client-pricing

Business

Commercial pricing engine for freelance deliverables. Encodes the pricing hierarchy, tiered anchor-floor tables, negotiation decision tree, and rate collapse prevention.

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/winstonkoh87/Athena-Public/blob/HEAD/examples/skills/business/client-pricing/SKILL.md

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Client Pricing Skill

Purpose: Prevent rate collapse. Enforce anchor-first pricing. Automate the quoting decision tree. Origin: Empirical calibration from real client engagements — rate collapse incidents and floor-as-opening negotiation failures. Both were preventable.

Core Principle

"AI commoditizes labor. It cannot commoditize judgment."

Pricing Hierarchy (defensibility axis): Time (❌) → Output (❌) → Deliverable (⚠️) → Outcome (✅) → Access (✅✅)

Never price at the Time or Output layer. Price at Deliverable (minimum) or Outcome (preferred).

Tiered Pricing Table

Deliverable Type	Anchor	Floor	Notes
Essay (1000–2000 words)	$250	$150	Counter at $200 if pushback
Problem Set (SPSS, coding, math)	$350	$250	Scope-dependent; +$50/additional test family
Capstone/Report (5000+ words)	$1,000	$500	Multi-round negotiation expected
Presentation (slides + script)	$300	$200	+$100 if design assets required
Speed Premium (< 48hr turnaround)	+30%	—	Non-negotiable surcharge
Complexity Premium (cross-domain)	+20%	—	E.g., engineering + writing + coding

The Negotiation Decision Tree

YOU: State anchor price
↓
CLIENT: "Too high"
↓
YOU: "What's your budget?" (NEVER counter against yourself)
↓
CLIENT names their number
↓
├─ (A) Within 20% of anchor → Counter midpoint, settle ±10%
├─ (B) 40-60% of anchor → Counter at floor + 20%, settle at floor + 10%
├─ (C) Below floor → "Sorry, [floor] is the lowest I can go"
│   ├─ Client accepts → Done
│   └─ Client walks → Let them (Dignity Premium)
└─ (D) Client ghosts → Follow up once at 24hr. No chase after.

Three rounds maximum. After round 3, you're haggling, not negotiating.

Anti-Patterns (Reflexion Archive)

Anti-Pattern	Case Study	Fix
Opening at floor	Quoted at floor instead of anchor — left $50+ on the table	Always open at anchor. Floor is your walk-away, not your opening
Rate collapse via speed	Delivered fast, effective rate dropped to $83/hr vs $310/hr benchmark	Price by deliverable complexity, not hours. Speed is your competitive advantage — don't let it compress price
Negotiating against yourself	Generic pattern	After stating anchor, SHUT UP. Let the client name their number
Scope creep without re-quote	Client adds "just one more thing"	Any addition > 10% of original scope triggers re-quote

Activation Rules

Auto-trigger: When academic-delivery Step 2 (SCOPE) identifies commercial work
Manual trigger: "/quote", "how much should I charge", "client is asking about price"
Exit: Output a formatted quote with anchor + justification + scope boundary

Quote Template

Hi [Client],

Based on the scope ([deliverable type], [word count/test count], [deadline]):

**Quote: $[ANCHOR]**

This covers: [explicit scope list]
Not included: [explicit exclusions]
Turnaround: [timeline]

Payment: [deposit]% upfront via PayNow, balance on delivery.

Let me know if you'd like to proceed.