My thoughts on Facilitation and Pricing

If you sell your services at market price, then you automatically position yourself as a commodity. Great facilitators should be so unique that their customers have no obvious reference point.A famous and talented Romanian singer told me the other days that he sometimes finds himself in awkward discussions about how much he charges for “just” 45 minutes. It got me thinking that the same goes for facilitation. Often, the client looks at the “man-days” that go into a project. But what if you can create a workshops design in “just” 3 hours because you have so much experience that it’s now easy for you to do that? And what if you can save your client a significant amount of money through a one-day workshop? Should you charge “man-days” with a fixed price? Whether you are a singer or a facilitator, if you find yourself in the position to explain why you charge X amount for your services, think about this:- The client doesn’t understand the value you are creating => make it obvious (ex. the stress and costs you eliminate, the time you save, the money you help them make etc)- The client doesn’t understand the process you go through to create that value => explain what goes into your work (knowledge, creativity, and time to think are the core pillars of the services world)- The client has chosen a wrong reference point for your services => discuss what you and only you can bring to the table, so it becomes obvious that your services are quite unique (the assumption being that they are 😎 )The conversation about value is an important one! And we should have it with our clients before we set the price of our services. Different projects = different value creation = different pricing.Would you pay The Rolling Stones the same as a basement band, for 45 minutes?Credits go to Adam Davidson who wrote an amazing book (The Passion Economy), that gave me a brand new pair of lenses 🤓

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