Putting a market value (a price) to what you do and what impact you can have on your clients – is tricky.

And, if you are a subject matter expert who is a consultant, coach, mentor, guide or advisor to others – it can be even more tricky. Because, we are talking about what is essentially an intangible value that you’d have to clearly articulate so that people “got it” – and then would understand why they need you.

Defining your marketable value

Before you can discern what your marketable value is – i.e. the price that someone is willing and motivated to pay for your services – there are a few crucial elements that you need to establish:

1. What’s the problem that you solve?
2. Who do you solve it for?
3. Why should they choose you over someone else?

Ultimately, in old school economic terms, we are talking about your value proposition as professional. However – when your value is not a neat, pretty box with a shiny ribbon on it – you can get stuck in working this out.

Your strengths and expertise as a professional

When I work with my clients on their personal brand strategy, one big area we work on is your strengths and expertise.

There are a few ways we go about distilling this into terms that can succinctly answer the three questions above.

This is how I work on it:

I pull what you know about yourself (factually) and we also do a bit of investigatory work on what others know about you. Then we back this up with some diagnostic tools to sense check the insights we’ve gathered.

#1 Your work experience

We look at your career to date. How did you start your career? How did you come to do the work you are doing now? What moves did you make? Did you learn from mistakes along the way? How would you describe the breadth of your experience?

#2 Context of YOU in the marketplace

We look at what makes you unique – as a professional, as well as the human doing the work. How do you compare to others who do the same work? Can you name similar professionals?

#3 Your strengths as a professional

We use a strengths diagnostic tool to do a more data-driven profile on where your top strengths lie. This usually gives us HUGE insights into why your career path has worked out the way it has, as well as why you are now looking to the future and wanting something different or more concrete in a certain way.

Be clear on the problem you solve

This is fun work to do because, more often than not, my clients are far too close to their work to realise the bigger problem they are solving for their clients. And therein lies much of their value as a professional.

Sometimes – the problem that you think you are solving for your client – is the immediate thing in front of you that you are “fixing”.

However, if you step back a bit, you’ll realise that there is a domino effect to what you are doing. You are enabling something bigger to shift for a client or your peer or colleague (whomever you are engaged to work for or with).

An example: A family lawyer

The lawyer may be engaged to draft and complete a divorce agreement, and that is what they are essentially being paid to do.

However – what they are actually doing is helping a couple to work through a very tough separation and have some very difficult conversations which could otherwise result in a highly explosive and corrosive situation for them as a couple and any children involved.

Their skills in managing to hold and facilitate these conversations are part of their value. The experience of working with them is also highly important.

The problem you really solve may need to be described in more emotive terms.

How do your clients feel when they work with you, or after they have finished working with you? (Therein lie your clues).

EXTRA TIP: Intangibles that can add value

Here are a list of 7 intangibles which most relate to subject matter experts. They are valued by your engaged client / colleague or boss:

• CLARITY. Make something super easy to understand
• CERTAINTY. Remove all doubt about the benefits of what you do
• CURATION. Act as a tastemaker on behalf of customers (refer them direct to a great resource, remove the need for searching, qualifying and testing)
• DELIGHT. Deliver more than just reliability, do more
• GUIDANCE. Add support, learning or interpretation
• SIMPLICITY. Streamlining the product or purchase
• SURPRISE. Disrupt expectations and do things differently or without asking

EXTRA TIP: Starting point for pricing

To be honest, you need some where to start first, right? I always advise:

Step 1: Start with basic math first, and then going from there.

Yes – start with a day rate that looks pretty competitive to what others are charging in your field.

Step 2: Look at your unique elements

Look at your years of experience; breadth of knowledge; how you work; and of course what deliverables you help the client with. This is more fluid – but be kinder to yourself and ensure that you do take these things into account and it’s not just about a day rate.

Special thing to remember:

We live in a world of Artificial Intelligence where you also have to be clearer on your value as the human delivering something, which your prospective client, peer, colleague or boss will “think” they can do with an AI tool. Welcome the challenge of challenging the AI outcome, or give them extra questions to think about before you work with them.

Did that help on the topic of pricing your service or value?

If you’d like to work with me on identifying your strengths, expertise and unique talents to give you more of an idea how to express your market value – then book a call in and let’s chat about it. 

What I’ve described above is one step of a 6-step framework I use in my personal brand work. The other steps include:

• articulating your personality so you’re more aligned with how others are perceiving you
• drawing out your back story (how you came to be here doing the work you’re doing)
• distilling your core values and converting these into your working principles
• defining why you are here, doing the work you are doing
• describing how you would like people to feel when they work with you

Book a no-obligation discovery call with me. We can walk through my framework together and you can share your objectives for wanting to do the work. (Pick a convenient time for our call here.)