If you had the choice to pay $325 or $95 for the exact same item which would you choose?
Same packaging, same manufacturer…everything is identical.
Easy answer right?
Last week our car started making a loud noise. After fiddling around with it we figured out that the exhaust manifold cracked.
So, I called up a local repair shop and they quoted me $575 to fix it. I asked them for a breakdown of parts and labor.
Parts: $350
Labor: $225
That seemed high so I called Autozone to get a price on the part. They said…
“It’s in stock and costs $185.”
Hmm…
I picked up the phone and called the repair shop back and asked why they were charging $350 and Autozone was charging $180.
“Was the part from Autozone inferior in some way?”
They said “No sir, it’s the exact same part we just have a markup on all of our parts. If you’d like to buy it yourself and bring it in then we can install the Autozone part for you”
Interesting.
I dug around a little more and eventually found that same part for $185, $125 and $90.
FOR THE EXACT SAME PART.
- $350 from the Shop
- $185 from Autozone
- $125 from Amazon
- $90 from eBay
What about your business? What are you paying 2-3x for that could easily be found for less money with 10 minutes of research?
After some research, I found one area that I was paying 3x what I should have been…
Programming on my website.
In a typical month I pay my WordPress developer $200-400 for small changes to this site.
Stuff like:
- Setting up a new email opt-in page
- Changing the header design on the blog
- Installing a new sidebar opt-in
- Fixing a series of footer links
- Creating a Wistia API connection
- Connecting my CRM to a specific CTA on the landing pages
My developer charges very fair rates. Each job would costs around $10-35. Over the course of 10-15 jobs in a month though it added up.
Then one day I ran across WPcurve a company that charges $65 a month for UNLIMITED small changes to your website.
I was immediately drawn in by there pricing model as I knew what I was paying and saw how much they could potentially save me if they were half way decent.
So, I signed up.
And I have consistently been blown away by their service, quality of work and responsiveness.
Here are the types of jobs they do:
- Check your site for broken links so your visitors don’t get lost
- Harden your WordPress security to stop hackers in their tracks
- Help set up email opt ins so you can build your email list
- Improve your theme styling to help your brand
- Install and migrate your comments to Disqus to reduce spam
- Optimize site size to improve site load time and reduce bounce rate
- Proactively update your WP core, theme and plugins each month
- Provide advice on recommended hosting and migration providers
- Send you a suggestion every week with a site improvement suggestion
- Verify your site is being indexed by Google
- and pretty much anything else you can dream up
Why does this pricing model work?
It’s Disruptive.
There are 1000’s of WordPress developers out there. Many of them are awesome at what they do.
But the problem is THEY ALL LOOK THE SAME.
They market themselves exactly the same so no one stands out from the other.
A quick Google search for “wordpress developer” produces a list of sites like these.
1. Mad Dancer Web Development
2. Work By Simon
3. Nashville Geek
Which one would you hire?
I have no idea.
They all kind of look the same.
They all talk about themselves a lot and ‘what they do.’
But take a look at WPcurve…
Does that stand out?
You betcha’!
How can you disrupt your market?
I’ve been so impressed by their service and such an immediate fan, that I looked up the owner and got him on Skype for an interview.
In the interview we discuss:
- Are other developers ripping people off by charging higher rates?
- Why did WPcurve pick $65 per month?
- Where did the idea for WPcurve come from?
- What type of development work do they NOT do?
- Could other people rip off this pricing model?
- How do you not lose money by charging so little?
Enter Alex from WPcurve:
Question: How can you disrupt your market and cause your business to stand out? Pricing model? Over delivering on service? What would it be?