Make Your Own Lane: The Four Quadrant Price Slab

The following are for illustration purpose only:

Example 1:

Function: Social Media Management
Outcome: Revenue increase by FY 2018

A] The above table is basically letting the company management take a call regarding what level of support they want from us and accordingly we charge them.

B] The four quadrants are just for understanding. The quotes are random (without any thought, study or research) just to drive the point.

Example 2:

1] Work scope: "Web mining” or "Research" - That is the "function" (We can have competition there. Many can be offering this service. We talk quality, TAT, relationship whatever and win the project)

2] What is the web mining for? - Let us assume, clients want to "increase leads" based on the data gathered - BECKON Consultant's ownership is to achieve that outcome “leads” as that is quantifiable in terms of currency or financial numbers

The deliverable is not "function" – Your deliverable will be client's business “outcomes” if the client opts for Quadrant 4 pricing.

Example 3:

1] Function: Business plan (2nd Quadrant Quote): $135 - $440 subject to industry

2] Outcome: Seed Funds
If a BECKON Consultant agrees to do a business plan to ensure client gets seed funds from investor within 10 months – The quote can be $10000 (4th Quadrant).

3] If seed funds cannot be sourced within agreed time frame, consultant will refund 50 to 75% of this quote. The consultant will be involved in many functions - plan, strategy, conferences, and negotiation with investors, social media management or brand awareness - any lead measure that takes client closer to seed funds. 

Example 4:

1] A company has 18 billable resources that deliver 1 lac transactions every month with annual business revenue $90000

2] If another startup talks about 5 virtual resources aligned to 2 projects with a combined quarterly turnover of $55000 

Case study 2 qualifies as BECKON Consultant for large projects because we are inclined towards lean management.

Example 5:

1] Quadrant 1 Pricing:  Design website including content

2] Quadrant 4 pricing: Website should fulfill agreed metrics (Traffic, visitors, leads, conversion, revenue etc.) within 10 months

Usually Quadrant 4 pricing is approximately 25 times more.

In case of example 5, if a company or any other vendor/ freelancer executes website design part of the project and fail to execute the scope under Quadrant 4 pricing – there is refund involved.

If client does not bother about quadrant 4 pricing or want metrics to be handled by in house team, we can always do website designing piece with no refund clause included.

Strategically, as a team and new entrants in the market, we are keen to engage with clients for Quadrant 4 pricing and so we are screening / handpicking resources that can facilitate that.

We no longer define "activity" as work. That is for the dashboards.

We define "productivity" as work. 

Contact advocating.outcomes@gmail.com to know more about BECKON Framework and how to qualify to be BECKON Consultant 

How To Fix Rates As A Freelancer?

This is another frequent ask from the beginners.

I find many struggling with pricing model/ commercial piece of their proposal to bid for assignments. This is an issue with both the kinds -

(A) People who have extensive experience 

(B) Fresh graduates and work at home moms 

The point I will drive today is this, you should be able to do the following appropriately and effectively, regardless of what you charge your buyers

1. Alignment of skills and experience to your quote

2. Set your rate based on what value you bring to the table.

Here is an example for better understanding

Think about a job in a local health spa

After 35 years of corporate experience and career gap of two years if you are hired to provide spa treatment after in house training, will your remuneration be based on your corporate experience/ last drawn salary or based on your limited expertise in spa?

Now think about a project in an online portal that you want to bid for

You have 20 years of sales experience however you have never done a power point presentation from scratch - How fair is it to charge a buyer for a sales pitch deck, based on your sales experience alone? 

Are you not supposed to consider your expertise in content and power point as well while quoting your fee?

You have to acknowledge basic reality first.

1. Are you  still learning the tricks of the trade?

2. Is your experience relevant to the skill you are offering?

It is just a roundabout way of telling the beginners, it does not matter what experience you have, what skills you offer as services or what rates you want to set, you should 

(A) Be good in what you do

(B) Be able to articulate in your proposal what and how your offer is beneficial to your buyer and justify that rate.

In Buyer's Shoes.

Imagine a prospective buyer’s dilemma when he receives multiple quotes for the exact same job/ project/ assignment (say, creating a power point) and the quote ranges from $40 to $450.

Quote 1	Quote 2	Quote 3
$40 Content will be created after thorough research	$190 Content with research included.	$390 $80 Content Writing in story board format (Customized for target audience) – 8 Slides $20 Format and animation $90 Research (Feasibility, Industry and Competition analysis $10 Logo upload /Color schemes $20 Smart Art (Visual Theme) $20 Tagline in Title Slide $80 Talking points for each slide $70 Rationale Document or tips to prepare the presenter for dry run/ go live. Timelines: 7 Days $60 Express Delivery 4 Days
Vague	Buyer has no idea how many slides he will get  What sort of research will be done.	Here a buyer can assess if the rates for each piece of work quoted is exorbitant or reasonable. Here are a few possibilities: The buyer can increase his budget to accommodate your quote and award you the order because he knows he is getting a deck ready for real time presentation the minute he receives it.  The buyer may have limited budget and ask you, if you can drop it to $200 – You sure can as long as he is providing the researched inputs (That is what will take most of your time)  He will ask for samples because he cannot afford you and yet wants to see how your mind works.

Know your worth and when you quote, consider the following:

(A) Is your skill niche or easily available in the market?

(B) The time required to execute an assignment

(C) Inputs / research materials/ support that you need from buyer - the less your dependence on buyer, the more you can charge

(D) The depth of research you need to do

(E) The proportion between doing and thinking - The more thinking required, the higher the quote.

One last tip on justifying the quote -

Never sell the solution (your services) through a price. 

Aim to sell the price through your solution. 

Your solution - the detail inputs you provide in the proposal should be so good that the price will seem reasonable and affordable

Write to advocating.outcomes@gmail.com to evaluate your proposal and share neutral perspectives. Know more here