How to price white-label services.

Price to the market, not to your cost. The client is buying the outcome and the relationship — the wholesale rate behind it is your business, not theirs.

New resellers consistently make the same mistake: they see the wholesale rate, feel awkward about the markup, and price barely above cost. Six months later they're doing real work for hobby margins and calling the model broken. The model is fine. The pricing was scared.

Price to the market

What does a local agency charge for the service in your area? That number — not your wholesale cost — is the anchor. Clients compare you to the market; they never see your cost, and it isn't their business. Pricing at or slightly under the going agency rate positions you as the sane choice, not the cheap one. Cheap, in services, reads as risky.

The margin math, honestly

Your real costs are the wholesale rate plus your time: the client relationship, reviewing fulfillment output, monthly reporting conversations. Price so the margin pays for that time and still leaves profit. A useful floor: if a service won't clear a 50% gross margin at market rates, sell something else — the catalog has 250+ options.

Package outcomes, not line items

Don't sell "listings sync, review management, and a social calendar." Sell "the local visibility package" at one monthly price. Three tiers works everywhere: an entry package built around local presence, a growth tier that adds automation and content, and a premium tier with advertising. Bundles hide the seams, simplify the sale, and make the middle option — where you want most clients — feel like the obvious choice.

Operating rules

• Monthly recurring, always. One-off projects are how resellers stay broke. The subscription is the business.
• Raise prices for new clients first. Grandfather existing ones for a year; loyalty is cheap to honor and expensive to lose.
• Let fulfillment carry delivery. Your hours belong on relationships and sales — that's the whole design of the white-label model.