The Course Mentors Podcast

What's Your Course Really Worth?

• The Course Mentors • Season 1 • Episode 10

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Stuck in the pricing paralysis? Worried about charging "too much"? In this value-packed episode, we're tackling the episode that most course creators need but few dare to make - how to actually price your course!

Get ready for a perspective shift that might shock you: If people are saying your course is too expensive... it's probably too cheap! We're breaking down why undercharging isn't just hurting your bank account - it's actually doing your students a disservice.


In This Episode:

  • Why higher prices often lead to better student results
  • How to calculate your course's real value (hint: it's more than you think!)
  • The psychology behind pricing that attracts committed students
  • Our proven "Value Stack Method" for confident pricing
  • Real examples of successful price increases and their impact

Whether you're launching your first course or considering a price increase, this episode will give you the confidence to charge what you're worth. Because at the end of the day, your price isn't just a number - it's a filter for commitment!

Stop undercharging and start serving at a higher level! Hit play and let's price for success! 💰

#CourseCreator #CoursePricing #OnlineBusiness #DigitalProduct

Want to create your own 6-figure+ course? Apply to join Online Course School https://thecoursementors.com/application

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Catch us every Wednesday for your weekly dose of course creation wisdom. Got questions or loving the show? Let us know on IG @thecoursementors. For more on our courses and mentorship, check out Online Course School's website https://thecoursementors.com/application.

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to the Course Mentors podcast. I'm Odette, I'm Amy. Today we're tackling something that makes most course creators break out in a cold sweat yeah, totally.

Speaker 2:

I think the number one dm that we get every single week is guys, I just need help with my pricing. I can't figure out my pricing. Pricing is so hard, for course creators and we always say this too, and I think the reason pricing is so so difficult in the world, of course creation is because there's no set values for anything. There's no price for a worksheet, there's no set values for anything. There's no price for a worksheet, there's no price for a video, and so people feel like they're just plucking a number out of thin air.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely, but there are methods to get to that number. So we're going to do a little bit of looking at that in this podcast today. Really consistent feedback we get from our course in stage one. Our students tend to go into pricing feeling really unsure. They really don't have any idea what their pricing could be. We ask before they start with us what do you think you're going to price your course? They have no idea After they've done this module. They're so clear and I just love it so much. We have some really good methods. We're going to go through a couple of those today and sort of touch on those. We really want to take the I guess, emotion and the confusion out of pricing and just bring it back to some numbers and what they like, the perception of numbers, and get some pricing done for your horse Okay, but before we get into that debt.

Speaker 2:

How has your week been?

Speaker 1:

It's been good actually, and you know why it's been good, why I'm pregnant, as you know, but I'm finally out of my first trimester sickness.

Speaker 2:

I don't think anyone else knows. Anyone listening to this would not know.

Speaker 1:

I'm not like a big, like news person. I'm pretty sure I'll just like have a belly at I don't know some sort of event. Someone will take a picture and then that'll be an announcement because they tagged me. So no, I am pregnant and I'm past my first trimester, which the sickness took about 16 weeks to go away.

Speaker 2:

So it was no joke it was no joke, but it happened.

Speaker 1:

What you said happened like a, basically like a switch flipped and I just got my energy, got my motivation, got my self and my life back. So I'm very happy that's what's been happening, just like getting back into things after being a bit crap at life yeah, you can't.

Speaker 2:

Like you were putting a spine together, you're putting eyeballs together in the background. I think you were doing amazing that's what my husband keeps saying.

Speaker 1:

He says, babe, it's fine, relax, you're growing a baby exactly.

Speaker 2:

Just take it easy. It's really excited. I can't wait to to have another team member at the course. I know Fourth one, I guess, if we're including your son, I think we are. I think he puts in some mid-level value.

Speaker 1:

He brings the smiles. Amy, let's get into it. Drop a truth bomb, okay. I have one ready for you, have you checked the notes, I just know there's always a truth bomb coming with you.

Speaker 2:

Okay, my truth bomb for the day is if you think that your course is too expensive, it's probably too cheap.

Speaker 1:

Now, straight out of the gate too. We're going to get into some numbers in a second and we're going to look at the perception, what we call the price perception letter. Obviously there's things like your price needs to align with your niche. You know, if you're selling to a university student, somebody like straight out of uni, don't make it two thousand dollars. That's sort of the obvious stuff, though with pricing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the first thing that we do inside of OCS really is we help people figure out who exactly they're selling to, so they have that context in mind before they get into these numbers, and I think that that is really, really important. So, if you're at this step, I think it's really important first of all to know who it is that you're selling to. But then we also say don't count their pockets, so don't make kind of bold assumptions like, yeah, people would never pay a thousand dollars for your course, because they might, and people would never pay two hundred dollars, they probably would. So don't count their pockets, but know who it is that you're selling to, because that's really important as well. If you're and people would never pay $200. They probably would. So don't count their pockets, but know who it is that you're selling to, because that's really important as well. If you're selling to university students, is a $25,000 course going to work with that niche? No, because they're already spending $25,000 on a course, so maybe not.

Speaker 1:

So straight out the gate. Obviously it needs to align with your niche. But let's move on to some numbers.

Speaker 2:

Okay, gate. Obviously it needs to align with your niche but let's move on to some numbers.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I want to go through the price perception ladder and I want to group some numbers together, starting with $100 and less. This is generally perceived as basic information. It attracts bargain hunters and it often lowers completion rates. So one thing people don't understand with pricing it's not just a money investment. It reflects on the investment people expect to put into your course. So less than $100, they're not that committed. You know it's throwaway money, depending on what you're doing.

Speaker 2:

I would expect less than $100 to be a like, a part of a skill, something that I can learn in three hours or less, 100%.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's not like a 12-week course. So you said I have a 12 week course, it's $89. Well, I would think that's a, that's a garbage course. What could I? You know? What value could there possibly be, and why should it take 12 weeks if I'm only spending $90?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, if it's a throwaway money, it's throwaway time, it's. No one's going to be committed to something less than $100.

Speaker 1:

So if you're actually after people completing your course, it's got to be over $100. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

The next price grouping is $197 through to $497. And, yes, we're going slightly under the numbers, under $200 and $500. So about somewhere between $200 and $500, $197 and $497.

Speaker 1:

Great for like a starter courses. You know it's probably not going to be a six month long course, but if you have something that's anything from like eight to 12 weeks medium level commitment. Yeah, that's when people think, okay, they have to. They have to think about the price a bit more. You know, if it's, especially if it's up towards the $500 mark, it's not going to be like okay, yes, we know they need to think about it.

Speaker 2:

They need to check with their partner, they need to research the sales page a little bit more and they need to, kind of like make an invested decision into can they actually complete this course?

Speaker 1:

It's a quite a common price that we see a lot of the time. It also converts really well. Like you only need to sell 10 courses at 500 bucks to make five grand.

Speaker 2:

It's when you start getting into goodish money because the level of investment is higher at that level. So because we're seeing people take a little bit more consideration before they purchase, they're actually going to commit to completing the program a lot more too, not just money.

Speaker 1:

Investment of you know 500 bucks. That's a fair investment. For some people, it's not just money. Investment of you know 500 bucks, that's a fair investment. For some people, it's not just that investment. It's the time they took thinking about making that investment.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and then it's like, okay, well, I'm actually going to do this because I'm putting half a thousand dollars into it, so I'm going to carve out some time in the evenings. I'm going to make sure that I do this when my kids at childcare. I'm going to make sure I do this on the weekends, when I've got Saturday morning free. Like they start to not just calculate the money that they're investing, but then the time and how they're going to invest into it properly and when people really have to consider that financial investment and they have to make time for it in their life. That's when people actually complete courses.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, under a hundred. They probably just impulse buy without thinking can I actually spend time on this?

Speaker 2:

So that's the difference between those two tiers. What are the big ones exactly? And then the final tier is from 997, so just under a thousand dollars to two thousand dollars. Obviously, courses exist above two thousand dollars, but let's just go through 997 to 2000 as the premium pricing because, really, if we're talking general courses, that's where 99 of courses are going to fall within under 100 all the way to two thousand dollars so this is premium positioning.

Speaker 1:

You'd have to think about this purchase. If you're saying I'm going to spend two grand on something if it's a couch, if it's a course, if it's anything you have to think about two grand, no matter really who you are the thing about two thousand dollars is that you don't want to spend two thousand dollars twice.

Speaker 2:

So when you're looking at the two thousand dollar product, it's because you are so sick of a problem and you just want the shortcut to the answer.

Speaker 1:

You're not fucking around anymore yeah, you're not on youtube having a bit of research, seeing if you're interested in something.

Speaker 2:

You're committed to the cause and you're not just kind of researching in the research phase. You know what you want and you know that you need a solution to it. So people are going to be coming in at that $2,000 mark much more educated and aware purchasing behavior. They're going to come in and say I know what I want, I know what the situation I'm looking for. I've looked at some competitors, I've looked at some other things. $2,000 mark you'll have the most premium positioning available.

Speaker 2:

You will attract serious investors who are finally ready to actually make a difference, make their behavior change, commit to doing the work and you'll also, as an aside, have the highest completion rates if the value of your course matches the price that you're charging. You cannot just slap two grand on anything. You're going to have to match the value with the price, Obviously. Those are, you know, assumptions that we're making.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you've got to be making big change too. You know it's got to be something serious to change. It can't be really like I couldn't price my sewing course at $2,000. No one's going to be spending $2,000 on.

Speaker 2:

Totally yeah. Yeah, it's got to be something that's literally life or behavior changing at $2,000, $200,000, $2,000.

Speaker 1:

Solving good problems yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So, in summary, we've got a price perception ladder. We've got three main price groupings. We're going to start with under a hundred dollars. These are your tick and flick courses. These are things that you can get done in a weekend in a couple of hours. They're just things like little skills, maybe that make up part of a bigger skill, but they're just little things that you can tick and flick and get rid of. Next we have the mid-level tier, which is $197 through $497.

Speaker 2:

These courses are usually fall within the hobbyist category. Sewing, japanese languages, hobbies, crafts, those kinds of things usually fall within that pricing. These are really really, really good for committed learners and good completion rates, but without too much hands-on support, and these are courses that mostly can be done by themselves. They have a great conversion rate and a great completion rate. This is a really good sweet spot to sit in.

Speaker 2:

Then, third, we have 997 all the way through 2000 and and these courses are the premium courses. These are the ones that are going to attract serious buyers, with high completion rates but probably a lot of life or behavior changing skills included inside the course and probably with a lot of support and a lot of value added to. So, depending on where it is that you want to sit within your value offering if you want to do a tick and flick course, if you want to do a hobbyist course or something that's a mid-tier commitment, or if you want to go the premium pricing route and do something that has a lot of support, has a lot of value added, but you can charge that premium pricing.

Speaker 1:

Remember too that your price is not just a number. It is a filter for commitment. Hopefully that gives you some clarity on the perception of pricing okay.

Speaker 2:

Next, I want to get a little bit practical about doing your course pricing. So those are the three main pricing kind of tiers that people generally sit within and usually, if you'll listen to us talk about that, you'll say I know where I am, I know that I want to sit in that mid-level commitment range or I want to go for the premium, and you probably already voluntarily know what it is that you're doing. You probably already have a kind of number that's swirling around in your head and you will have just identified. When we talked about those three main tiers, you'll say, yep, I fit within that one, or I fit within that one and that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

The next thing that we get people to do is a value stack method, and this is a really practical way of calculating the course value that you bring to other people and the reason we get you to do this. We do want to get everyone who works with us to do this, because until you have sold your course to a hundred people, you have no idea how valuable it truly is. But when you have done that, then you can really see in real time what it's doing for people in their lives 100%.

Speaker 1:

You might not be super comfortable with the price. You land on straight up, and that's okay, because you haven't seen your product in action. You haven't seen what it does for people. I promise you, eventually what will happen is oh my gosh, I'm charging too little for this. Or you'll see that people are really getting the transformation that you're offering, they're having a great time, and you'll be so comfortable with that price that when somebody says, hey, how much has it cost?

Speaker 2:

you'll say it's 497 dollars yeah, and you don't even have to think about it anymore, because you know what that's worth, because you've seen it in action. But until you've seen it in action it's really hard to imagine the perceived value that it can provide for somebody yep, so it's something you have to land at and you will get more comfortable as you go.

Speaker 1:

Exactly so step number one, like what we first get people to do, is calculate the time saved, how much it would cost them to get that transformation elsewhere. If somebody's shopping around for a transformation, what are the different prices that it's going to cost them?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and that could be like a financial cost or it could be otherwise. So if I was teaching yoga teacher training, for example I was teaching people to become yoga teachers what other costs would they incur to learn how to be a yoga teacher at the level that I'm teaching them? Would it be other courses? Would it be trainings? Would they have to go away to stay in a different city to learn how to do it? What is it that they would would actually have to pay for not just the actual training, but all the other stuff outside of it as well.

Speaker 2:

If I was teaching Japanese which I do, I'm going to plug in every single podcast if I was teaching Japanese, what would it cost another person to learn Japanese to my level? Because I had to go and live in Japan. So so what would that cost? A trip to Japan, okay. A university degree? Okay, I've got all of those things. What else would they have to pay? I had to do night classes, I had to go on a lot of trips to practice and like holidays and things like that. Okay, tally all that up, what would they save to do your course instead?

Speaker 1:

So, as an example, if your course saves two hours per week, that's about 104 hours a year. At $50 an hour, that's $5,200 value. So that's how you get to a number. How much money slash time are they saving? Okay, now we've got some numbers to work with. That's not to say that your course is $5,200.

Speaker 2:

It's about understanding the value that you're giving to people before you can actually see the transformations happen.

Speaker 1:

Okay, step two add result value. What new skills that you're giving them? What are those worth now in the marketplace? Say, you're teaching them to be a yoga teacher. You're giving them skills that are then going to translate to your dollar value to them.

Speaker 2:

By taking your course. Are they now able to charge $1,500 a week? $2,000 a week? Okay, so now you've given them something that's worth $100,000 a year. So what is the result value of what it is that you're giving them? If you're teaching them a skill, what can they do with that skill that it's going to translate to money?

Speaker 1:

That's right, can I teach somebody sewing and then they can go set up a side hustle with a stall in a marketplace or another practical skill like cake decorating. Can they go and make a side hustle? Or like, can they completely quit their job and become a cake maker while, maybe, while they're on maternity leave, instead of going back to work after mat leave, they can start their cake business at the other side of that and they can make two cakes for $200 each and they're bringing in $400 while they're on mat leave, you know we have an incredible student who's part of our course who teaches people how to make packed lunches really really well, how to like, do all the food prep for her family and keep that all in under two hours a week.

Speaker 2:

I think that's phenomenal, but for her. People are saving hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of dollars a week on their grocery bill and they're also saving money on their packing school lunches and having their kids buy food at school, and that is another really good example of value and money that's being saved as a result of the course and you can say all of this on a sales page.

Speaker 1:

This is like figures that really sell your course to people as well. So the first step you need to do is understand these numbers for your student. It doesn't just relate to the price step you need to do is understand these numbers for your student. It doesn't just relate to the price that you're going to be charging, but it's also half your messaging on your sales page as well. So it's really important to get really deep on this and really understand the value that your course brings on a really, really, really good level.

Speaker 2:

Because, exactly like you know, in six months from now you'll be able to say I've helped hundreds of people save hundreds of dollars on their weekly grocery bill, or I've helped hundreds of people start cake decorating businesses. But right now you can't say that, probably if you're listening to this and you haven't taught your course yet. If you can't, you're going to need to be able to imagine the value that you're going to be getting for people, and sometimes that's really hard. Again, just because of, just because of the forest and the trees. You're in the forest, you can't see the trees, but soon you'll be able to.

Speaker 1:

And you'll notice that we didn't say anything about what your market looks like In our course, yes, we look at you know, competitor research, what they're charging, your value versus their value, etc. But that's like 101 of pricing. Of course you're going to check your market, but the reason we don't really super focus on that is because the mistake people make when pricing their course is just to look sideways and charge what they are charging. Terrible way to price your course. You're not.

Speaker 2:

You're skipping over all of that great value we've just been talking about yeah, and I think the other thing, the other giant mistake that people make is they say well, there's 50 videos and there's 100 worksheets, and so that's about $250 based on what I would pay for these videos, these worksheets. But I think it's really important to always come back to a really concrete concept of the value that you're providing for people, Because people buy and we always say this over and over and over again people buy based on the transformation not the information.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so now we're going to jump into some common pricing mistakes and their fixes, because we often learn by what is the wrong thing to do or looking at other people doing the wrong thing. Great way to learn, so let's get into it.

Speaker 2:

The first one and the most common one, is one that Det just touched on, which is doing your pricing by looking sideways, checking out your competitive sales page and then just taking that, maybe dipping it by 100, slapping it on your page. Okay, we cannot do that, because your transformation has nothing to do with theirs. Whatever they've outlined and outmapped and done and delivered has nothing to do with you. It's like, okay, people are going to be looking at that and seeing it, but your transformation is based on the value that you provide and bring, so you need to price based on your own transformation, not what someone else is doing.

Speaker 1:

Just basing it on somebody else's price is like a shortcut way of really being super not confident with your price. It's not based on anything.

Speaker 2:

The second massive pricing mistake that we see, probably on a weekly basis, drives us crazy, is the discount addiction. So we see a lot of people doing regular sales and coupons in their online course.

Speaker 1:

This is really problematic with online courses because you're already having to show people the value of your course. It's not a lawnmower. I don't know why I said lawnmower. I think actually I have to buy one is why it's not a lawnmower and it's not a yogamower. I don't know why I said lawnmower I think actually I have to buy one is why it's not a lawnmower and it's not a yoga class. You know you're creating something quite innovative, quite new, so people are already wondering what's your price? As soon as you start discounting that, it's no longer worth the original price yeah, exactly of course.

Speaker 2:

So strong price, strong value, strong stick with your price. Again, we see a lot of people doing price discounts, coupons, sales. We see this happening in the first six months to a year of business and again it comes back down to not understanding or conceptualizing the value that you're providing. If you are so, so confident in the value that you're providing and you're like I am creating something so valuable and people are going to love this is going to change the game for them, then you'll never, ever dare to touch the price of your course. Or if you have already sold your course to a hundred people and a hundred of those people are writing you emails saying you've changed my life and people say that to me all the time about Japanese courses, by the way.

Speaker 2:

So don't think that your course is immune. People say to me all the time I had no access to a Japanese education. I have tried night schools. They are shit. This has been quote-unquote life-changing for me. And if people are telling you that it's life-changing you've had a hundred people tell you that something is life-changing, then you've had a hundred people tell you that something is life-changing then you'll never, ever, ever want to touch the price either. So we only see people discounting and adding coupons and sales when they are not 100,000% confident in their value. So when we see a discount, we say no, you need to be more confident in your value.

Speaker 1:

It's like a band-aid fix and that it's probably not the issue strong price, strong values from boundaries say it all the time.

Speaker 2:

And then the third pricing mistake that we see all the time as well is apologetic pricing oh, it's so bad, it's so bad and I think the thing is is that if I was to go buy a lawnmower with odette, we would just go into the shop and we would just buy the lawnmower, right, I probably wouldn't need to talk to someone between, like now, and buying that lawnmower. But with online courses, people oftentimes will reach out to you before they purchase and they oftentimes will have conversations with you, because it's a little bit of a different relationship. You're buying from a teacher, someone who's a mentor, someone who's going to guide you through that process, someone who you're probably going to have to like mandatorily have a relationship with on the other side of that purchase. So they're probably going to want to have a conversation with you before they purchase not always, but a good portion of people will, and so when you're having conversations with people, obviously one of the questions is going to be how much is it?

Speaker 1:

if you start with, I know it's expensive- but Then try to justify everything after you've put that idea in their head. For starters, that's counting people's pockets.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, exactly, we never say to them. But if you ever say I know it's expensive, I'm sorry. But Just know that somewhere around the world Dad and I will feel that in our heart. We'll be in pain when we can just sense it like a fourth sense.

Speaker 1:

A fourth sense? How about a sixth sense? How many senses do we have? We have more than four, my God. So no apologizing, please. And again, I've said it before in this podcast it's because you don't know the value of your product yet, and that's okay.

Speaker 2:

It's because you one of two things you either don't know the value and you don't. You haven't seen it out in the real world, you cannot justify it to yourself, or you don't know which one of those three pricing tiers you fit into properly and you've gone for the premium pricing when really you need to be more self-aware and know that you're in the middle pricing tier.

Speaker 1:

So to correct that, the investment just needs to reflect the transformation. I think that is enough numbers swirling around in your head. Hopefully that's given you some clarity, given you some strategies, because it's really, it's not an emotional thing. You just have to get behind your pricing. You have to understand it in a few various ways, not just, hey, they're charging this, so I'll charge that.

Speaker 2:

Because exactly when you pull a price out of thin air or when you just look sideways and pick a number and slap it on your sales page, that's when you run into trouble because you get apologetic about your pricing, because you're not backing it, or when you start adding random discounts in because, again, you're not backing it. So go back to those three main pricing tiers, feel which one matches you the best. Are you a tick and flick? Are you the mid-commitment tier or are you the premium pricing? Know exactly where you sit within those three structures and then, from there, work on the value that you're bringing to people and know exactly, concretely, what it is that you're offering people.

Speaker 1:

And then bloody back it. Be confident right from day one. You can be if you've done your research, so let's leave it there.

Speaker 2:

We'll see you next week see you next week, guys thanks guys bye.