Should I charge per meeting booked or use revenue share, and how should I structure the pricing based on conversion rates?
Revenue share means you only get paid when the client closes a deal, e.g., 7 % of a $100k deal = $7k. It works well when you trust the client and they close high‑ticket deals, and you can tolerate variability. Pay‑per‑lead or pay‑per‑meeting shifts the risk to you: you get paid for each booked meeting, so your income depends on your ability to generate meetings and keep show‑up rates high. To price it, estimate the client’s customer lifetime value (CLV), calculate the value of a meeting (e.g., if a client needs 10 meetings to close a $10k deal, each meeting is worth about $1k), then charge a percentage of that—typically around 20‑30 %, so $200 per meeting in this example. You could also use a flat revenue‑share rate, like 10 % of all revenue generated, but the pay‑per‑meeting model reduces risk for you while giving the client predictable costs.
He explains that the best pricing models are nuanced and combine multiple elements: an upfront setup fee, a monthly retainer, pay-per-meeting, and possibly a revenue share. He describes his former business partner Grender, who uses all three—setup fee, monthly retainer (around $5,000 per month), and either pay-per-meeting or revenue share—on annual contracts. He prefers month-to-month arrangements to avoid being tied down, charging per meeting and differentiating fees based on client value—for example, higher compensation for meetings that lead to larger deals (e.g., $15,000 versus $5,000). He cites a community member who introduced a lead that resulted in a $700,000 deal, noting a 5% revenue share would yield $35,000. He concludes by thanking viewers for joining his journey to 300,000 subscribers and looks forward to reaching 1 million.
Congratulations on landing your first client. For pricing, avoid tying your compensation directly to their revenue, especially as a first‑time provider. Revenue‑share can leave you out of control unless you already trust the partner. Instead use a pay‑per‑lead (or per‑meeting) model. Estimate the lifetime value (LTV) of a closed deal—let's say $25k on the low end. Determine a realistic conversion rate (CVR) from meetings to closed deals; a typical client might say 2‑3 out of 10, so you can conservatively assume 10% (0.1). Then decide your cut, usually between 10‑20%; 15% works well. Your price per lead = LTV × CVR × cut = 25,000 × 0.1 × 0.15 = $375 per qualified lead or booked meeting. You can adjust the percentage for larger or smaller deals (e.g., 10% for big deals, 15% for smaller ones). Consider offering a guarantee—e.g., guarantee 10 meetings in 60 days for $3,750, and refund if you miss the target—to align incentives and build trust. Avoid pure revenue‑share at this stage and focus on clear, controllable compensation.
I’d recommend charging based on meetings booked rather than on closed clients, because you don’t control whether a deal closes—you only control generating the opportunity. If you tied payment to closed clients and sent leads to someone who can’t close, you’d do all the work and get nothing. Meetings booked are further up the buying chain, so you can’t charge as much per meeting, but you can still charge something. In my experience I charged about $98 per sales call for most industries, with some high‑value deals going up to $300 per call; on average it’s around $100 per call. For the value definer, just pick one—average order value works well, or LTV—and be consistent. To track milestones, hook into their meeting‑booked system with a simple webhook that sends you a notice whenever a meeting is booked, and make sure you have access to their Instantly account to set this up. If you’re building the system and handing it off, I suggest you nurture the opportunity, generate it, talk to it, and let the client see only the booked meeting at the end—this is containerizing/packaging/productizing your service. From the client’s perspective they give you money and you give them roughly five times that back.
I’d start with a setup fee in the $2,500‑$5,000 range and then charge per meeting—something like $200‑$400 each—or take a modest revenue‑share of 5‑20%. Those numbers aren’t crazy as long as the lifetime value of a client justifies them. Expect push‑back; no one sells a system without objections. A setup fee in that range is reasonable for the value you’ll deliver. For context, a full‑service B2B consulting package can run $15K a year, but freelance consultants typically charge less. If you can close a $5K deal a month and charge $200 per meeting, even with a low conversion rate (say 1 in 8 meetings), the cost per deal drops to about $1,600, leaving room to price around $3.2K and still be competitive. If you’re unsure, check out my video on value‑based pricing for a deeper dive.