “Thriving” not “Subsistence”
VS

9. Pantheon.io
Work - Life Balance

10. Pantheon.io
No magic formula, but…
Expenses
÷
Working Hours
≈
Minimum Viable Hourly Rate
Special shout out to Heather Acton, Founder, Helio Interactive for this advice from WordCamps to freelancers

11. Pantheon.io
Example
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RZ-uyuywS06_JS8PO79QHi_Go3uWFhW8Kob4ysj9C2Q/edit

12. Value vs Price

13. Pantheon.io
13
Secret of all sales

People spend $ on things they value

14. Pantheon.io
How much is a project worth?

15. Pantheon.io
What does a website cost?

16. A dream written down with a date becomes a goal.
A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan.
A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true.
– Greg S. Reid

17. Pantheon.io
17
Sales Basics: Sales funnel

● Leads
● Qualified Leads
● Proposals
● Growth goal ($$$)
● Outreach and Networking
● Qualification
● Discovery
● Procurement
● Profit!!!

18. Pantheon.io
18
Discovery process

VS

19. Pantheon.io
19
Value Based Discovery

Some basic rules:
● Ask open ended questions
● Focus on the ‘Why’
● Resist talking about your value until you have enough information to
match your value to what they want to accomplish
● Listen 75% of the time. Talk 25%

20. What about your value?

21. Proving your value
to clients
Portfolio, Client
Reviews, Case Studies
+
Expert Content

22. Hourly vs fixed bid

23. Pantheon.io
Poll time

24. Pantheon.io
Every situation is different, but...
General rule of thumb I have heard:
● If the client has not defined scope of project- Hourly might be best.
● If the project has a specific, defined - scoped they will probably also have a
real budget. These require very tight boundaries

25. Bundling additional services like
hosting, SEO and support services

26. Pantheon.io
26
Sales Basics: Sales funnel


27. Pantheon.io
Discovery is the time to ask:
● What do you expect to do for site updates?
● How will you react to SEO optimization evolutions?
● What frequency are you expecting me to check in with you?
● What do you expect me to do if the site goes down or gets
hacked?

28. Pantheon.io
And do you even want to?
● Are you good at all these areas
or should you make a referral?
● Are you set up to handle hosting
or should you rely on a partner
company?

29. Pantheon.io
“Yes, I can do that.”
Vs.
“Yes, I could do that, but only for a price.”
Never give away your time

30. Pantheon.io
No matter what though….
DEFINED AND ENFORCED SCOPE IS CRITICAL!!!!
Scope creep is a killer

31. Tips for new and small agencies

32. Pantheon.io
Freelancer or Consultant?
Freelancer Does Not Sound
As Valuable As A Consultant

33. Pantheon.io
Do’s and Don’ts
● Do - Trust your instincts.
● Don’t - Take a bad deal.

34. Pantheon.io
Do’s and Don’ts
● Do - Raise prices, at least annually.
● Don’t - Reduce your rates. Ever.

35. Pantheon.io
Do’s and Don’ts
● Do - Fire bad clients.
● Don’t - Be afraid to ask for referrals.

36. Pantheon.io
Do’s and Don’ts
● Do - Give yourself regular raises.
● Don’t - Pay yourself last.
http://thecoffeebeanmedia.com/dos-and-donts-of-logo-designing/

37. Pantheon.io
Do’s and Don’ts
● Do - Plan regular vacations.
● Don’t - Work weekends ‘for free’.
http://thecoffeebeanmedia.com/dos-and-donts-of-logo-designing/

38. Pantheon.io
Do’s and Don’ts
● Do - Have a Pet Project to continually
enable you to learn new skills.
● Don’t - Don’t let your projects control you.

39. Pantheon.io
39
Further Reading/Listening

*MJHoffman - https://twitter.com/mjhoffman
*You Can't Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar
Book by David H Sandler and John Hayes
*The Challenger Sale: Taking Control of the Customer
Conversation - Book by Brent Adamson and Matthew Dixon
*Predictable Revenue - Predictablerevenue.com

40. Pantheon.io
Agency and Community Success Manager
at Pantheon.
mcdwayne on Twitter.
dwayne@pantheon.io
Some things I enjoy, aside from tech, are
● Improv comedy and theater
● Comic books
● Karaoke!!!
Goodbye, I was Dwayne

41. Thanks