I recently found a Russell Brand stand up DVD that I was going to buy. I clicked all the way through to the purchase screen. The DVD cost £7.49 ... and delivery was £7.50.

I didn’t buy it. But if it was 10 quid for the DVD and 5 quid for delivery, I would have.

Which of course is completely nuts. And what’s even more nuts is that I knew it was nuts at the time. If the DVD is worth 15 pounds to me, it shouldn’t matter how much of that is for delivery.

But the story is more important than the number, and I don’t like the story of paying more for delivery than the item. That story makes me feel like a chump, and that feeling is more powerful than the rational thoughts I might have about it.

When you price a program, the story needs to work for your clients, not just the rational part.

The rational part is about value. Yep, I want that outcome, and the outcome is worth more than the price.

But if I’m buying your program, the story behind the price also needs to work, the story that I tell myself and that I tell my boss or my wife (same person in my case).

So if I’m selling a coaching program that’s basically 10 sessions for $10k, the story is I’m a $1,000-per-hour coach, and for a lot of people that story doesn’t work. I’m not paying that much an hour ... it doesn’t matter how good you are.

But if I make it a six-month program with a diagnosis at the start, a bunch of online resources, an exit interview, 10 sessions, unlimited support in between the sessions, a reading program, some sort of guarantee, specific criteria to be eligible for the program ... well, that’s a whole different story.

Same program, but whole different story.