How much would you pay (or me charge) for this?

[cheaperthanchips]

I'm offering a reduced rate for a service I offer. My clients are professionals who are usually well paid. However, I want to offer a very reduced rate for a limited number as part of 'paying back' (for clients who may be temporarily short of funds.)

If the usual rate was £95, what do you think of the reduced rate:

£10
£15
£20

They'd need 4 bookings as it's a course.
I don't want to do it free as they need to have some skin in the game, even as a nominal fee.

have they reduced work with you? told you they’re struggling?

how on earth can we answer this knowing squat all about your services?

No

This is my own voluntary work based around my business.

Potential clients will see this on the FEE page of my website and we have a in depth conversation before I agree to take them on at a reduced fee.

It shouldn't matter what the service is.

It's about what you would consider a reduced fee that would otherwise cost you £95 for 1.5 hours.

Without knowing wot u offer, no one will n able to tell u. If they rnt struggling to u think u r over charging so r feeling guilty?

What is the service, impossible to comment when you don’t say what service it is that you offer.

I think it’s messy.

I think it’s bonkers. Either the service is worth £95 or it isn’t.

I'd consider at least £5 off to be "reduced".

However, if you are looking for "very reduced", I would probably expect at least £30 off.

Although if this is a course and you need to book 4 sessions, I would find it more helpful to have it expressed as a reduction on the total course price.

Well, they're all reduced aren't they?

All those options are significantly less than £95, with £20 being the least reduced and £10 being the most reduced.

We can't really offer much more than that without knowing anything else about it.

do you understand what “voluntary” means?

If I normally charged £95 for a session but wanted to discount it, I'd go with either 50% or 75% discount. So I'd be charging £47.50 or £23.75.

for all we know… £95 is a complete rip off 🤷

The fact that you think this is indicative of the fact (it would appear to me as a customer) that you aren’t worth £95 per session.

I can't say how much I would pay for something if i don't know what it is. I do think if it's truly worth £95 and you are charging so little; it would raise some questions from me.

What is your reasoning for such a dramatic drop? It screams financial desperation tbh.

I’m not sure I follow you but I’d wonder if I’d been paying £85, £80 or £75 too much and cause me to mentally devalue your service. It’s divisive if offered to a “limited number”.
There is a hint of Lady Bountiful to your proposal.

OP are the amounts that you quote discounts, or the actual amounts that you are considering charging?

I think you are devaluing your service and/or indicating that your original price was far too high.
If I had paid the full price and then found out about the reduction I would be pissed off.
If I paid the reduced price and found out about the full price I would think you had been ripping people off and had been caught out OR you weren't any good so couldn't charge full price.
I might also think your business was in trouble and you were desperate.
I am not saying any of these things are true, I am talking about perception

I used to be an SME Advisor and would have advised my clients against doing this

Okay if it makes a difference , it's CBT. I'm a qualified practitioner, with many years' doing this.

I didn't want to say what it was as it might prejudice responses here.

I work with clients who are having issues around confidence, anxiety, assertiveness skills in the workplace or out of work.

Some are temporarily out of work or not working at full capacity.

I don't want to offer it 'for free' as it devalues what I do and they do have to commit to coming or it doesn't work.

There are other types of support that do this eg counselling, where sometimes trainees offer low fees of £10 an hour compared to £50.

I'm not a trainee but there are still people like me who offer reduced fees.

If your clients are very well off and only temporarily short of funds... I'd offer extended payment terms, not a slashed discount.

If it were me... I'd take the discount and not rebook once your prices went back to £95 because I'd know they were only worth £10.

If I were someone else, I'd feel annoyed that someone was paying £40 for what cost me £380.

I'm not sure this will work the way you want it too.

It's a lovely idea but it makes no business sense; you're devaluing your service. You could offer it for free as voluntary work; but it doesn't seem that you need the experience, and you've already concluded your target market need to pay something to follow through and actually do the work.

Can you add something rather than reduce the value? Add more support? A payment plan option?

I'd absolutely agree with the post above that this will impact on the perception of your business, and you'll really put off potential paying customers.

If you do go ahead with any type of reduction, absolutely don't put it on your fee page - have it by invitation only.

Counsellors offer reduced fee / low cost sessions for their clients, simply as a way of 'giving back to clients who need their service but can't afford £50 a session.

Are they Lady Bountiful'?

Mmmm if it’s a service that you feel people “need” for their well being perhaps even more so when they’re in difficult times.:: eg. Therapy of some sort

i would just say something like if cost is a barrier you offer a small number of pro bono places at any one time and to contact you to discuss

Pretty much what I'm doing but not mentioning a fee.

Are you saying you usually charge £95 per session? Is it a standard 50 minutes or longer?