I’ve heard people dismiss the idea of pricing based on value, because the following message, even if 100% truthful, logical, and crafted using much more diplomatic and clever language, never works:
_
To whom it may concern
Hello! [My service] is going to make you $10,000, which makes it worth at least as much.
Don’t be an idiot, pay me $1,000 to do it, and enjoy the rest!_
Specialists will often try this for themselves a few times, hit a brick wall of deafening client silence, and conclude that they should give up the lost cause of charging on value. It seems that despite their best efforts, their clients are simply impervious to good business logic.
The bit that they are missing is that even the dimmest client knows very well that you have a whopping ulterior motive to tell them the value of your service, so despite your credentials, your word carries very little weight. “Never ask the barber if they think you need a shave” and all that.
The client is the one who needs to be the one that comes up with the value, not you. To achieve that:
1) make sure you are talking to the decision maker, not a gatekeeper
2) ask them why they need this done, and what will happen if they don’t
If you can first guide them through quantifying their own answers, it’s feasible to get them to build a more tangible view of their problem and then charge them a percentage of that value to solve it.