Pricing and Costs For Bacal's Services/Seminars and Keynotes

We price our services in a slightly different way than most other companies, and in a way that reflects my own experience in purchasing training and consulting services for a previous employer. The premise is simple. I believe the customer should know, going in, exactly what he or she is getting and exactly what the costs will be UP FRONT. I also believe that there should be no add-on costs or increases as a project develop.

While we can't always make those things happen, here's how we do it, and it's quite simple.

• We assume our customers work with us in good faith, and aren't trying to procure services under the market value costs in their area. In other words, we trust our customers to work WITH us to establish a fair and reasonable fee. In twenty years, I can't recall ever being disappointed.
• We believe our customers understand their own situations, including budgets and going rates, better than we do. For that reason while we sometimes offer a fee range for a service (e.g. for a seminar or keynote), but we work with our customers to "make things happen". In other words we try to be flexible.
• We work with our customers to establish a fee for the overall project, all inclusive except for things like travel, materials, etc when applicable. For example, for seminars you don't pay more for a seminar with 30 people attending than for a seminar for ten people. Why? It's about learning. If we can work with more people for the same price, provided the group sizes don't get to the point of affecting learning, why not?
• Final costs reflect the customer's situation. Market prices and affordability depend on local issues like the economy, type of organization, large versus small cities, and of course organizations vary in terms of how much they can reasonably afford, or be willing to spend on a project. If you contact us, whether for a keynote or training, the questions you are almost always asked is "How much do you think is reasonable to pay for this service?". It's a sincere question. We also consider how the topic area affects our own preparation, but since we tend to offer services in areas where we have a good deal of experience, often we don't have to account for a lot of developmental time.

There are a few hints about how we do it. Generally our fees are quite reasonable, and you'll find that our speaking/keynote fees are going to be much lower than comparable authors in the fields in which we practice. That's because I believe that customers simply get zero value from spending tens of thousands of dollars on a one hour speaker. It's nuts, and while I need money to live, I want to provide some reasonable expectation of return for customers.

If you have questions, best to email at ceo@work911.com for the fastest response. Or call 613 764-0241.