I recently announced apologised for that you would be seeing more marketing of my coaching services going forward. So for transparency’s sake, I wanted to do a brief post beforehand, on what to look out for—the methods and purpose behind the messaging, so you can be better informed before committing to work together.
This original Instagram post can be found here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DEsZztWoV9y/
There are three principles I follow in life…
- Be authentic
- Be kind
- Be useful
To the best of my ability, these are my key values, and they have shaped how I live, my social life, and my coaching work.
We are in the age of “faux”—filters, fake everything, and AI. To invent a word: “Unechtzeit”—the fake or inauthentic age.
In this post, I describe the way marketing is typically done, and detail how I want to do things, despite decades of proof that the typical way makes more money. I want to price and promote my services in such a way that does not pressure, manipulate, and play psychological games with people.
Business is selling, selling is convincing, and convincing is about value. I want to apply my three principles to all this.
“Price is what you pay, value is what you get.” – W, Buffet.
Price is what someone is willing to pay. And upon discovering this, we created the free-market economy.
The key principle of marketing is convincing someone of the value of something, which may or may not be influenced by its price. I.e., the higher the price, the greater the perceived value (Balenciaga, electrolytes, cube croissants).
Price isn’t high or low if there is only one option. An effective strategy is to make up a price, and put it beside a higher made up price. Or rather, to inflate a price and heavily discount it. Which isn’t really a discount because the price is made up. It’s psychologicry, conjuring up value for money.
At useful., I don’t want to publish discounts. Prices should reflect the value of the service, and not be manipulated to drive sales. Private discounts and payment plans can be requested, and offered based on both our circumstances.
Paired with discounted pricing, another key marketing strategy is to create a sense of urgency and scarcity.
Outside of limited accommodation at a physical venue, or time limitations in availability to support customers, scaled pricing strategies such as spots, launch offers, early bird deals, etc., leverage the fear of missing out (paying more).
This strategy is also used with free or cheap seminars, workshops, courses, ebooks, videos, etc., where attendees are “rewarded” with a discount off a full service or product.
Pricing after the offer ends is then inflated to make the contrast more attractive, followed by a “last minute” offer.
At useful., I don’t want to publish offers. Prices should reflect the value of the service, and not be manipulated to drive sales. Scalable pricing will exist for service extensions, and returning clients. Lead generation will be communicated as lead generation. People should not pay more for being “late”.
Attempting to price based on objective value is of course impossible because it doesn’t really exist. However the “Hormozian” charge-as-high-as-you-can-get-away-with, leads to “Salt Bae” restaurants, price-inflated stale croissants in cafes, and an increase in the cost of living for everyone.
Everyone then increases their prices, and on-and-up we go.
The next strategy is fighting for attention. Give away as much as you can for free on social media, to generate leads, then sell cheap to the many, and very high to a few.
But what is exclusively left for people who are actually paying? What is the actual price to value?
At useful., prices will reflect what I believe is their fair value. As a potential client, you can then know and trust that there will not be a “better” offer later. The price you pay, is the price I would pay myself for a similar service, by a similarly experienced, and skilled practitioner. Authentic pricing.
Radical transparency…
As part of the February 2025 useful. website update, a page will be created to disclose:
- Explanation and “formula” for service pricing (e.g., how and why the prices are what they are, and comparisons)
- Monthly business operating expenses (e.g., technical services, subscriptions, software, insurance, loans, etc)
- Monthly sales turnover and profit, and previous years
- Monthly director’s salary and dividend payments
- Other interesting information (e.g., number of client calls)
This will provide insight into the company’s finances and clarify the compensation of its director, me (Tom Herbert).
What effect will not publishing discounts and offers, but publishing the finances of the business have on sales?
Who knows?! But I am excited to see how useful. will be an example for the new wave of doing business transparently.