October 9, 2025 • 31 mins
In this episode, we'll explore how pricing serves as a strategic lever in B2B marketing. We'll discuss its impact on buyer perception, its role in brand positioning and best practices for aligning pricing with value to drive growth.
Cocktail:Jack the Pumpkin
This cocktail combines applejack, pumpkin puree and apple cider for a smooth, fall-ready blend. The ginger beer gives it a little bite, and the apple slice on top finishes it off. It’s simple, seasonal and just feels right this time of year.
Ingredients:
6 oz. applejack
4 oz. pumpkin puree
4 oz. apple cider, chilled
6 oz. ginger beer, chilled
4 apple slices, for garnish
Directions:
Combine the applejack, pumpkin puree and apple cider in a shaker with ice.
Shake vigorously until chilled.
Stir in the ginger beer.
Strain into 4 rocks glasses filled with ice.
Garnish with the apple slices.'
Elevate your marketing with our blog's exclusive tips, tricks and FREE resources! 🤩 https://blog.antidote71.com/
We'd love to hear from you! Share your thoughts in the comments below, or join us on our social media platforms. 👇
LinkedIn: / antidote-71
Instagram: / antidote_71
Facebook: / antidote71agency
-
Hosts: Rich Mackey & Catelin Drey
Producer: Zac Hazen
About Antidote 71:
Think of us as your very own offsite, highly effective team of local marketing growth experts, from digital marketing to traditional (who you’d also happily grab a beer with). Antidote 71 is equal parts skill and personality. We’re super fun to hang out with (in our opinion) and exceptionally good at what we do. We love our work and care about the people we work with.
Learn more about us. 👉 https://antidote71.com/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
74% of B2B buyers expect clear and detailed
pricing up front.
And 65% say ROI is a top factorinfluencing their final
decision.
So if you're hiding yourpricing, you could have a
problem.
So let's get into that, Zach.
SPEAKER_02 (00:23):
Yeah, let's talk pricing.
Pricing as a marketing strategy.
SPEAKER_00 (00:28):
Yeah.
So a lot of places, and itdrives me crazy when, especially
with software, like I want to golike look at some software and
like the pricing's just notthere.
You have to reach out to sales,you have to schedule a demo.
Yeah, and I'm like, if I have toschedule a demo, you're probably
out of my price range.
SPEAKER_02 (00:44):
Like, I know.
It's like my least favoritething.
It's like B to C is a lot lesscommon, obviously.
Like you don't really like haveprices hidden from you.
But if I ever have to search fora price, yeah, it's like you
said, it's probably tooexpensive for me anyway.
SPEAKER_00 (01:01):
But I've seen a few lately that are like, you know,
start free, start free, startfree.
And you know that it charges,it's a free trial, but you can't
actually see what it's gonna beafter the free trial.
And when you click it, they wantyou to create an account like
for your free trial before youever see what it's gonna cost
after them.
Oh my god, I'm like no.
No, no.
SPEAKER_02 (01:22):
Or they do that, they like make you feel like
you're doing the entire processof what the software should do.
And then to get the finalresult, you have to make an
account.
Or for like B2C, addingsomething to your cart to see
the price, that kind of irks mesometimes too.
SPEAKER_00 (01:38):
Yep.
All right.
Well, we kind of hit the statsin the uh in the intro there.
So um we're gonna get to ourcocktail here shortly, and we
will then discuss how you canuse your pricing as actually a
business strategy and a growthstrategy for your company.
SPEAKER_02 (01:52):
Yeah.
So the cocktail, uh, this isgonna be important I say this
correctly.
Uh Jack, comma, the pumpkin.
SPEAKER_00 (02:00):
Correct.
Jack the pumpkin.
Yeah, there you go.
Another way you could say that.
SPEAKER_02 (02:06):
So this cocktail is another one of the fall
cocktails for the seasonal stuffI'm doing this quarter.
Um, it's apple jap, apple applejack, pumpkin puree, apple
cider, and a little bit ofginger beer for a bite.
And uh yeah, it's pretty simple.
It also has uh apple slices fora garnish.
This is made by Jeffrey Zakarianfrom the Food Network.
SPEAKER_00 (02:29):
Food network, yeah.
And so G-Z, as they call it.
SPEAKER_02 (02:33):
Nice.
SPEAKER_00 (02:34):
All right, so uh I think I actually saw them do
this like back when I used towatch the kitchen all the time,
but I don't anymore.
Like, we don't even have FoodNetwork.
I can just catch episodes onwhatever that would be on HBO
Max.
Now I guess they would have thebond, potentially, because of
the discovery relationship fornow.
All right, so this one servesfour.
Um, or if you're just reallyfeeling like getting loaded in
(02:57):
an afternoon, you could just putit in a big, big glass and enjoy
it.
Um, so you have six ounces ofapple jack, four ounces of
pumpkin puree.
So this one's important, and Iremember this from the episode.
Not pumpkin pie puree.
That's different.
You're gonna get the the season,the apple cider and the ginger
beer are gonna give you some ofthat spice.
(03:18):
This is just pumpkin puree, soit's just pure pumpkin.
Uh, four ounces of apple ciderchilled, six ounces of ginger
beer chilled, and then fourapple slices, one for each glass
for a garment, garnish.
Excuse me.
So you put everything but thefizzy stuff into the shaker.
So the apple jack, the pumpkinpuree, and the apple cider go
into the shaker and you shakethat until it is chilled.
(03:41):
And then you stir in the gingerbeer into the shaker.
Um, you stir the ginger beer inthere.
Don't shake it though, becausefizzy everywhere.
Uh, strain it into four rocksglasses filled with ice and then
garnish with your apple slices.
So I love the simplicity of thisone.
Like, aside from like, what areyou gonna do with the rest of
that apple puree?
(04:02):
Because what was it?
Four ounce, or pumpkin puree,sorry, because four ounces, I'm
pretty sure it's like an eightor nine ounce can, is my guess.
SPEAKER_02 (04:09):
If you have a dog, you can give it to your dog.
SPEAKER_00 (04:11):
That's true, and you can freeze it too.
You can make little pumpkinpuree cubes for your dog as an
enrichment treat.
That is true, and that's anotherreason not to get pumpkin pie
puree, because that you can'tgive to your dog.
SPEAKER_02 (04:22):
Yeah, you can't make pup cups with pumpkin pie puree.
SPEAKER_00 (04:26):
No.
But this one, I mean, I alsofeel like just make a double and
use all the pumpkin pie uhpumpkin puree and uh put it in a
big glass.
Have a good night.
Yeah, have a good evening.
SPEAKER_02 (04:40):
Yeah.
I mean, it's a nice simpledrink.
SPEAKER_00 (04:42):
I like it.
All right, so that is the Jackthe Pumpkin.
Just gonna be clear on as in thepumpkin whose name is Jack.
Uh all right, so uh I think weavoided putting an explicit on
this one for now.
Um, and we can uh get into howuh pricing can be used as a uh
(05:04):
strategy.
All right, we are back.
Um I wish I had that drink.
That would actually be reallygood this afternoon.
Um it's also a good soup day.
It's like 54 degrees outside andraining right now.
It's very weird.
(05:24):
It sounds like good fallweather.
Yeah, but it was like that itwas like 90s this weekend.
Like it was like 88, 90s.
Really?
Yeah.
And then uh yesterday afternoonthe rain came in and we got a
cold front to push through.
SPEAKER_02 (05:35):
That's one thing I don't miss about the Midwest.
Like the crazy weather.
It's just zero.
SPEAKER_00 (05:41):
I mean, we don't get hurricanes though.
We get thunderstorms andderechos and things like that,
which are almost as bad.
I mean, a derecho is like a landhurricane, basically.
But um yeah, it's a little bitwild.
But um, you would never useweather as your strategic
advantage, um, I guess.
Maybe you could if you're in SanDiego or something.
But um we can use pricing as astrategic advantage.
(06:04):
So um let's talk about trust,Zach.
Um why don't you share somethoughts on how upfront pricing
can build trust?
SPEAKER_02 (06:14):
So with pricing, especially B2B, I think
transparency is probably themost important.
So being clear about what youoffer and the value you're
providing.
So having things like tieredpricing, basic, standard,
premium, just so buyers can seewhere they fit in.
We've done stuff like that forour house about onboarding.
Um make it easy to find.
(06:36):
Don't make people go search fortheir pricing or your pricing, I
mean, because chances are peoplethat's like the number one thing
people are looking for, right?
So if your price is hidden andyou're the type of person is
like most people are looking foryour price like right away.
Not necessarily just the valueyou provide.
(06:57):
Price is probably the mostimportant.
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (07:00):
I mean, we've talked about how much research, like
70% of our research is doneonline before we ever reach out
to a company.
And I know companies hidepricing to try to force that
outreach.
Um, but it's really frustrating.
I mean, even if you can do sortof ranges of pricing, that can
be helpful.
Um, our business is kind of hardbecause our pricing is different
based on each client.
(07:21):
I mean, we have some things thatare pretty standard.
Um, and we've tried kind ofgiving an idea of what you get
at different levels.
Like here's a sample$2,000retainer, here's a sample$5,000
retainer, here's a sample,$10,000.
Um, but none of those ever workout exactly that way.
But as we're shopping, we wantto get at least an understanding
of where your pricing is gonnacome in because it's just it's
(07:44):
just really hard.
SPEAKER_02 (07:45):
Yeah.
I mean frustrating.
How do you think upfront pricingaffects like a buyer's
perception of a company?
Like a specifically, like yeah,what do you think about that?
Because you're expensive.
Yeah.
I think let's say you have likea really expensive price, right?
And uh all they're seeing is theprice and not what you offer,
(08:06):
that can be really confusing.
I think just like the main pointhere is transparency is really
important.
So not just showing what yourprice is, because that's one
part of it, but also actuallylike telling them what you're
getting for the price.
So if you have different tiers,like basic, standard, and
premium, telling them what youget and comparing them can be
(08:28):
really valuable.
So they're seeing, oh well, if Ineed like this additional
service, like a Hobspotonboardings, for example, like
okay, you can get the normalHubSpot like onboarding process
where we just run you throughthe very basics and teach you
things, but we don't do anythingreally hands-on, or we can do it
all for you and make it easy,right?
So I think it's really importantto provide that transparency and
(08:51):
value initially.
The more info you can providesomeone, the more likely they
are to make a decision with you,obviously, because they can
compare with you and othercompetitors, and the more
valuable information you givethem, the better.
SPEAKER_00 (09:04):
So and honestly, somebody's probably giving away
your price on the internetanyway.
They've probably posted a reviewsomewhere or a blog post that
gives at least a like gap of it.
And I think what's reallyfrustrating for me is we just
went through this with somesoftware not too long ago as we
were looking at webinarsoftware.
So, like we um, you know, didn'treally have the features weren't
(09:24):
really there for the level wewanted, and we just the next
level up seemed to have it, butthere wasn't a price for it.
And so we, you know, we had toreach out to a sales rep.
We had to schedule a meeting, wedid a 30-minute and he was kind
of hard selling us at the end.
And in the end, when we finallygot to the price, it's like I
wouldn't have even done themeeting if I'd known that's what
the price was, because thesoftware we were trying to move
(09:45):
from was actually pretty muchthe same price.
So there was no benefit to usmoving and or changing.
Um, and we ended up finding adifferent way to do it with a
lesser tier um and just make itwork.
But it's that whole like, youknow, you and I had to be on
that meeting.
That salesperson did a meetingwhere we were never gonna buy at
that price.
(10:05):
Um, and I think I even said thatup front.
Like, if this is like$5,000,we're not gonna buy it.
And he still went through withthe meeting.
He could have said, Yeah, it'slike$5,000 and we a month and we
would have, or a year orwhatever it was.
Um and we would have been like,Yeah, never mind.
Like, we're not gonna do thatfor this.
SPEAKER_02 (10:23):
Yeah, just don't waste people's time.
Just tell them what they need toknow.
You can use content to supportyour price too.
You don't need to explaineverything in the moment, maybe.
You can put out like blogs, sendemails, things like that, that
just give you a little more ofan explainer.
But yeah, again, transparency isreally important.
SPEAKER_00 (10:41):
Yeah, and I think in our business, it's it's helpful.
Like if we're doing a case studyto give like an example of, you
know, this was uh roughly, youknow,$15,000 project, or give a
range, you know, because someclients don't want to you want
people to tell like what theyspent, you they want you to tell
what what they spent on it.
But at the same time, you canstill give a range of that.
I've seen that with um, weworked with a construction
(11:05):
company for a while, and that'sone of the things we really
encourage them to do is this wasa$15 million project.
This was a$3 million project.
Um, so that as they're lookingat those high-end and mid-range
clients, they don't they don'tget a low-end client coming in
looking at a high-end case studyand saying, I want that.
It's like, well, you can't havethat.
Um, like we have friends lookingat, they're doing some
(11:26):
remodeling, and the designerbrought them like, you know,
this beautiful wallpaper fromFrance.
Um, but it's it's hand-inkedwallpaper.
Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02 (11:35):
I've never even heard of hand-inked wallpaper.
SPEAKER_00 (11:38):
Yeah, it was like, um, I think they said it was
like five or six thousanddollars for like a roll of it.
And they're like, okay, likelet's get down to something
that's maybe like stillbeautiful but printed.
I mean, but that designer alsothey said brings a low, medium,
and high.
And the high is always somethingthat they know you're probably
not gonna buy.
Like one of the examples theygave where they needed three
(11:58):
pendant lights above theirisland.
Well, one of the ones that wasamazing that they fell in love
with$10,000 per light.
And they're like, we're notspending$30,000 on lights.
SPEAKER_02 (12:07):
Yeah, that's crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (12:08):
Yeah, and so she had one that was a few thousand and
one that was like a thousand orwhatever for them as well.
SPEAKER_02 (12:13):
It's kind of cool to see that premium pricing though.
SPEAKER_00 (12:17):
Well, and that's the thing, right?
Like at least you know whatyou're not getting or what you
could level up to if you really,really wanted to.
SPEAKER_02 (12:25):
So I mean, I guess like, oh, sorry, with a client,
I mean, if they're in thestandard pricing and then they
realize, oh, we need a lot more,then having the knowing what
they can get out of the premiumpricing is really valuable, like
you said.
SPEAKER_00 (12:38):
Yeah, and we've had a lot of clients who started
smaller and built as the ROI wasthere and as they proved it out
and they saw it, you know, theydidn't want to dive into a huge
retainer, but it grew and youknow, their business grew with
it, which is also good as well.
So I think the other thing thatpeople hear is oh, if I put my
pricing out, I have to be thelowest in the market.
And you have to hit this likeeveryday low prices and try to
(13:01):
be the Walmart of your industry.
Um, that's not the case.
Um, I don't think anybodyrealistically is always looking
for the cheapest thing.
Like you said, like show me whatI get for the money.
Like the a grid that gives mefeatures of your different
levels of pricing is reallyhelpful because then I can
understand like what I'm gonnaget uh for the money.
(13:23):
Um so the other thing there isyou have to know your own value.
So we talk about like uniqueselling propositions, USPs, um,
you know, your valueproposition.
So what are you what value doyou bring to the client?
And ideally, how does thatcompare to your competition?
Um I you really want somethingthat makes you more valuable
(13:45):
than your competition.
Um, so that's another area tokind of look at it.
You don't have to be the lowestprice, but you do have to be um,
you know, competitive for thefor the value, value, like
features for money.
SPEAKER_02 (13:59):
And if you're not the lowest price, it's kind of
like we said earlier, you needto show the value you're
providing.
And just yeah.
I think like seeing how you candifferentiate is really
important, like you said.
Like if we're doing a HubSpotonboarding and another company's
doing one for cheaper, but theydon't offer any hands-on
support, that's that's somethingwe can sell.
SPEAKER_00 (14:20):
So well, and our onboarding costs more than
HubSpot standard onboarding.
But like you said, theirs is ahands-off approach, it's a
guided, you have to doeverything yourself as the
person being onboarded, whereours for a little bit more will
actually do more stuff from you.
With with theirs, you also getone person, you get one
resource, and then it's onlineresources.
(14:40):
With us, we can move stuff outto people in the agency.
Um, and that's part of how we weonboarded somebody in two weeks,
Caitlin and I did in sales, um,because we did a lot of the
stuff, but then Adriana did thereports and we had, I think you
even did some stuff there.
You were building out somethingfor that one.
Um, but yeah, and it's really,you know, you talk about ROI.
(15:02):
I think giving examples ofclients who at that level of
spend have seen this, like theseare the results they got.
Because if you've got a$5,000 amonth, whatever it is, and the
client's making$10,000 a month,you know, that's just a 2X.
That's really hard.
And it might not be worth it tothem.
But if your average client isclosing$100,000 and deals on
(15:23):
that$5,000, okay, like that's 20times what we're paying for you.
That might feel really good.
You know, so it's it's just thatbalance of value for money.
And sometimes you don't win.
Like, um, you know, we had onewhere we lost.
Uh, we had a prospect come inand they wanted a full audit of
their HubSpot portal, like, andthey had sales, service,
(15:45):
marketing, operations, like theyhad everything in there,
content.
Um, they felt like they weren'tusing it.
And so, you know, that fullstack is probably two to three
thousand dollars a month withHubSpot that they were spending
in software.
Um, and they wanted to get thevalue out of it.
You know, well, we gave them anestimate uh because we charge
for deep audits like that.
And they said, Oh, we've got twoother people who will do it for
(16:07):
free, but we really want to workwith you.
So can you just do it for free?
We said no.
SPEAKER_01 (16:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (16:12):
Um, yeah, because they weren't gonna get what they
wanted if we did it for free.
Like we have free audits, notfree HubSpot portal audits.
Those take more time.
But we have what, a free SEOaudit, we'll do a free social
media audit, a free lead genaudit, a free kind of website
optimization audit.
Um, those are surface audits.
They take one to two hours andgive us a general idea of how
(16:35):
good or bad things are and whata high level scope of work would
be.
But what they were asking us forwas like over 20 hours of work.
We got to investigate, we've gotto analyze, we've got to dig
around, we've got to come upwith recommendations.
And it's just not worth it forus to do it for free, especially
when there's no future business.
You know, maybe they would havehired us for something, but they
(16:56):
weren't saying they neededsomebody to manage HubSpot for
them on a monthly basis.
They were just saying, we wantto know what we're not doing
right.
And then it might have been likethey would do a deeper, like
re-onboarding or something.
Um, but it's just one of thosewhere it's like, and I told
them, I'm like, and I actuallyhave a note here to follow up
because it's been about a month,to be like, did you get what you
(17:17):
wanted from the free one?
Because like if you did, that'sgreat.
And whoever's out there givingthat away for free, good for
them.
Um, but if you didn't, you know,ours still stands and it's still
the same price, and it will be amuch, much deeper report.
SPEAKER_02 (17:34):
So I mean, yeah, know your worth.
Don't just put out things thatare like 20 hours worth of work
and give it out for free.
I mean, they could have justtaken that and we wouldn't have
seen them again, like you said.
SPEAKER_00 (17:45):
Yeah, it's possible.
I mean, and and it could havebeen a relationship builder, but
that particular offering isn'tone of our relationship
builders.
Like if they had just wanted alead gen audit of their website,
yes, we can do that for free.
It's a two-hour thing, there'sthree people involved in it, and
we get you a report and it'sreally great.
Um, and it gives you a an ideaat a high level of what you need
to do.
Um, but we don't give you all ofthe specific recommendations.
(18:09):
Like we just, you know, we giveyou sort of a hint at what you
could do.
Um but the idea there isobviously you hire us to fix
things.
SPEAKER_02 (18:18):
Yeah.
So next point, um, we kind ofcovered a little bit of this in
my initial point, but usingpricing as a storytelling tool.
So your pricing says a lot aboutyou and your brand, as we kind
of talked about.
If you're offering a higherprice, then you better offer
premium services, especially ifyou're at the top end of your
(18:38):
industry.
Yep.
And again, you need to be verytransparent about the value that
you're providing.
But if you're on the lower end,it's kind of like we just
covered you don't want to givetoo much value for too little,
you know what I mean?
So there's definitely a balancethere.
In terms of pricing being astorytelling tool, that kind of
covers again of what you can usepricing for with your content
(19:03):
with the things you're puttingout.
So I we talked about thisseveral times already, but we
have a comparison guide for ourHubSpot onboarding process.
So comparing what we do toHubSpot, that's great.
That shows the value and thetrend that's transparent.
And even though we don't letlike plaster that out on like
its own landing page, I don'tthink, it's still a little like
(19:26):
they have to like sign up.
Do we do they have to sign upfor it or do we just send it to
people?
SPEAKER_00 (19:29):
Uh we'll just send it to people who encourage it.
SPEAKER_02 (19:31):
Oh, we just send it to people.
Even though it's not like on ourwebsite or anything, it's still
like very easy to probably get.
Yeah, probably should be.
But it's still very easy to getand very like it's not hard to
find.
If you want it, we candefinitely send it to you.
And it's yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (19:47):
So I think we also do, I mean, we do a lot of
onboardings anyway.
And so a lot of what comes up iswe'll be doing a HubSpot
onboarding and they'll be like,Oh, can't you just do this for
me?
And it's like, well, yeah, buthere's what that looks like, and
you're gonna have to pay more.
Um, you know, that kind ofthing.
Or, you know, sometimes we'llget people who and I love these,
(20:08):
where the salesperson at HubSpotknows that like the standard
onboarding isn't gonna work forthem.
It's just not.
And they're really gonna needsomeone to do it for them and
they're gonna probably need anongoing relationship.
And then we get into a shareddeal with them, which is really
nice.
Um, but yeah, but even thoseHubSpot reps, like we can we
send them that one sheet too, sothat they can speak pretty
(20:29):
intelligently to what theirstandard onboarding is and what
we provide.
Um, and we do have like an evenhigher tier where it's you dump
on us and we go do everythingand it's done in like three
weeks.
Um kind of neat.
SPEAKER_02 (20:43):
I think something that is interesting too that you
can do is like a calculator orsome kind of form that estimates
the cost of things that wouldthat you'd like to do.
Calculators are always reallycool because it's like, oh, if I
did this and this, like how muchwould it like cost me?
And it's just like a roughestimate, but it still gives you
a ballpark number.
(21:03):
I think that's really cool.
Same thing with like anassessment or like an audit
where you can like basicallywith the information they
provide you, you can ballparknumbers into how much something
would cost.
I think that's really cool.
And honestly, just interweavingit like in a lot of your
marketing materials, kind oflike how we said, like we send
emails to like we send emails,we create blogs, things like
(21:25):
that.
So not just like having itreadily available, but also
using it as your uniquedifferentiator in a way that
makes sense.
SPEAKER_00 (21:34):
So yeah, and I think you're you're you're dead on
there.
You're telling your story,you're telling your client's
story, and you're giving alittle bit of like some proof
points is a great way to usepricing in there.
I love the calculator idea.
Um, there's a few things that wedo that we could put a
calculator on.
Um, like um, you know, Googleads day-to-day management.
Um, we kind of know what thattakes on average every week to
(21:58):
do that.
And, you know, the price to dolike one campaign is not the
it's not just five times more todo five campaigns because once
we're in there moving around,there's synergies in there.
And so that's a great placewhere a calculator could come in
handy.
SPEAKER_02 (22:13):
Uh, calculator tool was interesting too.
SPEAKER_00 (22:19):
Yeah, it's super interesting how you can do that.
But anything you can do to helppeople understand what they're
gonna get and what they're gonnapay so they can weigh that uh
potential ROI in their mind.
Um, it's just helpful.
I mean, I was thinking as wewere talking, like, what if you
went to like McDonald's and theywere like, okay, we have a
(22:40):
chicken sandwich, but we've alsogot the um premium chicken
sandwich, and we've got thedeluxe chicken sandwich.
And they tell you the chickensandwich is like$2.49 or
whatever, but then they don'ttell you what the other two are,
like what the price is.
Um, and you have to ask.
Like, think about how that juststretches the buying process.
And obviously, I know, right?
SPEAKER_02 (23:03):
I don't want to have to make an unnecessary question
about a chicken sandwich.
SPEAKER_00 (23:07):
Right.
And so I mean, and that's a reallike um crazy example, right?
Because in fast food, they wouldnever ever do that.
Like the menus are all there,the pricing is there, you
self-select and it's it's aquick transaction.
But there is that equivalent inwhat you know, what we do and
what other people do in B2B,where it's, you know, I don't
(23:29):
want to have to do a 30-minutediscovery call for you to tell
me that your average retainer is$5,000 a month and that it it
generally includes these typesof things.
Like, just let me know that.
Like, it's fine, it's not gonnahurt anybody.
SPEAKER_02 (23:44):
Well, and it's like you kind of said too, where even
though like our pricing isn'tlike for some things, isn't like
super specific because itdepends on a lot of different
factors.
Like I said, with the calculatoror the assessment, you can still
close the gap a little bit insome way to provide some kind of
information so that they're notleft guessing.
Because the reality is if youdon't have pricing on a lot of
(24:06):
stuff, or like at least aballpark, like it's really hard
for buyers to make a decision,right?
Like they need that kind ofinformation.
SPEAKER_00 (24:16):
Yeah, and I think you can you can couch it a
little bit, be like, you know,this is an estimate, this is an
average.
Um, but I mean, it's one of thethings that drives me crazy is
like, you know, we did newinsulation, and I really just
wanted to be able to go to asite and tell it how many square
feet our attic is and what levellike I want an R8 or an R9 or
whatever insulation and I wantto, and like be able to look at
(24:39):
blow-in versus roll-in versusfoam, like just see all of the
options.
But no, you just have to fillout like your info and then they
send somebody to your house andthey crawl around and then they
come down and they they hammerstuff out in a calculator.
They put all those things in acalculator they could just ask
me about, um, and then you know,give you your options.
(25:02):
And it's like, I could have doneall this online.
Um it's so annoying.
So annoying.
Um, okay, so what you do and howyou position that is important,
but I think the other thingabout using your price and value
as a strategy is what don't youdo?
Oh, and what do you walk awayfrom?
(25:22):
So you can't be all things toeverybody.
We all know this.
Sometimes we try to and it justgenerally fails.
Um, there's some things that youjust can't do because the
pricing doesn't make sense.
And so some people will try tohide the true cost, right?
They'll try to package it withsomething else that has more
margin.
So I'm gonna lose money onservice A, but service B, I can
(25:43):
bump up the price.
It's got more value, and I cancombo those and come out, you
know, in an average.
Okay, like, yeah, that can work.
Um, and you can do that as apackage, but it might be better
to just stop doing that servicealtogether.
Like, if service A is a moneyloser, just stop doing it and
(26:04):
move on to more lucrative,higher value offerings where you
can have a better relationship.
Because you also risk when youpackage things like that and you
couple them together that peoplewill want to decouple it later.
And then you get into thisweird, squirrely situation where
they're like, well, I don'treally need service B anymore.
So can you just do service A forme?
And you're like, yeah, no,because we'd lose money.
SPEAKER_02 (26:25):
I thought of something similar that I just
like encountered with Hulu, howthey're doing like their bundle
with like Hulu, Disney Plus, andESPN Plus.
So I'm a Hulu premiumsubscriber, and I really like
watching Hulu without ads.
I think the whole point of astreaming service is I shouldn't
have to watch like shows andmovies with ads I'm paying.
(26:48):
And uh it's football season, soI wanted to like get ESPN Plus
to watch some football games onthe weekends, and I was like,
okay, like is there like abundle I can do that will like
make the cost cheaper?
And there's a bundle for likeDisney Plus, ESPN Plus, and
regular Hulu with ads that'scheaper and like save me a lot
(27:08):
of money, but I have no optionof just having Hulu Premium and
also having ESPN Plus and DisneyPlus, so it's like I don't want
Hulu with ads, but I do wantESPN Plus.
Like take it or I don't reallycare about Disney Plus, but
yeah, it's just so frustratingbecause I want one thing and I'd
like another and I'd like it tobe like affordable, so I'm not
(27:31):
paying$30 compared to like$15.
But that's just like how thebundles are, and it's so
annoying.
SPEAKER_00 (27:37):
Yeah, it's weird.
Um, they do have, is it them whohas the NFL add-on?
Um somebody has just an NFLadd-on, like you don't have to
do everything.
Um, but yeah, you can just do anNFL add-on, which is
interesting.
Um, so we ran into that.
We were annual on Hulu becauseit's just easier to pay.
It was like$79 a year.
We just pay the whole year.
(27:58):
Um and when you combine when youbundle it with Disney Plus, you
have to go monthly.
Um, so one thing I think onemore thing when it comes to pat
like passing on things or whatyou're not gonna do, um, you've
got to really look at the work.
So we had an RFP come throughand it was something that we
could definitely do.
Um and it was social mediamanagement and a few other
things.
(28:18):
Um, and they had a total budgeton the RFP.
Um, and we took a look at it,and at first glance, it was
like, oh, this makes sense.
And I kicked it out to seemembers.
And as they got deeper into it,they're like, you know, we have
to be available weekends andevenings with a physical person
to go to events and takepictures and shoot videos.
And they want like multiplevideos per week on social media,
(28:41):
like edited down.
Um, and it was all like thebudget was not set for that.
It was a more shoestring budget.
And so we passed because we'rejust like, there's no we will,
we will fail at this or losemoney, or we'll be angry,
they'll be angry.
So we're just like, no.
And it was somebody that we knewwe'd had a relationship with
before.
So we just actually told them,like, if I were you, I would
(29:03):
pull the RFP and I would justput it out for freelancers.
Because for that budget, afreelancer is going to be able
to stretch that further andcommit more hours to it.
And also, like, if they'rereally into the things, because
it was very specific types ofevents and things.
And it's like if they're intothose things anyway, you're
(29:24):
gonna give them like behind thescenes access to an event they
would want to go to anyway.
So that's still like a reallygood option as you look through
that.
So, yeah, what you don't do canbe really important.
100%.
SPEAKER_02 (29:42):
Well, that was a great episode.
We covered a lot.
SPEAKER_00 (29:45):
Yeah, it's a lot of stuff.
Um, so I guess you know, a fewthings in there, you know, being
honest and up front aboutpricing builds trust.
People are looking for that,people want that.
Um, you don't have to give awaydetails if you're not that kind
of a business where it's It'snot that easy to package it, but
you um you do need to givepeople an idea so that they can
(30:05):
do their research.
Um doesn't mean you have to haveeveryday low prices, you don't
have to be the lowest out there.
You just need to show yourvalue.
Um leverage storytelling toreally get your pricing out
there.
So case studies are a great waywith that and giving sort of an
average price of it, uh, thattype of thing.
And then um also decide whatyou're not gonna do, like where
(30:26):
your pricing just won't makesense anyway.
So you're just gonna cut it out.
SPEAKER_02 (30:31):
So good stuff.
Good stuff.
As always, uh, thank you forlistening.
You can find our agency atantidote71.com and all of our
socials there as well.
And if you have a question you'dlike to send our way, head to
CTA Podcast.live to shoot us anemail.
Or even better, leave us a voicemessage on our hotline at 402
718 9971.
(30:52):
Your question, even especiallyif it's about pricing, we'll
make it into a future episode.
Had to tie it back a little.
But we'll do a follow up.
SPEAKER_00 (31:00):
There you go.
100%.
SPEAKER_02 (31:02):
All right, all right.
SPEAKER_00 (31:03):
See you guys next week.
I will see you next time.
74% of B2B buyers expect clear and detailed
pricing up front.
And 65% say ROI is a top factorinfluencing their final
decision.
So if you're hiding yourpricing, you could have a
problem.
So let's get into that, Zach.
SPEAKER_02 (00:23):
Yeah, let's talk pricing.
Pricing as a marketing strategy.
SPEAKER_00 (00:28):
Yeah.
So a lot of places, and itdrives me crazy when, especially
with software, like I want to golike look at some software and
like the pricing's just notthere.
You have to reach out to sales,you have to schedule a demo.
Yeah, and I'm like, if I have toschedule a demo, you're probably
out of my price range.
SPEAKER_02 (00:44):
Like, I know.
It's like my least favoritething.
It's like B to C is a lot lesscommon, obviously.
Like you don't really like haveprices hidden from you.
But if I ever have to search fora price, yeah, it's like you
said, it's probably tooexpensive for me anyway.
SPEAKER_00 (01:01):
But I've seen a few lately that are like, you know,
start free, start free, startfree.
And you know that it charges,it's a free trial, but you can't
actually see what it's gonna beafter the free trial.
And when you click it, they wantyou to create an account like
for your free trial before youever see what it's gonna cost
after them.
Oh my god, I'm like no.
No, no.
SPEAKER_02 (01:22):
Or they do that, they like make you feel like
you're doing the entire processof what the software should do.
And then to get the finalresult, you have to make an
account.
Or for like B2C, addingsomething to your cart to see
the price, that kind of irks mesometimes too.
SPEAKER_00 (01:38):
Yep.
All right.
Well, we kind of hit the statsin the uh in the intro there.
So um we're gonna get to ourcocktail here shortly, and we
will then discuss how you canuse your pricing as actually a
business strategy and a growthstrategy for your company.
SPEAKER_02 (01:52):
Yeah.
So the cocktail, uh, this isgonna be important I say this
correctly.
Uh Jack, comma, the pumpkin.
SPEAKER_00 (02:00):
Correct.
Jack the pumpkin.
Yeah, there you go.
Another way you could say that.
SPEAKER_02 (02:06):
So this cocktail is another one of the fall
cocktails for the seasonal stuffI'm doing this quarter.
Um, it's apple jap, apple applejack, pumpkin puree, apple
cider, and a little bit ofginger beer for a bite.
And uh yeah, it's pretty simple.
It also has uh apple slices fora garnish.
This is made by Jeffrey Zakarianfrom the Food Network.
SPEAKER_00 (02:29):
Food network, yeah.
And so G-Z, as they call it.
SPEAKER_02 (02:33):
Nice.
SPEAKER_00 (02:34):
All right, so uh I think I actually saw them do
this like back when I used towatch the kitchen all the time,
but I don't anymore.
Like, we don't even have FoodNetwork.
I can just catch episodes onwhatever that would be on HBO
Max.
Now I guess they would have thebond, potentially, because of
the discovery relationship fornow.
All right, so this one servesfour.
Um, or if you're just reallyfeeling like getting loaded in
(02:57):
an afternoon, you could just putit in a big, big glass and enjoy
it.
Um, so you have six ounces ofapple jack, four ounces of
pumpkin puree.
So this one's important, and Iremember this from the episode.
Not pumpkin pie puree.
That's different.
You're gonna get the the season,the apple cider and the ginger
beer are gonna give you some ofthat spice.
(03:18):
This is just pumpkin puree, soit's just pure pumpkin.
Uh, four ounces of apple ciderchilled, six ounces of ginger
beer chilled, and then fourapple slices, one for each glass
for a garment, garnish.
Excuse me.
So you put everything but thefizzy stuff into the shaker.
So the apple jack, the pumpkinpuree, and the apple cider go
into the shaker and you shakethat until it is chilled.
(03:41):
And then you stir in the gingerbeer into the shaker.
Um, you stir the ginger beer inthere.
Don't shake it though, becausefizzy everywhere.
Uh, strain it into four rocksglasses filled with ice and then
garnish with your apple slices.
So I love the simplicity of thisone.
Like, aside from like, what areyou gonna do with the rest of
that apple puree?
(04:02):
Because what was it?
Four ounce, or pumpkin puree,sorry, because four ounces, I'm
pretty sure it's like an eightor nine ounce can, is my guess.
SPEAKER_02 (04:09):
If you have a dog, you can give it to your dog.
SPEAKER_00 (04:11):
That's true, and you can freeze it too.
You can make little pumpkinpuree cubes for your dog as an
enrichment treat.
That is true, and that's anotherreason not to get pumpkin pie
puree, because that you can'tgive to your dog.
SPEAKER_02 (04:22):
Yeah, you can't make pup cups with pumpkin pie puree.
SPEAKER_00 (04:26):
No.
But this one, I mean, I alsofeel like just make a double and
use all the pumpkin pie uhpumpkin puree and uh put it in a
big glass.
Have a good night.
Yeah, have a good evening.
SPEAKER_02 (04:40):
Yeah.
I mean, it's a nice simpledrink.
SPEAKER_00 (04:42):
I like it.
All right, so that is the Jackthe Pumpkin.
Just gonna be clear on as in thepumpkin whose name is Jack.
Uh all right, so uh I think weavoided putting an explicit on
this one for now.
Um, and we can uh get into howuh pricing can be used as a uh
(05:04):
strategy.
All right, we are back.
Um I wish I had that drink.
That would actually be reallygood this afternoon.
Um it's also a good soup day.
It's like 54 degrees outside andraining right now.
It's very weird.
(05:24):
It sounds like good fallweather.
Yeah, but it was like that itwas like 90s this weekend.
Like it was like 88, 90s.
Really?
Yeah.
And then uh yesterday afternoonthe rain came in and we got a
cold front to push through.
SPEAKER_02 (05:35):
That's one thing I don't miss about the Midwest.
Like the crazy weather.
It's just zero.
SPEAKER_00 (05:41):
I mean, we don't get hurricanes though.
We get thunderstorms andderechos and things like that,
which are almost as bad.
I mean, a derecho is like a landhurricane, basically.
But um yeah, it's a little bitwild.
But um, you would never useweather as your strategic
advantage, um, I guess.
Maybe you could if you're in SanDiego or something.
But um we can use pricing as astrategic advantage.
(06:04):
So um let's talk about trust,Zach.
Um why don't you share somethoughts on how upfront pricing
can build trust?
SPEAKER_02 (06:14):
So with pricing, especially B2B, I think
transparency is probably themost important.
So being clear about what youoffer and the value you're
providing.
So having things like tieredpricing, basic, standard,
premium, just so buyers can seewhere they fit in.
We've done stuff like that forour house about onboarding.
Um make it easy to find.
(06:36):
Don't make people go search fortheir pricing or your pricing, I
mean, because chances are peoplethat's like the number one thing
people are looking for, right?
So if your price is hidden andyou're the type of person is
like most people are looking foryour price like right away.
Not necessarily just the valueyou provide.
(06:57):
Price is probably the mostimportant.
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (07:00):
I mean, we've talked about how much research, like
70% of our research is doneonline before we ever reach out
to a company.
And I know companies hidepricing to try to force that
outreach.
Um, but it's really frustrating.
I mean, even if you can do sortof ranges of pricing, that can
be helpful.
Um, our business is kind of hardbecause our pricing is different
based on each client.
(07:21):
I mean, we have some things thatare pretty standard.
Um, and we've tried kind ofgiving an idea of what you get
at different levels.
Like here's a sample$2,000retainer, here's a sample$5,000
retainer, here's a sample,$10,000.
Um, but none of those ever workout exactly that way.
But as we're shopping, we wantto get at least an understanding
of where your pricing is gonnacome in because it's just it's
(07:44):
just really hard.
SPEAKER_02 (07:45):
Yeah.
I mean frustrating.
How do you think upfront pricingaffects like a buyer's
perception of a company?
Like a specifically, like yeah,what do you think about that?
Because you're expensive.
Yeah.
I think let's say you have likea really expensive price, right?
And uh all they're seeing is theprice and not what you offer,
(08:06):
that can be really confusing.
I think just like the main pointhere is transparency is really
important.
So not just showing what yourprice is, because that's one
part of it, but also actuallylike telling them what you're
getting for the price.
So if you have different tiers,like basic, standard, and
premium, telling them what youget and comparing them can be
(08:28):
really valuable.
So they're seeing, oh well, if Ineed like this additional
service, like a Hobspotonboardings, for example, like
okay, you can get the normalHubSpot like onboarding process
where we just run you throughthe very basics and teach you
things, but we don't do anythingreally hands-on, or we can do it
all for you and make it easy,right?
So I think it's really importantto provide that transparency and
(08:51):
value initially.
The more info you can providesomeone, the more likely they
are to make a decision with you,obviously, because they can
compare with you and othercompetitors, and the more
valuable information you givethem, the better.
SPEAKER_00 (09:04):
So and honestly, somebody's probably giving away
your price on the internetanyway.
They've probably posted a reviewsomewhere or a blog post that
gives at least a like gap of it.
And I think what's reallyfrustrating for me is we just
went through this with somesoftware not too long ago as we
were looking at webinarsoftware.
So, like we um, you know, didn'treally have the features weren't
(09:24):
really there for the level wewanted, and we just the next
level up seemed to have it, butthere wasn't a price for it.
And so we, you know, we had toreach out to a sales rep.
We had to schedule a meeting, wedid a 30-minute and he was kind
of hard selling us at the end.
And in the end, when we finallygot to the price, it's like I
wouldn't have even done themeeting if I'd known that's what
the price was, because thesoftware we were trying to move
(09:45):
from was actually pretty muchthe same price.
So there was no benefit to usmoving and or changing.
Um, and we ended up finding adifferent way to do it with a
lesser tier um and just make itwork.
But it's that whole like, youknow, you and I had to be on
that meeting.
That salesperson did a meetingwhere we were never gonna buy at
that price.
(10:05):
Um, and I think I even said thatup front.
Like, if this is like$5,000,we're not gonna buy it.
And he still went through withthe meeting.
He could have said, Yeah, it'slike$5,000 and we a month and we
would have, or a year orwhatever it was.
Um and we would have been like,Yeah, never mind.
Like, we're not gonna do thatfor this.
SPEAKER_02 (10:23):
Yeah, just don't waste people's time.
Just tell them what they need toknow.
You can use content to supportyour price too.
You don't need to explaineverything in the moment, maybe.
You can put out like blogs, sendemails, things like that, that
just give you a little more ofan explainer.
But yeah, again, transparency isreally important.
SPEAKER_00 (10:41):
Yeah, and I think in our business, it's it's helpful.
Like if we're doing a case studyto give like an example of, you
know, this was uh roughly, youknow,$15,000 project, or give a
range, you know, because someclients don't want to you want
people to tell like what theyspent, you they want you to tell
what what they spent on it.
But at the same time, you canstill give a range of that.
I've seen that with um, weworked with a construction
(11:05):
company for a while, and that'sone of the things we really
encourage them to do is this wasa$15 million project.
This was a$3 million project.
Um, so that as they're lookingat those high-end and mid-range
clients, they don't they don'tget a low-end client coming in
looking at a high-end case studyand saying, I want that.
It's like, well, you can't havethat.
Um, like we have friends lookingat, they're doing some
(11:26):
remodeling, and the designerbrought them like, you know,
this beautiful wallpaper fromFrance.
Um, but it's it's hand-inkedwallpaper.
Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02 (11:35):
I've never even heard of hand-inked wallpaper.
SPEAKER_00 (11:38):
Yeah, it was like, um, I think they said it was
like five or six thousanddollars for like a roll of it.
And they're like, okay, likelet's get down to something
that's maybe like stillbeautiful but printed.
I mean, but that designer alsothey said brings a low, medium,
and high.
And the high is always somethingthat they know you're probably
not gonna buy.
Like one of the examples theygave where they needed three
(11:58):
pendant lights above theirisland.
Well, one of the ones that wasamazing that they fell in love
with$10,000 per light.
And they're like, we're notspending$30,000 on lights.
SPEAKER_02 (12:07):
Yeah, that's crazy.
SPEAKER_00 (12:08):
Yeah, and so she had one that was a few thousand and
one that was like a thousand orwhatever for them as well.
SPEAKER_02 (12:13):
It's kind of cool to see that premium pricing though.
SPEAKER_00 (12:17):
Well, and that's the thing, right?
Like at least you know whatyou're not getting or what you
could level up to if you really,really wanted to.
SPEAKER_02 (12:25):
So I mean, I guess like, oh, sorry, with a client,
I mean, if they're in thestandard pricing and then they
realize, oh, we need a lot more,then having the knowing what
they can get out of the premiumpricing is really valuable, like
you said.
SPEAKER_00 (12:38):
Yeah, and we've had a lot of clients who started
smaller and built as the ROI wasthere and as they proved it out
and they saw it, you know, theydidn't want to dive into a huge
retainer, but it grew and youknow, their business grew with
it, which is also good as well.
So I think the other thing thatpeople hear is oh, if I put my
pricing out, I have to be thelowest in the market.
And you have to hit this likeeveryday low prices and try to
(13:01):
be the Walmart of your industry.
Um, that's not the case.
Um, I don't think anybodyrealistically is always looking
for the cheapest thing.
Like you said, like show me whatI get for the money.
Like the a grid that gives mefeatures of your different
levels of pricing is reallyhelpful because then I can
understand like what I'm gonnaget uh for the money.
(13:23):
Um so the other thing there isyou have to know your own value.
So we talk about like uniqueselling propositions, USPs, um,
you know, your valueproposition.
So what are you what value doyou bring to the client?
And ideally, how does thatcompare to your competition?
Um I you really want somethingthat makes you more valuable
(13:45):
than your competition.
Um, so that's another area tokind of look at it.
You don't have to be the lowestprice, but you do have to be um,
you know, competitive for thefor the value, value, like
features for money.
SPEAKER_02 (13:59):
And if you're not the lowest price, it's kind of
like we said earlier, you needto show the value you're
providing.
And just yeah.
I think like seeing how you candifferentiate is really
important, like you said.
Like if we're doing a HubSpotonboarding and another company's
doing one for cheaper, but theydon't offer any hands-on
support, that's that's somethingwe can sell.
SPEAKER_00 (14:20):
So well, and our onboarding costs more than
HubSpot standard onboarding.
But like you said, theirs is ahands-off approach, it's a
guided, you have to doeverything yourself as the
person being onboarded, whereours for a little bit more will
actually do more stuff from you.
With with theirs, you also getone person, you get one
resource, and then it's onlineresources.
(14:40):
With us, we can move stuff outto people in the agency.
Um, and that's part of how we weonboarded somebody in two weeks,
Caitlin and I did in sales, um,because we did a lot of the
stuff, but then Adriana did thereports and we had, I think you
even did some stuff there.
You were building out somethingfor that one.
Um, but yeah, and it's really,you know, you talk about ROI.
(15:02):
I think giving examples ofclients who at that level of
spend have seen this, like theseare the results they got.
Because if you've got a$5,000 amonth, whatever it is, and the
client's making$10,000 a month,you know, that's just a 2X.
That's really hard.
And it might not be worth it tothem.
But if your average client isclosing$100,000 and deals on
(15:23):
that$5,000, okay, like that's 20times what we're paying for you.
That might feel really good.
You know, so it's it's just thatbalance of value for money.
And sometimes you don't win.
Like, um, you know, we had onewhere we lost.
Uh, we had a prospect come inand they wanted a full audit of
their HubSpot portal, like, andthey had sales, service,
(15:45):
marketing, operations, like theyhad everything in there,
content.
Um, they felt like they weren'tusing it.
And so, you know, that fullstack is probably two to three
thousand dollars a month withHubSpot that they were spending
in software.
Um, and they wanted to get thevalue out of it.
You know, well, we gave them anestimate uh because we charge
for deep audits like that.
And they said, Oh, we've got twoother people who will do it for
(16:07):
free, but we really want to workwith you.
So can you just do it for free?
We said no.
SPEAKER_01 (16:12):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (16:12):
Um, yeah, because they weren't gonna get what they
wanted if we did it for free.
Like we have free audits, notfree HubSpot portal audits.
Those take more time.
But we have what, a free SEOaudit, we'll do a free social
media audit, a free lead genaudit, a free kind of website
optimization audit.
Um, those are surface audits.
They take one to two hours andgive us a general idea of how
(16:35):
good or bad things are and whata high level scope of work would
be.
But what they were asking us forwas like over 20 hours of work.
We got to investigate, we've gotto analyze, we've got to dig
around, we've got to come upwith recommendations.
And it's just not worth it forus to do it for free, especially
when there's no future business.
You know, maybe they would havehired us for something, but they
(16:56):
weren't saying they neededsomebody to manage HubSpot for
them on a monthly basis.
They were just saying, we wantto know what we're not doing
right.
And then it might have been likethey would do a deeper, like
re-onboarding or something.
Um, but it's just one of thosewhere it's like, and I told
them, I'm like, and I actuallyhave a note here to follow up
because it's been about a month,to be like, did you get what you
(17:17):
wanted from the free one?
Because like if you did, that'sgreat.
And whoever's out there givingthat away for free, good for
them.
Um, but if you didn't, you know,ours still stands and it's still
the same price, and it will be amuch, much deeper report.
SPEAKER_02 (17:34):
So I mean, yeah, know your worth.
Don't just put out things thatare like 20 hours worth of work
and give it out for free.
I mean, they could have justtaken that and we wouldn't have
seen them again, like you said.
SPEAKER_00 (17:45):
Yeah, it's possible.
I mean, and and it could havebeen a relationship builder, but
that particular offering isn'tone of our relationship
builders.
Like if they had just wanted alead gen audit of their website,
yes, we can do that for free.
It's a two-hour thing, there'sthree people involved in it, and
we get you a report and it'sreally great.
Um, and it gives you a an ideaat a high level of what you need
to do.
Um, but we don't give you all ofthe specific recommendations.
(18:09):
Like we just, you know, we giveyou sort of a hint at what you
could do.
Um but the idea there isobviously you hire us to fix
things.
SPEAKER_02 (18:18):
Yeah.
So next point, um, we kind ofcovered a little bit of this in
my initial point, but usingpricing as a storytelling tool.
So your pricing says a lot aboutyou and your brand, as we kind
of talked about.
If you're offering a higherprice, then you better offer
premium services, especially ifyou're at the top end of your
(18:38):
industry.
Yep.
And again, you need to be verytransparent about the value that
you're providing.
But if you're on the lower end,it's kind of like we just
covered you don't want to givetoo much value for too little,
you know what I mean?
So there's definitely a balancethere.
In terms of pricing being astorytelling tool, that kind of
covers again of what you can usepricing for with your content
(19:03):
with the things you're puttingout.
So I we talked about thisseveral times already, but we
have a comparison guide for ourHubSpot onboarding process.
So comparing what we do toHubSpot, that's great.
That shows the value and thetrend that's transparent.
And even though we don't letlike plaster that out on like
its own landing page, I don'tthink, it's still a little like
(19:26):
they have to like sign up.
Do we do they have to sign upfor it or do we just send it to
people?
SPEAKER_00 (19:29):
Uh we'll just send it to people who encourage it.
SPEAKER_02 (19:31):
Oh, we just send it to people.
Even though it's not like on ourwebsite or anything, it's still
like very easy to probably get.
Yeah, probably should be.
But it's still very easy to getand very like it's not hard to
find.
If you want it, we candefinitely send it to you.
And it's yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (19:47):
So I think we also do, I mean, we do a lot of
onboardings anyway.
And so a lot of what comes up iswe'll be doing a HubSpot
onboarding and they'll be like,Oh, can't you just do this for
me?
And it's like, well, yeah, buthere's what that looks like, and
you're gonna have to pay more.
Um, you know, that kind ofthing.
Or, you know, sometimes we'llget people who and I love these,
(20:08):
where the salesperson at HubSpotknows that like the standard
onboarding isn't gonna work forthem.
It's just not.
And they're really gonna needsomeone to do it for them and
they're gonna probably need anongoing relationship.
And then we get into a shareddeal with them, which is really
nice.
Um, but yeah, but even thoseHubSpot reps, like we can we
send them that one sheet too, sothat they can speak pretty
(20:29):
intelligently to what theirstandard onboarding is and what
we provide.
Um, and we do have like an evenhigher tier where it's you dump
on us and we go do everythingand it's done in like three
weeks.
Um kind of neat.
SPEAKER_02 (20:43):
I think something that is interesting too that you
can do is like a calculator orsome kind of form that estimates
the cost of things that wouldthat you'd like to do.
Calculators are always reallycool because it's like, oh, if I
did this and this, like how muchwould it like cost me?
And it's just like a roughestimate, but it still gives you
a ballpark number.
(21:03):
I think that's really cool.
Same thing with like anassessment or like an audit
where you can like basicallywith the information they
provide you, you can ballparknumbers into how much something
would cost.
I think that's really cool.
And honestly, just interweavingit like in a lot of your
marketing materials, kind oflike how we said, like we send
emails to like we send emails,we create blogs, things like
(21:25):
that.
So not just like having itreadily available, but also
using it as your uniquedifferentiator in a way that
makes sense.
SPEAKER_00 (21:34):
So yeah, and I think you're you're you're dead on
there.
You're telling your story,you're telling your client's
story, and you're giving alittle bit of like some proof
points is a great way to usepricing in there.
I love the calculator idea.
Um, there's a few things that wedo that we could put a
calculator on.
Um, like um, you know, Googleads day-to-day management.
Um, we kind of know what thattakes on average every week to
(21:58):
do that.
And, you know, the price to dolike one campaign is not the
it's not just five times more todo five campaigns because once
we're in there moving around,there's synergies in there.
And so that's a great placewhere a calculator could come in
handy.
SPEAKER_02 (22:13):
Uh, calculator tool was interesting too.
SPEAKER_00 (22:19):
Yeah, it's super interesting how you can do that.
But anything you can do to helppeople understand what they're
gonna get and what they're gonnapay so they can weigh that uh
potential ROI in their mind.
Um, it's just helpful.
I mean, I was thinking as wewere talking, like, what if you
went to like McDonald's and theywere like, okay, we have a
(22:40):
chicken sandwich, but we've alsogot the um premium chicken
sandwich, and we've got thedeluxe chicken sandwich.
And they tell you the chickensandwich is like$2.49 or
whatever, but then they don'ttell you what the other two are,
like what the price is.
Um, and you have to ask.
Like, think about how that juststretches the buying process.
And obviously, I know, right?
SPEAKER_02 (23:03):
I don't want to have to make an unnecessary question
about a chicken sandwich.
SPEAKER_00 (23:07):
Right.
And so I mean, and that's a reallike um crazy example, right?
Because in fast food, they wouldnever ever do that.
Like the menus are all there,the pricing is there, you
self-select and it's it's aquick transaction.
But there is that equivalent inwhat you know, what we do and
what other people do in B2B,where it's, you know, I don't
(23:29):
want to have to do a 30-minutediscovery call for you to tell
me that your average retainer is$5,000 a month and that it it
generally includes these typesof things.
Like, just let me know that.
Like, it's fine, it's not gonnahurt anybody.
SPEAKER_02 (23:44):
Well, and it's like you kind of said too, where even
though like our pricing isn'tlike for some things, isn't like
super specific because itdepends on a lot of different
factors.
Like I said, with the calculatoror the assessment, you can still
close the gap a little bit insome way to provide some kind of
information so that they're notleft guessing.
Because the reality is if youdon't have pricing on a lot of
(24:06):
stuff, or like at least aballpark, like it's really hard
for buyers to make a decision,right?
Like they need that kind ofinformation.
SPEAKER_00 (24:16):
Yeah, and I think you can you can couch it a
little bit, be like, you know,this is an estimate, this is an
average.
Um, but I mean, it's one of thethings that drives me crazy is
like, you know, we did newinsulation, and I really just
wanted to be able to go to asite and tell it how many square
feet our attic is and what levellike I want an R8 or an R9 or
whatever insulation and I wantto, and like be able to look at
(24:39):
blow-in versus roll-in versusfoam, like just see all of the
options.
But no, you just have to fillout like your info and then they
send somebody to your house andthey crawl around and then they
come down and they they hammerstuff out in a calculator.
They put all those things in acalculator they could just ask
me about, um, and then you know,give you your options.
(25:02):
And it's like, I could have doneall this online.
Um it's so annoying.
So annoying.
Um, okay, so what you do and howyou position that is important,
but I think the other thingabout using your price and value
as a strategy is what don't youdo?
Oh, and what do you walk awayfrom?
(25:22):
So you can't be all things toeverybody.
We all know this.
Sometimes we try to and it justgenerally fails.
Um, there's some things that youjust can't do because the
pricing doesn't make sense.
And so some people will try tohide the true cost, right?
They'll try to package it withsomething else that has more
margin.
So I'm gonna lose money onservice A, but service B, I can
(25:43):
bump up the price.
It's got more value, and I cancombo those and come out, you
know, in an average.
Okay, like, yeah, that can work.
Um, and you can do that as apackage, but it might be better
to just stop doing that servicealtogether.
Like, if service A is a moneyloser, just stop doing it and
(26:04):
move on to more lucrative,higher value offerings where you
can have a better relationship.
Because you also risk when youpackage things like that and you
couple them together that peoplewill want to decouple it later.
And then you get into thisweird, squirrely situation where
they're like, well, I don'treally need service B anymore.
So can you just do service A forme?
And you're like, yeah, no,because we'd lose money.
SPEAKER_02 (26:25):
I thought of something similar that I just
like encountered with Hulu, howthey're doing like their bundle
with like Hulu, Disney Plus, andESPN Plus.
So I'm a Hulu premiumsubscriber, and I really like
watching Hulu without ads.
I think the whole point of astreaming service is I shouldn't
have to watch like shows andmovies with ads I'm paying.
(26:48):
And uh it's football season, soI wanted to like get ESPN Plus
to watch some football games onthe weekends, and I was like,
okay, like is there like abundle I can do that will like
make the cost cheaper?
And there's a bundle for likeDisney Plus, ESPN Plus, and
regular Hulu with ads that'scheaper and like save me a lot
(27:08):
of money, but I have no optionof just having Hulu Premium and
also having ESPN Plus and DisneyPlus, so it's like I don't want
Hulu with ads, but I do wantESPN Plus.
Like take it or I don't reallycare about Disney Plus, but
yeah, it's just so frustratingbecause I want one thing and I'd
like another and I'd like it tobe like affordable, so I'm not
(27:31):
paying$30 compared to like$15.
But that's just like how thebundles are, and it's so
annoying.
SPEAKER_00 (27:37):
Yeah, it's weird.
Um, they do have, is it them whohas the NFL add-on?
Um somebody has just an NFLadd-on, like you don't have to
do everything.
Um, but yeah, you can just do anNFL add-on, which is
interesting.
Um, so we ran into that.
We were annual on Hulu becauseit's just easier to pay.
It was like$79 a year.
We just pay the whole year.
(27:58):
Um and when you combine when youbundle it with Disney Plus, you
have to go monthly.
Um, so one thing I think onemore thing when it comes to pat
like passing on things or whatyou're not gonna do, um, you've
got to really look at the work.
So we had an RFP come throughand it was something that we
could definitely do.
Um and it was social mediamanagement and a few other
things.
(28:18):
Um, and they had a total budgeton the RFP.
Um, and we took a look at it,and at first glance, it was
like, oh, this makes sense.
And I kicked it out to seemembers.
And as they got deeper into it,they're like, you know, we have
to be available weekends andevenings with a physical person
to go to events and takepictures and shoot videos.
And they want like multiplevideos per week on social media,
(28:41):
like edited down.
Um, and it was all like thebudget was not set for that.
It was a more shoestring budget.
And so we passed because we'rejust like, there's no we will,
we will fail at this or losemoney, or we'll be angry,
they'll be angry.
So we're just like, no.
And it was somebody that we knewwe'd had a relationship with
before.
So we just actually told them,like, if I were you, I would
(29:03):
pull the RFP and I would justput it out for freelancers.
Because for that budget, afreelancer is going to be able
to stretch that further andcommit more hours to it.
And also, like, if they'rereally into the things, because
it was very specific types ofevents and things.
And it's like if they're intothose things anyway, you're
(29:24):
gonna give them like behind thescenes access to an event they
would want to go to anyway.
So that's still like a reallygood option as you look through
that.
So, yeah, what you don't do canbe really important.
100%.
SPEAKER_02 (29:42):
Well, that was a great episode.
We covered a lot.
SPEAKER_00 (29:45):
Yeah, it's a lot of stuff.
Um, so I guess you know, a fewthings in there, you know, being
honest and up front aboutpricing builds trust.
People are looking for that,people want that.
Um, you don't have to give awaydetails if you're not that kind
of a business where it's It'snot that easy to package it, but
you um you do need to givepeople an idea so that they can
(30:05):
do their research.
Um doesn't mean you have to haveeveryday low prices, you don't
have to be the lowest out there.
You just need to show yourvalue.
Um leverage storytelling toreally get your pricing out
there.
So case studies are a great waywith that and giving sort of an
average price of it, uh, thattype of thing.
And then um also decide whatyou're not gonna do, like where
(30:26):
your pricing just won't makesense anyway.
So you're just gonna cut it out.
SPEAKER_02 (30:31):
So good stuff.
Good stuff.
As always, uh, thank you forlistening.
You can find our agency atantidote71.com and all of our
socials there as well.
And if you have a question you'dlike to send our way, head to
CTA Podcast.live to shoot us anemail.
Or even better, leave us a voicemessage on our hotline at 402
718 9971.
(30:52):
Your question, even especiallyif it's about pricing, we'll
make it into a future episode.
Had to tie it back a little.
But we'll do a follow up.
SPEAKER_00 (31:00):
There you go.
100%.
SPEAKER_02 (31:02):
All right, all right.
SPEAKER_00 (31:03):
See you guys next week.
I will see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.