Pricing Your Services

---
name: pricing-your-services
description: "Design a freelance/consulting pricing structure — hourly vs day-rate vs project vs retainer chosen per engagement type, anchored packages, and the rules for saying the number out loud without flinching. Use when asked how should I price my freelance services, hourly or fixed price, build my pricing packages, or a client asked my rate what do I say. Produces the pricing-model decision per engagement type, a three-tier package structure, the rate-conversation script, and the discount policy with its floor."
---

# Pricing Your Services Skill

Freelancers treat pricing as one number when it's actually a structure: *which model* for which work, *how it's packaged*, and *how it's said*. Hourly punishes you for being fast; fixed-price punishes you for scoping badly; the right answer differs by engagement type within the same practice. This skill designs the structure — models matched to work, tiered packages that anchor, a script for the money moment — for someone who already knows their base rate (see [freelance-rate](../freelance-rate/SKILL.md) to derive it).

## What This Skill Produces

- **The model map** — hourly / day-rate / fixed-project / retainer / value-based, matched to each engagement type they actually sell
- **The package structure** — three tiers with the anchor built in, and what's deliberately excluded from each
- **The rate-conversation script** — saying the number, then the silence; deflections for "what's your best price" pre-answered
- **The discount policy** — what earns a discount (scope cut, longer commitment, prepayment), the floor, and the no-discount discount alternatives

## Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:
- **Base day/hourly rate** — derived, not guessed (route to freelance-rate if missing)
- **The engagement types they actually sell** — quick consults, defined projects, ongoing work — each may price differently
- **Scoping confidence per type** — fixed-price is only safe where they can scope within ±20%; be honest
- **Client landscape** — enterprise vs small business vs startups changes packaging and payment terms more than the rate

## Framework: The Structure Rules

1. **Match model to uncertainty:** well-scoped repeatable work → fixed price (you keep efficiency gains); discovery-heavy or ambiguous work → time-based (client keeps the scoping risk); ongoing availability → retainer with defined capacity, never "unlimited access."
2. **Three tiers, priced to anchor:** the top tier makes the middle look reasonable (most buyers take the middle); the bottom tier is genuinely minimal — its job is to make skipping it feel like a real trade-off, not to be cheap.
3. **Exclusions do the work:** each tier lists what's *not* included (revisions beyond N, rush turnaround, extra meetings) — that's where scope creep dies and upsells live.
4. **Say the number, then stop:** state price plainly, no trailing justification, no "...but I'm flexible." The silence after is the client's turn. Discounting against silence is negotiating with yourself.
5. **Discounts buy something or don't exist:** smaller scope, longer commitment, prepayment, a referenceable case study — a discount with no exchange just reprices every future engagement. Know the floor (from the rate math) below which work loses money, and decline below it.

## Output Format

# Pricing Structure: [practice]

## Model Map
| Engagement type | Model | Why | Risk it assigns |
|---|---|---|---|

## Packages
**[Tier 1 name] — $X:** [included] · *Not included:* […]
**[Tier 2 name] — $Y (most clients):** …
**[Tier 3 name] — $Z (the anchor):** …

## The Money Moment
Saying it: "[script]" [then silence]
"What's your best price?" → "[deflection that trades, not caves]"
"That's more than we budgeted" → "[scope-cut offer, same rate]"

## Discount Policy
Earns a discount: [list with exchange rates] · Floor: $[N] ([why]) · Below floor: decline script

## Quality Checks

- [ ] Every engagement type has a model AND the reasoning for it
- [ ] Fixed-price only where scoping confidence is stated ±20%
- [ ] Each tier lists exclusions, not just inclusions
- [ ] The script ends at the number — no trailing hedge
- [ ] Every discount names what it buys; the floor is computed, not felt

## Anti-Patterns

- [ ] Do not use one model for everything — the model is per-engagement-type
- [ ] Do not fixed-price ambiguity — that's donating the scoping risk for free
- [ ] Do not build a cheap bottom tier to "win volume" — it attracts the clients who cost the most per dollar
- [ ] Do not justify the rate after saying it — justification signals negotiability
- [ ] Do not discount without an exchange — reprice scope, terms, or timeline instead