How should a company price access to expertise without devaluing the provider?

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Accepted Answer

This is a really good question that I've been thinking about a lot. I'm starting to think it might be better if we figured out a way to price it around outcomes, not some discrete things like questions, handraises, sessions, or hours.

A person’s time feels expensive when you sell the clock. It feels valuable when you sell what access unlocks: clarity, speed, confidence, introductions, fewer mistakes. So we probably need to start by going back and asking ourselves three questions: What painful problem are we solving? What is solving it worth to the buyer? Why is this person uniquely able to help?

Then we package the time. Don’t sell "I'll answer a question", or “60 minutes with me.” Sell a diagnostic, office hours, a decision session, ongoing advisory access, or a small-group format. That shifts the focus from labor to leverage.

I was really interested to hear that Sierra (the AI customer service company) doesn't price by the call, or even the transaction. They charge by "problem's solved". That means people only pay for something that is truly valuable to them. And it puts the burden on Sierra to figure out a way to solve that problem in the most efficient way - which of course is good for both Sierra and the client.

In our case, that could mean that people can ask a specific question, but they don't just get a single answer - they get the problem solved, which means it may take some clarification, some back and forth, etc. But like Sierra, it means that the client is only paying for true value - rather than for something more abstract (like time, or a single question). It also is a motivation to both involved to invest enough in each back and forth that it minimizes the amount of time it takes for it to be solved.

Here's how we might construct the framework for how we do pricing: scarcity, specificity, and transformation. Scarcity protects value. Specificity makes it legible. Transformation makes it worth paying for.

And we shouldn't underprice to seem nice. Low prices rarely create respect; they create doubt. Price high enough that the buyer shows up serious, and the seller doesn’t feel resentful.