How do you price a home study version of your course?
Do you offer it at a 10% discount?
Or 20% discount?
Or 50% discount?
How about a 0% discount instead?
First of all, if you're creating discounts, you're plainly silly. You can generate just as much traffic and conversion to your products and services, without giving a single discount. We've gone from a measly $28 a month to a situation where we take three-month vacations every year (not three months all at once, but three months in all). And we've done it without a discount. And so can you. But I digress.
Your homestudy course is just as valuable as a live course
And when you use the term ‘just as' it means ‘equal to.' So if your live course is $900, then the homestudy course is worth $900. If your live course is worth $2,500 then your homestudy is worth $2500. There's really no reason on earth why you should start discounting the value of your homestudy.
In fact, homestudy courses have costs
Producing a good homestudy course can cost well over $300 in fixed costs such as printing, blah, blah. And that's not even counting how much it cost you to record the course (sound equipment, batteries, editing time, etc). So don't be silly and discount your courses. Don't be silly and discount anything for that matter.
Your live course serves a different purpose. And your homestudy serves a different purpose. But the value of the content is exactly the same. And well, so is the price!
So I dont get it
Sean, this post is filed under Human Nature, and, in my experience, it’s human nature to assign a different value to live and home study programs. I understand that the raw content (what you might call the ingredients) are the same. But to say that live and home study programs should be priced the same because the content is the same is like saying a custom birthday cake and a cake mix should cost the same because the ingredients are the same.
What do you think?
Hi Molly: Yes I do see the difference. Not a custom birthday cake vs. cake mix. But I see it more as a custom birthday cake vs. cake already baked in the store.
The custom birthday cake would cost more. There’s no doubt about it. But that doesn’t mean it needs to cost more. That’s just a price structure we’ve put in place that says: Yes, I’m going to work on something special and so here’s the cost vs. something that’s generically made.
I don’t disagree with the logic. And ironically, I’ll charge $550 for a consultation, but do a teleclass for a lot less. So I’m not disagreeing. But in a strange, crazy way we decided to have the live courses and the homestudy priced the same.
What’s the logic? I’m not even sure there is one. Should I increase the cost of the live course? Or reduce the cost of the homestudy? I personally believe they just reach different audiences. I’ve seen people who will not do a live course at all. And those who are not happy unless they’re on the live course.
My pricing structure is based on this factor of identical information. Is it right? I’m not willing to wager on it, but so far it’s worked fine for us.
And really that’s been our experience, and so to answer a frequently asked question, I made this post.
Great post! Ive been looking for information like this. Could you recommend any other resources?
Thanks!! craps