The Value-Based OBM: How to Price Your Services on Outcomes, Not Hours

You’ve just had an incredible discovery call with a potential client.
You see their vision, you know exactly how you can help them, and your proposal is practically writing itself until you reach that one section that makes your stomach drop: The Investment.

Suddenly, your excitement turns into second-guessing.
What’s my hourly rate again?
How many hours will this take?

What if they think it’s too much?
Maybe I should lower it… just in case.

Sound familiar?

In this episode of “The OBM Show”, Sarah Noked is helping you break free from the hourly pricing trap and start charging for your true value, not your time.

Here’s what we cover:

  • Why hourly billing keeps you stuck on the income hamster wheel
  • How to calculate your ROI before setting your prices
  • The key to creating value-based, outcome-driven packages
  • How to confidently present your rates without apologizing or overexplaining
  • The mindset shift that helps you own your worth and lead with confidence

This episode is your official permission slip to stop charging for your time, and start charging for your talent.

When you position yourself as a strategic investment (not an expense), everything changes… your income, your confidence, and the clients you attract.

----------------

Thanks for tuning in to The OBM Show - your go-to podcast for Online Business Managers and entrepreneurs who want to scale strategically and sustainably.

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Until next time, keep building the business behind the business.

Episode Transcript

Sarah Noked (00:00):
Now I want you to come with me into a very
specific, hopefully veryfamiliar moment.
You're at your desk, you'vejust had a fantastic discovery
call with a potential client whoyou are genuinely excited
about.
You know you can help them, yousee their vision, you've
pinpointed their operationalgaps, and your mind is already
buzzing with strategies.

(00:20):
Now you open up a new documentto create the proposal that will
formalize your partnership.
You write the introduction, yououtline the scope of work, you
detail the deliverables, andthen you get to that one final
terrifying section.
The investment that thispotential client will make in
your services.
Now your fingers freeze overthe keyboards.

(00:42):
A dozen different questions,all fueled by doubt, start
swirling in your head.
What's my hourly rate again?
How many hours will this reallytake?
What if I guessed wrong?
What if they think it's toomuch?
Maybe I should start a littlebit lower to be safe.
What if they compare me tosomebody on upwork?
Who am I to charge this much?
You feel a knot in yourstomach.

(01:03):
The excitement you felt justminutes ago is replaced by a
wave of anxiety.
You finally type out a numberthat feels like a wild guess, a
compromise between what you wantto earn and what you're afraid
to ask for, and you attach thefile to the email, hold your
breath, and hit send, alreadybracing for rejection or a
negotiation you don't feelprepared for.

(01:24):
If that moment feels evenremotely familiar, then this
episode is for you.
For so many brilliant,high-achieving OBMs, pricing is
the single greatest source ofanxiety and self-doubt in their
business.
So today we're gonna dismantlethat anxiety.
We're here to help you breakfree from the prison of the
hourly rate and start pricingyour services based on the

(01:47):
incredible value you alreadycreate.
Now, this episode is yourofficial permission slip to stop
charging for your time andstart charging for your talent.
I'm gonna give you a newpowerful framework to calculate
your undeniable worth andcommunicate it with unshakable
confidence so you never have tosecond guess your value again.

(02:10):
Welcome to the OBM Show, thepodcast that pulls back the
curtain on what it really takesto thrive as an online business
manager and help businessesscale without burning out.
I'm your host, Sarah Noqued,agency owner, OBM mentor, and
founder of OBM School.
I've been working in the backend of online businesses since

(02:32):
2009, building systems, managingremote teams, and mentoring
OBMs who make businesses runlike clockwork.
Now I've seen what works, whatdoesn't, and the messy middle
that no one talks about.
Here we get real about thetools, strategies, and stories
that drive sustainable success,plus the tech mishaps, growing

(02:57):
pains, and lessons learned alongthe way.
If you're ready to stopspinning your wheels, step into
your leadership role, and seewhat actually happens behind the
scenes of thriving businesses,you're in the right place.
Let's get started.
All right, let's get right intothe heart of this matter
because this is so important.

(03:17):
The hourly billing model is ahamster wheel.
You can run faster and faster,putting in more and more hours
and taking on more and moreclients, but you actually don't
move forward.
You just get more exhausted.
It fundamentally commoditizesyour expertise.
It puts you in a directtime-for-money exchange that
makes it impossible to scaleyour income without also scaling

(03:41):
your hours to the point ofburnout.
Worse than that, it positionsyou in the client's mind as an
expense on a spreadsheet.
When you're an expense, yourjob is to be managed.
Your invoices get screwed alot, your invoices get
scrutinized line by line, yourhours get questioned, you are

(04:02):
forced to justify your existenceevery single month.
But when you are positioned asa strategic investment, the
conversation changes entirely.
An investment is not abouttime, it's about the return.
It's about growth, efficiency,and profit.
Now, the reason so many of usfall into the hourly trap is a

(04:22):
deep mindset block.
As online business managers, weare often natural helpers and
hard of service individuals.
So it can feel easy andtangible to justify a price for
an hour of our physical timespent doing a task that, you
know, maybe we like.
It feels much harder and morevulnerable to put a high-ticket

(04:44):
price on our strategic brain orthe insights, the foresights,
and the system thinking and theleadership.
These are our truedifferentiators.
So this taps directly into theimposter complex, which, you
know, I talk about a lot on thison this podcast.
We feel like a fraud forcharging a premium for our
intellect, our experience, ourstrategy, because it's less

(05:06):
tangible than a clocked hour.
But that is where your deepestvalue lies.
It's time to change theequation, and it starts with you
before you ever speak to yourclient.
So the first step is really tocalculate your ROI before you
calculate your price.
So before you even talk aboutwhat to charge, I want you to

(05:27):
become a private investigatorfor your own value.
Yes, indeed.
Your job is to build anundeniable, evidence-based case
for the return on investment youprovide your clients.
I want you to open a documenton your Google Drive, on your
cloud, whatever you're using,and title it My Value

(05:47):
Proposition.
Now look at past or currentclients and start quantifying
your impact in terms of realdollars.
First, look at the directrevenue generation.
This is the most obvious one.
So start here.
Did you manage a launch thatbrought in 150K?
Did you streamline a salesprocess that increased

(06:07):
conversions by 10%?
Did you put a system in placethat saves your client 15 hours
a month?
Next, think about cost savingand risk mitigation.
This one is huge and is oftenoverlooked by OBMs.
So did you implement a newproject management tool that
saved the company from hiringanother full-time project

(06:28):
manager?
Did you create an SOP that willreduce hours and errors and
save hundreds of hoursessentially in work that is now
automated?
Maybe you rescued a failinglaunch and pivoted and saved the
company from thousands in lostrevenue and ad spend.
That is real money, you aresaving them.

(06:50):
Now, beyond that, quantify thetime that you have created for
the CEO.
This is incredibly valuable.
A seven-figure CEO's time isworth hundreds, if not
thousands, of dollars per hour.
If you take over a teammanagement and operations,
freeing up 20 hours of theirtime each month, you haven't

(07:11):
just saved them 20 hours.
You have created 20 hours thatthey can now invest in
high-level strategy, sales, andthe visionary work that only
they can do.
You have to put a dollar amounton that, my friends.
And finally, consider teamefficiency and morale.
Did you build a system thatsaved the team collectively 20

(07:34):
hours per week?
That's 80 hours a month of paidtime that can now be redirected
to growth activities.
So, did your leadership andclear systems improve morale and
prevent a key team member fromquitting?
That the cost to hire and traina replacement is massive.
You prevented that loss.

(07:54):
So when you go through thisexercise, you will shift your
own perspective.
You will stop seeing yourselfas a $65 or $75 an hour OBM and
start seeing yourself as astrategic partner who generates
and saves tens or even hundredsof thousands of dollars for your
clients every month, everyyear, right?

(08:14):
This evidence is the foundationof confident value-based
pricing.
Now, my second strategy is toshift to a tier-based packaging
model.
Once you understand yourimmense value, you can stop
selling hours and start sellingaccess to outcomes.
The most effective way to dothis is by creating tiered

(08:34):
packages.
This immediately elevates thediscovery call conversation away
from what's your hourly rateand towards what's the right
solution and level oftransformation for my business.
Now, I recommend a simplethree-tiered structure with
names that sell thetransformation.
For example, you could offeryour clarity and control

(08:56):
package.
This might be a foundationaloffer.
It might focus on core systems,you know, helping them organize
their back end of their projectmanagement tool and creating
those initial SOPs.
That might be great for someonewho's never worked with an OBM
before.
And the promised outcome hereis creating calm from chaos and
building the operationalbedrocks for stable growth.

(09:19):
From there, you can offer anext level solution.
Maybe this is for people whoare a little bit beyond that
first step.
Maybe they've already workedwith an OBM, maybe they have
some systems in place.
We could call this one thegrowth and momentum package.
And this is your activemanagement offer.
It's focused on launches,project leadership.
This would include everythingin the foundational tier plus

(09:40):
active launch planning andmanagement, leading the team
through campaigns and managingthe day-to-day operations.
This promised outcome is theexpert leadership of profitable
growth initiatives.
And then if you have a highestlevel tier, let's call it Scale
and Strategy Package, this isyour true OBM strategic
partnership designed for thoseseven-figure CEOs who need a

(10:04):
genuine right-hand partner.
This includes everything in thegrowth tier plus that second
tier.
And it also includes long-termplanning, team development, HR
support, and financialforecasting and budget
management.
This here, the outcome here, istrue operational leadership
that allows the CEO to stepfully into their visionary role.

(10:28):
Now you're no longer sellingyour time, you are selling a
transformation.
The client self-selects intothe next level of transformation
they are ready for, and theprice is anchored to the immense
value of the outcome, not justthe hours it takes you to
deliver it.
Now, my next strategy, gotanother one for you, is to
master the value-based pricingconversation.

(10:51):
So when it's time to talk aboutthe investment on a discovery
call, you need to present itwith calm confidence, anchored
in the value that you've alreadyestablished during your
diagnosis.
So you lead with the price andyou lead with you never lead
with the price, you always leadwith the outcome.

(11:12):
Now, after you've diagnosedtheir problem and they've shared
their vision with you, youconnect your package directly to
their desired outcome as thebridge from their pain to their
pleasure, right?
The script sounds somethinglike this.
Thank you for sharing all ofthat.
It's very clear.
You're currently feelingoverwhelmed by chaotic,
stressful launches that areleaving money on the table.

(11:34):
Your vision is to have smooth,predictable, and more profitable
campaigns so you can focus onyour clients.
The growth and momentum packageis designed specifically to
bridge that gap for you.
It includes full launchplanning from start to finish,
daily team management, and thesystems optimization to ensure
we hit your revenue goals.

(11:54):
To have that expert leadershipand peace of mind that, well,
that investment is $6,000 permonth.
Now you state the numberclearly and as a matter of fact,
and then you pause.
You embrace the silence.
You do not justify, you do notoverexplain.
You definitely don't apologizefor your fee.
You have confidently presentedthe price as the investment

(12:17):
required to solve their veryexpensive problem.
So one of our students, Laura,inside of OBM School, she's a
phenomenal OBM.
She is pretty much brilliant,but she was trapped at charging
$75 for an hour and completelyburnt out and really attracting
clients who were micromanagingher hours and questioning her

(12:38):
invoices.
So it it leads you to feel morelike an assistant than a
leader.
So during one of our hot seatcoaching calls inside of
accreditation, we walked herthrough this exact value
calculation process for a clientshe had worked with the
previous year.
Together we did the math andrealized that she had
single-handedly managed a launchthat brought in over $200,000.

(13:01):
Her fee for the project, BilledHourly, had been less than $5K.
She was shocked.
Seeing this massive disparitybetween her fee and the value
she created was the huge lightbulb moment she needed.
She immediately went back andcreated a signature Done For You
launch management package.
She priced it at a flat fee of$8,000, and she told me she was

(13:25):
terrified to put that number ona proposal.
But the very next week, she goton a discovery call with a new
larger client, armed with thisnew perspective.
She didn't talk about herhours.
She led a diagnosticconversation and focused on the
value and the outcome.
She presented her $8,000package over a two-month period

(13:47):
with calm confidence.
The client didn't even blink.
They said, that's exactly whatwe need.
When can you start?
They saw the $8,000 as aninvestment and quite frankly, a
small price to pay for apotential $200,000 or more
return.
Right?
So Laura was then able to takeon fewer, higher quality clients
with more focused hours, andshe tripled her income that year

(14:11):
because she finally learned toprice her outcomes, not her
hours.
Now, this is possible for youtoo.
The first step is gettingcrystal clear on what you offer
and the value it provides.
Now, our OBM Starter Kit ispacked with tools to help you
define your offers and structureyour packages with authority.
So you can find that atobmschool.com forward slash

(14:32):
starter.
And for more free tools to helpyou build your confidence, head
to obmschool.com forward slashresources.
Now I want you to leave thisepisode with the final thought
of you are not an expense.
You are an investment.
And it's time that you startedpricing yourself accordingly.
Thanks so much for tuning in tothe OBM show.

(14:52):
Remember, your price isn't justa number, it's a declaration of
the incredible value you bringto the table.
Now, if you enjoyed thispodcast, subscribe, share it
with a friend, and I'll see youin the next episode.