UK price guide for offline services

Truth be told, I make it up as I go along!

I have tried to produce a formula for quotes but hey, it doesn't really work out for me. I've seen really cheap providers here in the UK that are messing up the market. Every client I have, has always dealt with an SEO guy before and I always get the price comparison when I quote my prices.

However, then I JUSTIFY my prices and they are ok. My prices are based on the amount of work I'll need to do and my opportunity cost. I tell Mr Client that there's a $h£t load of other stuff that I can do, which will make me more money elsewhere

OP, I must say that I am in the same boat as you. I always hear about these offliners getting deals with local businesses that just doesn't seem plausible. I'd love to hear more on this matter.

Setting your price can be hard. Often you have to figure out a very low-ball idea of just how many customers your client might get because of your efforts.

Consider a hair salon. A typical lady may drop $60 per visit, and come back on a monthly basis (and I am aware that there are women that will spend more and return every 2 weeks).

So, on the low end the customer is worth $720 per year for the client. Now, if you've done the work correctly and they are well placed (Top 3) in local results, would the client see a possible 2 or more new clients a week? Even at 2, that's 8 clients in a months time, worth $5,720 a year.

What you need to do is mainly research what is the best price to charge, a price that is the right price for yourself, the right price in the market, the right price which sets you ahead of your competition. You need to speak with potential customers and ask, how much do you usually pay for this? Let me get you a better price on that, customers love affordable products

Good luck!

I would suggest pricing based on what you think your services are worth to the client based on what niche they are in. This is exactly what Yellow Pages do, and what a lot of potential customers are already used to.

Sounds like you guys are going after clients you don't really want to have. If someone says they can't afford it, I might make a rebuttal or something but won't spend much time on it. The reason you're not getting the good clients, is, you are either not trying... or you don't believe that YOU are worth that much for your time.

$1,000 clients are normal... it is strange if they pay less than that, honestly. I offer some websites starting at $399... Nobody pays only $399 though... they want something extra, or something else... I haven't sold a $399 website since october... and that guy came back and spent another $4,500 ish.

You can charge whatever you want... and get it. I can charge 2 grand for a simple site and get it, because of the perceived value it offers. Take yourself seriously and other people will as well.

The biggest issue I see with people starting out, they are too quick to make a deal. You get someone interested, but not pulling the trigger, and want a lower price or something more. Why give it? In 2-3 months from now they almost always call back saying they're ready. Want to double your income from this? Then stop giving in, out of desperation to make a few hundred.

Guys, everyone can do this, everyone can make more money. You just need to believe in yourselves and make sure you provide value. I know that every client I have, is going to be successful because they use me. Can they afford you? That question is meaningless. The question is, can they afford not to use you? That is, if you're truly providing value.

Hey all. I have this discussion a fair bit with other people who want to do what I have done since 2007, mostly those who don't really have a lot of confidence in what they are doing. My argument to them is this- what we do is a sales job. We're not working for big agencies with clients with millions to spend, and huge creative and technical brains thinking up the latest web masterpiece. Anyone can do what we do if you think about it in terms of websites and SEO and stuff like that. Anyone can read up and create a website. Anyone can do some SEO (partcularly in the UK, where it's not that tough to rank). Anyone vaguely techie can provide these services. But I don't think that what we're there to do. We go into small companies to sell them the help to grow their business, to bring more people to their website and help them sell more of whatever it is they do. We go in to sell passion, to sell hope and to sell vision. We don't go in to sell a website. Read up any of the decent offline WSOs- they will all say the same thing. Don't mention websites, or SEO or boring stuff like that- they don't want to hear it. Just tell them what you can do for them. They will find the cash if you can convince them that you will return it to them with interest. It's an investment, not a purchase. They aren't buying an iPad, they are buying a better future for their business.

What I'm trying to say is that if you go in with the attitude that you are selling a website for £199 (to take the example above), then you will find it tough to connect (how many websites do you have to sell every month, you must be chasing your tail the whole time?). If you go in with the attitude that you want to help this company grow, and you want to get paid for your knowledge then you become a consultant, a partner, a trusted advisor.

If you do this, then attitudes change. But you have to understand that this is a sales job. Think about it. Being face to face and having that relationship, that passion, that willingness to help the grow- that's what makes the difference. The internet means that millions (literally hundreds of millions) of people can offer the same services as you, at the same quality, at a fraction of the price. What do you offer over and above them? If you could go into a client with a view to signing up £199 websites, then farm them out to India for $50 each you might think that was good business, but it's not- it's just a short term quick win, which makes you no better in the client's eyes than the 000s of phone calls they get every month from all over the world offering them the same thing.

And don't limit yourself to your town (I'd struggle, as I live in the middle of nowhere). For what it's worth, I have clients all over the UK, (including one in North Wales, which isn't exactly flowing the cash- it's a nightmare drive for me to go and see them, but they pay well). I walk into every prospect meeting with the same thought- "If I can't see myself making at least £Xk in the next year from this prospect then they aren't for me". I even tell them this sometimes. We then work out together whether it's possible over the next year that we can work together to make them enough money to justify that investment.

I don't always sign every client. But I have a loyal roster of around 15-20 at any one time, some of whom have been with me since day 1. That's good business. I'm not going to share my revenue as it's imnpolite, but do the maths if you want. I'm not a millionaire, but my clients love me, I don't have a 'job' and I'm not chasing deals every month.

Summary of how I feel about this industry. If you are selling £199 websites and sturggling then do you need to look at your business model? Even with a hosting upsell, you will need to sell 1 a day to even turn over any decent money, and that's before costs of sale, cost of meeting the client, overheads etc. Wouldn't it be far better to aim to work with 5 clients at £500 a month each, even that's a start in terms of revenue, I worked on that kind of revenue for the first 18 months of my business and coped OK.

And now you've read this far- Prices! I too use the RPG (the random price generator), and make things up as I go along. No less than £500 a month for general marketing help, no less than £1000 a month for SEO, no less than £350 a month for PPC, stuff like Facebook fan Pages I make up as I go along even more so. But I do tend to list all the costs in a long line, and then agree an overall price with the client. I used to come out of meetings having signed up £600 a month deals on average (and tended to feel I'd done myself out of a deal), now it tends to be £1200+ a month (+VAT), and I feel better. I do contract out some stuff so I have my cost base, but I also do much of it myself.

Everyone's budget will be different. Calculate the absolute minimum price you can do it for and then adjust it depending on your clients needs and budget.

I'm really greatful for the comments made on this thread - I guess it really boils down to being a sales person and brushing up on my sales skills - I've just bought a WSO by Brenden Clerget and I must say over the last hour I have learned so much from this guy and overcoming objections - blimey this thread and this WSO has really opened my eyes to think differently.

I'm sure Lingo has also learnt from this thread.

Thanks guys I really appreciate it.

Some great info here. Thanks.

Interesting points there Glenn.

I'm interested in hiring a UK based cold caller on commission only, any tips there?

Abul

This is the never ending story of positioning... isn't it?

Over here there are people doing webdesign for 200€ per site, 10 pages. So what? There also companies selling (almost) the same service to top brands for 10K. It's all about positioning, circle of trust, referrals, connections... and OUR ability to explore other options.

If you hang out with turtles, you'll end up as one.

Now one question: if the local market is cheap, why you stick with it? To create connections? To achieve higher fees in the long run? I have to be honest here, we charge as low as 20€/30€ per hour to do our stuff. Think it's expensive? Think again cause a woman coming to clean the office charges 12€ per hour.

Positioning is the key here folks. It's not easy to deal with, it's not easy to achieve, BUT it's one of the most obvious solutions for our "local" problems. Local business owners do not like to pay 1K for a proper developed website. Good for them, let them pay 200/400€ and get dragged to page 15 of search results with a website with no conditions whatsoever to sell or promote effectively anything.

It's all about cycles too. Some folks that did not want to pay for a proper website 2 years ago are now in need of a new one + SEO. Why? Cause it took them two damn years to find out who's the expert here.

Keep also in mind we (web consulting/web developers/optimizers...) have a NEW profession... and we need to be able to be credible in the eyes of business owners so we can charge what we know it's fair. In the end it's a weird mix between some of the stuff I posted above.

Fernando