what are we selling?

I was talking to Michael Hastings-Black of Desedo Films the other day about a great many things – it was sunny out! and we were in SoHo! with coffee!

But one of the most tactical parts of the conversation was also perhaps the hardest question.  How do you price what you do?  Furthermore, what’s the ‘right’ way to price it?

I’m aware that hourly billing is pretty standard, and that day rates are common among consultants (I even charge one, as do the bigger companies I work with).  But I’m much more comfortable with pricing the value of the thing itself.  You are paying for an answer – a design, a film, a campaign, a website, whatever.  How much time it takes to get there is agreed upon by you and me in the form of deliverable dates; the form the answer takes is also something we negotiate and discuss, preferably really early on.  But how many hours or days I commit between now and then begins to suggest that ideas happen ‘on the clock’ and that a sum of the process equals the outcome.

Which makes me (and clearly others, as the quote below illustrates) wonder, what are we really selling?  A process, or an outcome.  I’m more interested in outcomes, and I think that’s why people want to work with me.  But then we start working together and the process begins to subsume the thing itself.  I want to bust out of that.

I think it’s a better idea and more appropriate for clients to understand they are paying for a solution and not for the time associated. A designers’ job is to solve problems. One of these problems is helping clients understand the creative process, and, in turn, the value behind design.

thanks to #ideasareawesome and idApostle.

[oh, and the discussion in the comments section is pretty interesting too]