Do you practice "emotional pricing?"

Last week I interviewed Mona P, a user experience freelancer who went out on her own just last year and is already making more than she did working for a consulting firm. However, she finds herself practicing "emotional pricing" instead of the analytical pricing she did when she worked for someone else and she's not sure yet if it's such a bad thing.

Listen to this clip, where she talks about understanding why it takes longer to get the work done, overdelivering for clients she likes and charging more when a client irritates her.

Do you do this too? If so, come out of the closet.

Comments

[Dee]

This makes perfect sense to me... both the part where she says she drops her price if she loves the project and that she raises her price for annoying clients! (MBTI: F) :-)

Now I'm left wondering how the conversation continued - is it ALWAYS wrong to fluctuate the fee? Is it ALWAYS better to determine in advance which percentage of our efforts go to non-profit activities or low-income clients?

[Alan Kravitz]

I totally understand where Mona is coming from, and I'm sure there are times when I am guilty of this myself. It sounds so very Zen, but it helps to develop ultimate boundaries for yourself. Just this morning, I turned down a potential client because his fee was way too low for me.

That said, I work a lot with non-profits, and there's definitely a sense of emotion that goes with that. If someone came to me with a project concerning Haiti right now, I'm not sure I'd even have the nerve to charge for it. I'm not sure if that's right or wrong - it's just the way I am.

[deidre]

This reminds me of an article I read on Biznik a while back: Setting Your Rates by Finding Your Resentment Number.

While I don't necessarily think this is how someone should price their services, maybe it's relevant here.

An annoying client IS more work. Even if it takes the same amount of time... If your stomach is in knots, or the client is extra hard to deal with, maybe they should pay a little extra?

Maybe charging more to annoying clients is so we don't resent them -- and we can say, "Well, this client is annoying but at least I'm getting paid really well."