Why I Don’t Recommend Tiered Pricing

Given that I work with business owners who want to operate with integrity and do right by their clients and customers, accessible pricing options such as Pay What You Can (PWYC) and tiered pricing often come up in my 1:1 and group program calls. More often than not, people are surprised when I share that I don’t recommend them.

In case you haven’t heard these terms before, Pay What You Can allows your customers to choose a price that feels affordable to them and tiered pricing offers several different prices for the same or similar offering, inviting the customer to choose the price they can best afford.

If you’ve ever considered PWYC or tiered pricing, I totally get it. Having a single price point that might exclude some people from accessing our offerings can feel uncomfortable for the conscious business owner who wants to help as many people as possible.

Couple that with how tricky pricing our offerings can feel, because we worry that we might pick a price people can’t afford or one that equates to undercharging, and it’s no wonder then that many people see these multi-price options as a potential win-win.

My perspective is a bit different, and here’s why

The hidden costs of PWYC

I first encountered PWYC pricing years ago when I was trying to access some business trainings from Mark Silver’s Heart of Business. I’ll be honest I found it stressful.

Whilst he goes to great lengths to describe how to make your decision and even gives a baseline amount, I remember not knowing which option to choose and feeling too guilty to choose the baseline but not really being able to afford more and so, on more than one occasion, I ended up not buying at all.

You can see how he presents it here. As you notice, there is a significant amount of information on making the payment decision that I feel makes the whole process more fraught for the buyer. Just to note I love Mark and his work so this isn’t me knocking him at all. In fact when clients are set on doing PWYC, I’ll often send them to the Heart of Business website as the best example of PWYC pricing I’ve seen.

Most people don’t give even half as much information as he does, so making the decision can feel even harder.

My feeling is that for the consumer PWYC pricing can create unnecessary stress around making a decision and can have you wondering throughout, should I have chosen the lower price? It may even mean losing sales if people can’t decide easily and plan to come back to your sales page but inevitably never do.

For the business owner, it can mean constantly navigating who pays what, making it hard to keep track or to predict income. It may mean more admin or questions from potential customers unsure about what price to choose.

And, when more people inevitably choose to pay less, there’s a chance of resentment and wondering if people should or could be paying more.

It’s for these reasons I’ve chosen not to use it myself.

The pitfalls of tiered pricing

Other ways I’ve seen pricing offered is with several tiers, sometimes based around affordability and other times based on what is offered.

Here’s a simple example of what tiered pricing could look like for a course/program.

Tier 1 — might be just the materials/videos for 199$
Tier 2 — might be the materials/video + live group calls for 399$
and — Tier 3 might be materials/videos + group calls + 1:1 sessions for 799$.

Here’s where we might see names like Basic package or VIP package thrown around.

For me the issues with this kind of pricing are as follows:

• It’s unnecessarily complicated — too many options can lead to overwhelmed and indecisive customers.
• It can lead to a fear of missing out (FOMO) if you simply can’t afford the higher tier. This creates an unintended hierarchy, in that people feel like they are getting a “lesser” version, which could impact engagement and outcomes.
• It can undermine your work especially if your work is deeply transformational or relational — not something that fits neatly into silver/gold/platinum boxes.

When I tried using tiered pricing in the past, I noticed that people nearly always went for the cheapest option, even when I knew one of the other options would be more impactful.

That’s why these days you won’t see different tiers for my offers.

There is only ever one option (the one I think serves the customer and myself best) and one price (the price I need to charge to have my business be sustainable).

So what’s the alternative?

Now you might be thinking, but what if people can’t afford that price?

I get it, I think about this all the time.

One way I recommend to clients who really do want to offer a cheaper option for people who can’t afford it, is to include a line on the sales page underneath the price that says something like.

If the price of this <insert offer> is prohibitive, please note that I offer a number of discounted (or scholarship) spots for people with limited means. Please email me at <insert email address> for details.

That way, those people who really can’t afford it have an option available to them. You could give more detail here, but I am a “less is more” kind of girl when it comes to sales pages.

What I do

What I do to ensure accessible pricing is to choose the best price I can offer without sacrificing my own needs. There’s no doubt I could charge more than I do and could be earning more as a result.

Instead, I try to keep my prices as accessible as possible. That said there will always be people who can’t afford, for example, my 1:1 subscription, but rather than offer my most premium service for less money, I try to offer more affordable alternatives, options such as workshops or group programs.

That way there are always cheaper ways to work with me, without me devaluing my higher touch services, like 1:1 coaching. As someone who leans towards undercharging and overgiving, this is progress for me!

Interestingly, the people who come to me with a desire to offer cheaper options to their people are often the business owners who are themselves struggling to make their business work for them financially.

I’m curious, have you tried PWYC or tiered pricing? Is it working? Does it feel sustainable? If you feel called to share your experience, please do hit reply and let me know.

If you’ve been wrestling with how to make your pricing accessible without burning out, I hope this gives you some reassurance and direction. It’s okay to keep things simple. It’s okay to have one clear price. And it’s more than okay to create boundaries that support your sustainability and service. There are thoughtful ways to make your services accessible without compromising your needs.

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