Good, better, best: how to offer three pricing options in a proposal

Three options turn "yes or no?" into "which one?". Our guide to pricing a freelance project explains how to get the base price; this post, part of the winning clients hub, covers how to split it into tiers that sell the one you want.

Build the middle tier first

The middle tier is the project you'd recommend if the client asked you straight out. Price it the normal way: tasks, hours, a buffer, your rate. The project cost calculator adds phases, a revision buffer and expenses and shows what each hour really earns. Then make the basic tier by removing scope the client can live without, and the premium tier by adding things a client with a bigger goal would pay for.

What should change between tiers?

Worked example: three tiers for a brand identity

The gap between tiers matters too. Standard is $1,400 more than Basic for three times the concept work and a brand guide, which is easy to justify. Premium is $2,300 more than Standard for speed, stationery and longer support; a client launching on a date will pay it, and the rest will feel fine choosing Standard.

Why the middle tier gets picked: what the research says

The idea behind tiered menus comes from a 1982 study by Joel Huber, John Payne and Christopher Puto in the Journal of Consumer Research. They showed that adding an option that is clearly worse than one existing option on every point (an "asymmetrically dominated" option, now called a decoy) can raise the share of people choosing the option it's worse than. That broke a basic assumption of rational choice: adding an alternative shouldn't increase the pull of one already on the list.

Two cautions. First, a premium tier isn't a decoy in that strict sense: it's better and more expensive, not worse. What helps the middle tier in a proposal is mostly that the client compares versions of your work instead of comparing you with another freelancer. Second, in 2014 Frederick, Lee and Baskin argued in the Journal of Marketing Research that the effect shows up far less with realistic, harder-to-compare options; the original authors replied that it holds when their conditions are replicated. So use tiers because they give clients a real choice, not because a psychology trick guarantees the sale.

Mistakes that make tiers backfire

• Tiers that differ only in hours (10, 20 or 30). Clients can't picture hours; they can picture a brand guide.
• A basic tier that doesn't solve the client's problem. If it fails, you get the blame, not the client's budget.
• More than three options. Four or five tiers slow the decision down and invite "can we mix tier 2 and tier 4?".
• A premium tier priced so high that nobody believes it. It should be a real offer someone could buy.
• No recommendation. Mark the tier you'd pick and say why in one line.
• Discounting the basic tier until it eats the middle one.

How to present the options

1. Name tiers by outcome ("Launch-ready", "Full brand system") or plainly (Basic, Standard, Premium). Avoid cute names that need explaining.
2. Use the same rows for every tier, so differences jump out.
3. Add one line under each tier: who it's for.
4. Label the middle one "Recommended".
5. Put the price last in each column, after the client has read what they get.

YOUR OPTIONS

Basic: $[price]
For: [who it suits, e.g. a business that needs a logo now and the rest later]
Includes: [deliverables], [n] revision rounds, delivery in [n] weeks

Standard (recommended): $[price]
For: [who it suits]
Includes: everything in Basic, plus [deliverables], [n] revision rounds, [support]
Why I recommend it: [one line tied to the client's goal]

Premium: $[price]
For: [who it suits, e.g. a launch on a fixed date]
Includes: everything in Standard, plus [deliverables], delivery in [n] weeks, [support]

All options: [payment terms]. Valid until [date].

Three options in SoloWOS Proposals

A SoloWOS proposal has one pricing table, and the client accepts the whole proposal. There are no optional line items or a tier picker, so describe the three tiers in a text block with their prices and put the recommended tier's line items in the pricing table. Tell the client to reply if they prefer another tier, update the line items, and they accept that version. You'll see when they open it, and a follow-up automation can email them 3 days later if they haven't answered. You can send proposals clients accept online on every plan; Solo includes 20 a month.