September 24, 2016

“How do I value price design services?”

Designers often ask me “How do I value price design services?”

My answer is:

You can’t.

Design is a means to an end. You can’t set a value price on the means to an end; you set a value price on the end.

In other words...

Don’t ask your client what design is worth to them. Ask your client why they want the design work done in the first place.

After some probing, you’ll eventually uncover their underlying motivation. A painful problem that they’d like solved.

It’ll be something like decreasing customer service calls, increased conversion percentage, decreasing cart abandonment rate, etc.

If you can solve their problem with design, great. But ultimately, the client doesn’t care at all if you solve their problem with design, or with dynamite.

They just want the problem solved, and they know how much it’s worth to them.

This is what you base your price on.

Yours,

—J

P.S. And by the way, the faster you can solve the client’s problem, the happier they’ll be. Just another reason that hourly billing is nuts.

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