Quoted $500, $5,000, and $50,000 for the EXACT same workflow. All three clients said yes.
Quoted $500, $5,000, and $50,000 for the EXACT same workflow. All three clients said yes. Here's the psychology that made it work: THE IDENTICAL WORKFLOW 5 simple nodes: 1. Email trigger 2. PDF parsing with AI 3. Data validation 4. CRM update 5. Slack notification Build time: 2 hours Maintenance: ~0 Works identically for everyone CLIENT #1: LOCAL ACCOUNTANT Price: $500/month **The Pitch:** "Basic Document Processor" - Processes invoices - Saves 20 hours monthly - Simple, reliable **What They Heard:** "Cheap automation tool" **Their Reaction:** "Great little tool!" **Support Requests:** ~10 per month "Is this supposed to work like this?" "Can you add this feature?" CLIENT #2: REGIONAL LAW FIRM Price: $5,000/month **The Pitch:** "Legal Document Intelligence System" - Enterprise-grade processing - Audit trail included - Priority support - Compliance reporting **What They Heard:** "Professional solution" **Their Reaction:** "This is exactly what we needed" **Support Requests:** ~2 per month "Thank you for handling this" CLIENT #3: FORTUNE 500 SUBSIDIARY Price: $50,000 setup + $10,000/month **The Pitch:** "Enterprise Document Processing Platform" - Scalable architecture - AI-powered extraction - White-glove onboarding - Quarterly business reviews - Executive dashboard - 24/7 dedicated support **What They Heard:** "Digital transformation" **Their Reaction:** "This will revolutionize our operations" **Support Requests:** 0 per month They assume it's working perfectly THE ONLY REAL DIFFERENCES **$500 Version:** - Gmail → Google Sheets - Email support - Basic documentation **$5,000 Version:** - Gmail → Their CRM - Slack support - Monthly reports (automated) - Their logo on emails **$50,000 Version:** - Gmail → Their enterprise system - Phone support (they never call) - Executive dashboard (fancy Google Sheet) - Quarterly reviews (15-minute calls) - 47-page documentation (they never read) - Implementation "specialist" (me in a suit) THE PRICING PSYCHOLOGY