Seminar producer wants some help on how to price his seminars. It's probably a good idea to start with reading a few books on the subject.

QUESTION.
I came across your lists on Amazon while searching for books on developing seminars and workshops and read that you were a Score counselor. I have a professional organizing and productivity consulting business. I am writing a proposal for the Director of Practice Technology/eDiscovery at a large law firm to provide a two-hour workshop for her direct reports at their annual planning retreat. The workshop will focus on organizing skills such as setting priorities, time management, managing incoming items (paper, email, voice mail) and project management tips. My goal is that, following the workshop, my client will hire me to provide one-on-one coaching for her staff as well. I offer 4-hour and 8-hour hands-on help to get the client's work area or office organized.

My question for you is how to price the workshop. I want to charge for the development of the custom design (PowerPoint presentation, exercises, handouts) and for the facilitation on-site. I will have travel expenses as well since the workshop is in Los Angeles. Do you recommend breaking down the fee or showing it as a bundled price? I've done some research on workshops that target the legal profession. It looks like the hourly rate per person ranges from $80 to $150 per hour for the actual workshop. I'm unclear how to price the development/design portion.

ANSWER.
You did not dig deep enough into my site. You missed the booklist on pricing your product or services. See BOOKS ON PRICING.

Law firms are notorious for being cheap. The topic you propose to talk about seems very cookie-cutter to me. I would expect the director of practice technology and ediscovery to be interested in a lesson on the latest technology for litigation support. That is a very specialized field. Programs like Summation and Lextranet would be covered. However, that is not the question you have asked of me.

You seem to be fixated on competing for the work based on price. I suggest that is the wrong approach to take. You need to know your business and what you need to make a reasonable profit. Then quote that price. Don't try to make a rolls royce for a new client. Save the rolls royces for the regular clients you want to come back for more and more and can reasonably expect them to do so.

Another thing, don't explain your fee to the law firm. If you do, then you are openning up a can of worms so they can nickel and dime you down on your fee. I suggest you give them a flat fee and they can take it or leave it. You will have less headaches that way. If you get the job, then you will make a reasonable fee. If you don't get the job, then you won't lose money and you will have time for other profitable jobs.

I don't think you should base your fee on head counts or billing a rate per head. That has nothing to do with your costs and your expected profit margin. So don't worry about that. Make sure you set a price for the job and that the firm will have to pay your expenses for travel and motel extra.

Skim through the TOCs in the books in the above list. You may get some ideas that way, too.

I hope my comments are helpful to you. Good luck! Regards, -Jeff

Jeff Lippincott
SCORE.org Counselor
Princeton, NJ
scoreprinceton @ aol.com
www.scoreprinceton.org
www.jlippin.com