If I make an AI automation or system in NAN, how much should I charge for it?
Nate explains that pricing should be proportional to the value the system provides. He starts by considering where you are in your journey and what you’re optimizing for—brand, case studies, testimonials can let you charge more. If you’re just starting, focus on gaining experience and understanding the exact value you deliver, which you need to express in terms the client understands: hours saved and dollars saved. In discovery, ask the right questions to get those figures. Then make it a no‑brainer: for example, a system saving 5 hours a week when the client values an employee’s time at $100/hour saves $500 weekly; over months that could be $50k, so you could charge $7–$15k (or even more) because the client is saving $35k. You have to frame the benefit in the client’s language at a high level. The other speaker agrees, saying Nate hit on many important concepts—packaging of the service, the provider, perceived and objective value. They then shift to a quick sponsor shout‑out for Whimo, noting how convenient and cost‑effective it is (about 30% more than an Uber but 10× safer), mention that their Instagram ads have been only for School and Whimo, and wrap up by thanking each other, saying it was a pleasure, looking forward to hanging out again, and promising to cover brand stats tomorrow.
Great profile pick. I see a make.com scenario watching type form there. How much would I charge for this? I think you're putting the cart before the horse. The reason is you're asking how much I charge without clearly delineating who you're building this for and what their needs are. Generally, the way I build things out, and the way I build scopes and pricing documents as a consultant, is to always start with client needs first and then work backwards. So my approach isn't 'what goes into this project?' but 'what are the client needs? How much money is the client currently spending on their crappy solution? What does it do to their project management, lead generation, team unity, and so on? What headcount are they managing as a result? What's their payroll? How big of an issue is this to solve today? What are the at least bird's-eye view financials of the company? If we don't solve this today, is this an existential risk for the business? I try to figure all this out because it helps inform what the client is willing to pay and what a reasonable price would be. This isn't always me trying to squeeze every last dollar out of them; often I charge them what would be a fair price given the return on investment. It also lets me ask whether this is even the right solution for them, or if they're kind of putting the cart before the horse. I don't know exactly how much I charge for this. The question I'd look to answer is what need or problem does this solve and how big a financial issue is that problem? If you're quoting $7,000, I'd make sure the system delivers at least $20,000 to $25,000 worth of value. Bigger projects like this typically have more issues during building and implementation. So instead of charging 30% of the value as I normally recommend, I might charge something like 20% or so.
Right now you're focused on the savings, and I think that's the main thing you've understood automations to provide, but savings is a small fraction of the total value of an automation. Say you build a system that saves 10 salespeople 1 hour a week each — that's 40 hours a month, and if they're paid $50/hour that looks like a $2,000/month automation. That looks sizable, but it's only a small part of the value you're capable of providing. The big thing isn't the savings, it's the revenue: if you free up an hour of a salesperson's time and they can use it to close deals worth, say, $500 in that hour (amortized across their whole workload), you're not just saving $2,000, you're making them an extra $20,000. That's the difference between a savings mindset and a revenue mindset — it's opportunity cost. When I sell a cold email system, I don't say 'this saves you $50/month on cheaper leads,' I say 'this frees up 10 hours a month of your salespeople's time, worth $500/hour, meaning it makes you $5,000.' Reorient your pitch around revenue, not savings — savings only matters if you're working with a multi-billion dollar enterprise. On your second issue: 3,000 emails to one booked meeting is a 0.03% booked-meeting rate. Two meetings would be 0.06%, three would be 0.1% — that's totally fine, not the best ever (ideally 0.5-1%, a meeting every ~200 emails), but it proves it's possible. You've run the equivalent of a 10-minute mile; now make your copy better and run a 9-minute mile.
My view on AI consulting is that there’s no real difference—it’s just consulting repackaged. Whenever you see terms like AI automation, AI consulting, AI growth systems, or AI operators, they’re all the same thing; people are just trying to sell a business model and differentiate themselves in a crowded space, which in content is called packaging. At its core, this is foundational marketing: nothing has really changed since the SMMA craze; we’re still selling marketing systems, just rebranded as AI automation. Most AI automation sellers are actually selling marketing systems—content repurposing, social media automation—so it’s just repackaging. Regarding cost per acquisition for an AI agency client, it depends entirely on your lead‑generation mechanism. If you run an inbound funnel with massive distribution, your CPA is essentially just your time on new inquiries—near zero. If you’re doing Upwork applications at $2 each and need about 33 applications to land a client, your CPA is $66. If you run a cold‑email campaign spending $450 per month and sending roughly 3,000 emails to land three clients, your CPA is about $150. However, CPA alone means nothing unless you also know the order value or lifetime value of the clients. For example, if Pete’s CPA is $64 and he sells a product for $1,000 on average, his CPA is 6.4% of revenue. If Samantha’s CPA is $150 and she sells for $10,000 on average, her CPA is only 1.5% of revenue. You also need to factor in referrals and other variables to judge which business is truly more successful. After that, I mention I’m running out of time because I have a podcast with Jack Roberts. We’ve become fast friends after initially being hesitant to collaborate due to a scarcity mindset. We now chat regularly, run a podcast together, and plan to play video games like Halo, Fortnite, or League of Legends while streaming, which I think will be fun and more engaging. I’m even considering buying a gaming computer just to stream with Jack weekly. Ultimately, I’m moving into Twitch streaming to play video games all day.
ai consultingcost per acquisitionltvlead generation
So you said you're offering a free trial for 6 weeks, then moving to a monthly plan if they like it. I'll be honest—that's not a good way to pitch automations; you've done it, so you'll have to live with it. But think about it from their perspective: this is fear‑based because you get them used to the system for six weeks and then threaten to take it away unless they pay. I don't like operating that way. I prefer people to fall in love with the value so much they want to pay me hand over fist. Here's how I'd do it: offer the system build for free, and only if they absolutely love it would I ever ask them to pay. Then I'd make them love it so much that the natural question becomes, 'Hey Nick, how can I pay you?'—and I'd have them start that conversation with me, not wait until the end of a six‑week period. In terms of pricing, it's hard to give a exact number, but consider: how much money were they making before? How much are they making with the system? What's the opportunity cost of the leads they're missing? How much more money do you think they'd make with the system versus without it? How much time would you be saving them? Add all that up into a value number, then charge maybe a third or a quarter of that. For example, saving 15 hours a week is one part of the value—but it's not just about time savings. There's actually a lot more that goes into a system's value. If you notice, I listed time as one of the last value components. Fifteen hours a week at $50/hour is only $750 a week. But because we gained three more leads this week and the average lead value is $1,000, that's $3,000—four times the time‑savings value. That kind of 4× differential between front‑end and back‑end value is typical. Thank you, Builder Tutorials and Techul—much appreciated. Okay, I think I'll leave it there; hopefully this makes sense.