Independent Educational Consultant Pricing Guidance: To Disclose or Not to Disclose?
Back when I first started my practice in 2010, I didn't put my pricing online.
The industry was a whole lot smaller then, and while I knew what I was doing in terms of college counseling content knowledge, I had absolutely no idea how to run a business. I learned on the go and just assumed that "you're not supposed to put pricing online" because nobody else did.
I learned that most other IECs ultimately shared pricing in one of two ways:
Potential clients learned costs after a call or email
Potential clients learned costs at the time of the initial consultation
I started out with the first option: I provided my package descriptions on my website and indicated that I would share a price sheet for those packages via email, which I did. I thought this was a great sales technique because I'd be able to communicate with potential clients first, before any sticker shock set in.
However, after a lot of trial and error over the course of my first two years as an entrepreneur, I realized that hiding my pricing was actually counterproductive. It cost me time, money, and energy.
After one particular consultation that involved a two-hour roundtrip in DC rush hour traffic to speak to a family that clearly had zero interest in hiring me, I decided that I would test out some different strategies.
We'll talk about the importance of having an office another day (no more traffic!), but switching to transparent online pricing was a very quick change that yielded great results.
Not only did I stop wasting so much time, as I suspected, but I also uncovered a host of other benefits that I'd like to share with you.
Download a guide with my rationale here
Check out my own pricing here
I actually decided to begin coaching other IECs after I responded to a social media post about pricing and was flooded with private messages from IECs across the globe. People were shocked that I made my pricing publicly available. Now you know why!