Yes. An in-person event should cost more than the virtual version of the same content, because you’re not selling the curriculum, you’re selling the room the curriculum happens in. Those are two different products even when the slides are identical.
Should you add an in-person version of an online course?
An owner brought this to the Idea Slam. They run an online training cohort at $1,900, it sells out every single time, and now they want to run a live version at $2,500. The worry was whether that jump would blow up the thing that’s already working.
My answer was hell yes, and there’s no reason to blow up one for the other. You can run both. The online cohort is validated, people clearly want the education, so keep selling it. Adding an in-person tier doesn’t cannibalize an online product that already has demand. It gives your best buyers somewhere to go. The people who loved the online version and want more of you are the first people who’ll pay for the room, and the online version keeps feeding that group every time it runs.
If your course sells out every time, is your price too low?
Probably, and this is the part people don’t want to hear. If you sell out every cohort and you’ve got a waiting list, that’s not a trophy. That’s a signal. You want to get some nos once in a while, because a no tells you that you’ve found the edge of what the market will pay. Selling out every single time tells you that you haven’t gone looking for that edge yet.
So before you even get to the in-person question, look at the online price and make sure you’re getting every dollar you deserve. Quit charging too little isn’t a slogan. It’s the most common leak I see in a business that’s otherwise working, and it’s the easiest one to fix, because the fix is a number you type into a sales page.
What does an in-person room give you that Zoom can’t?
Here’s what you’re actually charging for when people show up.
- Shoulder time. The event runs one to three. People arrive at 12:50 and talk for ten minutes, talk again at the break, and some of them go get a drink after. None of that unstructured time exists online.
- Body language. In a room you can see whose knee is bouncing and who’s checked out. On a screen you can’t.
- Tone. A voice in person has a resonance and inflection that a laptop speaker flattens.
- Real conversation. When two people get excited in a room, they talk over each other and build on each other. On Zoom the audio only goes one way, so the second person sounds like they’re interrupting. It kills collaboration, and as an audio guy it drives me nuts.
- Better visual aids. Paper handouts, a whiteboard, and people choosing where to point their attention, instead of every face shrinking to a postage stamp during a screen share.
- Peer pressure. Online, people turn cameras off. In person, the people who care give the checked-out person the look.
- Paid-in commitment. They got up, showered, packed a bag, and drove there. People who’ve invested show up ready to get their money’s worth.
- Physical things. A donut, a workbook, a tote bag. A tangible experience you can’t deliver through a browser.
How should you price an in-person event?
Roll those benefits up and ask whether they’re worth $600 on top of the online price. In the case from the Idea Slam, they clearly are. The online program proved people want the material. The live version adds immersion, accountability, and connection that the online version structurally can’t provide, and every one of those things is worth money to the right buyer.
So price the room, not just the curriculum. If you’re teaching the same content in both places and charging the same money, you’re giving away the most expensive part of what you built. There’s no formula for the exact number. List every benefit the room provides that the screen can’t, decide what that bundle is worth to your specific buyer, and set the price there. If nobody buys at that price, you’ve learned something for the cost of one launch, and your online cohort is still selling out.
Questions owners ask
Should I stop running the online version?
No. It sells out, it works, and it feeds the in-person tier. Run both.
Does this apply if I’m a solo coach, not a trainer?
Yes. Any time you put people in a room together, the room is part of the product. Workshops, masterminds, retreats, all of it.
What if my audience is spread all over the country?
Then in-person becomes a premium tier for the people who’ll travel, not a replacement for what you already run.
Here’s the homework. Look at one thing you deliver online and ask what it would be worth if people were in a room for it. Then price that version like a different product, because it is one. Watch the full episode for the whole Idea Slam answer.
Related
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- How to raise your rates without losing money
- How to follow up on a sales proposal
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