One of the hardest things to do well in marketing is pricing.

After all, if it were just as simple as selecting a “price,” then perhaps everyone could do it. But pricing is much more complex and involved than that. And the considerations go far beyond what you might initially think about. Consider:

• • What are your competitors pricing similar products/services at? (A good way to at least start figuring out what your products/services are valued in the market today.)
  • What margin are you aiming for?
  • Are you going after the luxury market?
  • Who is your core audience for this product/service?
  • Do you discount? Do your competitors?
  • What is the stage of your company? Are you breaking into the market, or are you established?
  • What’s your revenue time horizon? Can you afford to lose money to gain market share?
  • Could you employ dynamic/AI pricing (think airlines, Uber, etc.)?
  • Do you need to employ variable pricing (based on usage, time, etc.)
  • What’s the standard in your particular industry?
  • Are you thinking about subscriptions or memberships? And what does a first-year offer look like versus a second-year?
  • Does value accumulate with your products and services for your customers over time?
  • What is the cost to acquire versus the lifetime value calculation for you?

As you can see, this is just a small sampling of the types of questions worth asking depending on what you’re selling and who you’re selling to. That’s what makes it so hard.

How to Get Started Finding a Good Ballpark Price

If you’re a small or midsize business, a good ballpark price typically sits at the intersection of three things: your costs, your market, and your positioning.

Start with your floor. What does it actually cost you to deliver your product or service, all in? That includes labor, tools, software, overhead, marketing, and your time. Most small businesses underprice simply because they forget to account for the invisible costs (administrative time, sales cycles, product or service revisions, etc.). If you don’t know your real costs, what you end up doing is guessing. Avoid that if you can.

Next, look outward. Competitor pricing isn’t about copying. (Indeed, if you just copy an established competitor’s price delivering the same or similar product/service, you’ll end up in the same place: fewer sales because the larger/established competitor already has more upfront brand recognition and market share.  

What you’re really trying to do here is find an anchor. Ask yourself: What does the market already accept as “normal”?  Are most providers clustered in a tight range? Is there a wide spread between low and high? That spread is often where opportunity lives.

Then, define your intent. Are you trying to win on volume, margin, or positioning? You can’t optimize for all three. A lower price can be a growth lever, but only if you have a plan to convert that volume into profit over time (through upsells, retention, efficiency, or, if you have the patience like Amazon to run in the red until you’ve exhausted all competition).

A simple way to sanity-check your ballpark price:

• • If you doubled your price, would you still get some customers? If yes, you’re probably underpricing.
  • If you cut your price in half, would demand meaningfully increase? If no, price isn’t your main constraint; your perceived value is.

One underutilized tactic for SMBs: test pricing in controlled ways. That could mean quoting slightly different ranges, offering tiered packages, or adjusting pricing by channel (website vs. referral vs. paid leads).

The focus here: Directional insight. What differences do you notice? What does your audience respond to best? Once you have that ballpark, the real work begins: aligning pricing to your industry dynamics.

How Pricing Changes by Industry (and How to Do It Right)

Different industries reward different pricing strategies. What works for a plumber can fail completely for a coach or an e-commerce brand. Here are some common small-to-midsize business industries that we work with and that we’ve observed over time.

Health and Wellness

This space is heavily perception-driven, which makes pricing a positioning tool as much as a math equation.

• • Higher prices can increase perceived effectiveness, especially for services like personal training, functional medicine, or specialized therapy. (We say “can” because, again, it depends on who your customer is and their disposable income as well.)
  • Packages will often outperform single sessions. A $120 session alone feels expensive. But $1,200 for a 12-week program may feel different as part of a commitment to results. Also, note how the price per session drops to $100 with the latter deal. It’s one way to discount without actually discounting the value of services.
  • Pricing transparency can be a differentiator. Many providers hide pricing. But publishing it can build trust and pre-qualify leads.

In the health, fitness, and wellness space, there is evidence that perceived price and perceived quality are, indeed, linked and shape perceived value and satisfaction in gym/fitness settings.

Potential Overall Strategy: Lean higher on price, while bundling outcomes, and selling transformation.

Home Services Industry Companies (Electricians, Plumbers, HVAC)

Here, pricing is about trust, speed, and clarity.

• • Customers are often in a moment of urgency. They’re not price shopping as much as they are risk-reducing.
  • Flat-rate pricing tends to outperform hourly pricing because it removes uncertainty.
  • “Good, Better, Best” options can significantly increase average ticket size without increasing close friction.

One insight many owners miss: your price is often judged after the job is done, not before. If the experience is smooth, clean, and professional, customers are far less sensitive to price. Also, underpricing in this category can backfire, especially for one that’s in high demand, as it can signal inexperience or low quality. (Again, not always but oftentimes and much depends on the situation – is it an emergency, etc.? And what demographic are you selling to?) 

Overall Potential Strategy: We generally recommend standardizing pricing where possible. This reduces uncertainty and uses tiered options to increase average revenue per job. The other thing here: Publishing your average pricing for a particular job helps for a few reasons:

• • It boosts your transparency versus competitors who may “spring” a price on a customer out of nowhere.
  • It pre-qualifies people who inquire. They see the published price and are OK with it generally.
  • It always helps with SEO. People are always searching in your local area for how much something costs, especially tied to the home. If you can provide that upfront and Google or the AI platforms recognize that you’re doing that through your SEO/GEO, you bring more traffic to your website.

Small or Midsize E-commerce Brands

E-commerce pricing lives at the intersection of psychology and your competition.

• • Charm or psychological pricing (e.g., $29 vs. $30) still works, but only in certain categories.
  • Shipping costs can make or break conversion. “Free shipping” baked into pricing often outperforms lower prices + added shipping. How do a lot of smaller brands do this? “Purchase $75 and get free shipping!”
  • Discounting is addictive, but also dangerous. Frequent discounts train customers to wait. Bundles can often be a better route, along with tying free shipping to a larger dollar purchase.

A lesser-known dynamic: small price changes can have outsized impacts on profit. A 10% price increase doesn’t just increase revenue; it can increase profit by 30–50% depending on your margins and sales volume.

Also, many small brands try to compete too closely on price with Amazon. That’s a losing game unless you have a clear differentiation (brand, niche, experience, or product uniqueness).

Overall Potential Strategy: price for margin, not just conversion rate. Don’t compete against the Amazons of the world. (You’ll lose.) Compete on differentiation, niche, and other areas to keep prices higher but reasonable. Use bundles and thresholds (e.g., free shipping over $75) to help increase average order value (AOV) to attract those who still want to “feel like they got a deal.” 

Consultants and Coaches

This is an industry where pricing becomes almost entirely about perceived value and positioning. A few key areas:

• • Hourly pricing caps your upside and ties value to time. It’s fine if you’re just starting out, but over time, this will become a drag both literally and financially.
  • Productized services or packaged offers create clearer buying decisions. Scale is often the goal for many consultants and coaches (how to provide their expertise across multiple channels, but where they don’t have to deliver it themselves/in person or in a one-on-one or one-to-group setting). The question here is: how much value does your being present provide versus what you know?
  • High-ticket pricing can actually simplify your funnel. It will mean fewer clients, higher commitment, and sometimes, better outcomes. But not always. One thing to consider here is not just your experience and reputation; it’s also outcomes. Do you have proof that customers have succeeded? Or are you relatively “famous” for what you do? Or do people need to become more aware of you in order to justify that higher price?

One of the biggest pricing mistakes in this category: pricing simply based on your years of experience versus the outcomes you’ve produced. A consultant who generates $100K in value, let’s say, can reasonably charge $10K+, regardless of how many hours it takes.

Another insight: people often trust expensive consultants more. There’s a built-in assumption that a higher price = higher expertise.

Overall Potential Strategy: price based on outcomes, not inputs. Create clear packages, anchor high, and avoid the hourly hamster wheel.

Should Small and Midsize Businesses Use Dynamic Pricing?

With AI now on the scene, a lot of small and midsize businesses might be wondering if they, too, can take advantage of AI’s ability to adjust pricing based on situations (à la airlines or Uber with its surge/demand pricing). AI indeed can help businesses maximize revenue using such an approach.

However, for most small and midsize businesses, it’s probably not an ideal use case, as real-time algorithmic pricing requires large data sets, technical infrastructure, and constant monitoring. It’s basically overkill.

That said, what small and midsize businesses can do is to borrow the principles of dynamic pricing without trying to fully replicate what Uber does. For example, companies could using simpler rules or AI-assisted approaches: testing different price points by time of day or week, adjusting rates seasonally, or using AI tools to analyze historical sales data and suggest price ranges or discount thresholds rather than setting prices completely on autopilot.

The key, to us, is control: you want dynamic pricing that you can explain to a customer without embarrassing yourself (“We charge more on weekends because demand is highest,” “We offer better rates for early bookings,” etc.), and that doesn’t erode trust or make your brand feel unpredictable.

A Final Thought on “Getting It Right”

There is no perfect price. Period. There is only a price that’s tested, refined, and aligned with your goals.

Most small businesses don’t have a pricing problem. They have a confidence problem backed by a lack of structured testing.

If you take one thing away from this, pricing is not a one-time decision. It’s an ongoing marketing lever. That’s why you should always try to evolve it and test it over time. By doing that, you’ll figure out your optimal level.

For example, we always say it’s OK for you to estimate a price that ends up to slightly lower on average for the value you’re providing early on. Look at it this way: you gain experience and start to understand your real value in the marketplace. Something that will continue to help you as your company grows and matures.