The final point in the Price Triangulation Mental Model (PTMM) is a market-based price.

The first two points were generated based on:

• Your own business goals (the revenue price)
• The unlocked value for the client (the value price).

The inclusion of a market-based price serves as a sanity check to make sure you’re not floating too far above or below the rate of a competing alternative.

This ensures you don’t seem out of touch with the market while also potentially saving you from leaving too much money on the table.

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To find an appropriate market-based price comp, you’ll want to look around for a published service price that most closely matches yours.

Now, if you’ve designed your service in a way that differentiates you in the market, you most likely won’t find an exact match for an apples-to-apples comparison.

Instead, you need to find a competitive service that seeks to solve the same customer problem, even if the service structure differs from yours.

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So, where to find this competitive price:

• A comparable public competitor
  • Do some digging! Many consultants publish their rates on their websites, particularly for productized services
  • Find a competitor that most closely resembles your service, regardless of whether your prospects are aware of them or not
• A rates database
  • Some indie consultant Slack communities (such as Mylance) feature an anonymous rates database by functional area, populated by self-reported rates
  • Note: some of these are converted into effective hourly rates for easy comparison, so remember to gross those up to the total service cost before comparing
• Ask a peer
  • A friend in your space may be aware of some comps in your lane
  • Tip: to avoid confirmation bias, don’t ask their opinion on your proposed price—ask if they know the prices of anyone else’s services
• Ask a past client
  • Assuming you’ve maintained a friendly relationship, you can ask a previous client what other options they consider for your type of service and what pricing structure they’ve seen in the market

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Back to our friend Marcos, the B2B content strategy consultant.

Marcos found a closely matching consultant publicly offering a ‘Content Strategy Overhaul’ as a 3-month fractional for $30,000.

So, $30,000 becomes the final market-based point in his PTMM triangulation.

See how Marcos did not divide the competitive price by 3 to match the length of his 4-week service?

Why? Because both services seek to solve the same problem — his is simply structured over a shorter intensive.

The appropriate comp is outcome-to-outcome, not a time-based proration.

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So, now the triangle is complete. Where do you go from here? Which do you choose?

We’ll wrap this up tomorrow...

💡

-Wes