Why $97 Beats $27 Every Time (Even If You’re Brand New)

Charge more. Overdeliver. Create real results.

Din Nasahrudin / Adobe Stock

Twenty-seven dollars feels like a safe bet when you’re starting out. It’s low enough to remove pressure. Low enough to dodge imposter syndrome. You tell yourself it’s more accessible, that you’ll raise the price later, that once people get a taste, they’ll want more.

But that $27 price tag is doing more damage than you think. It’s not just leaving money on the table. It’s sending the wrong message. It positions your offer as something people can ignore.

It attracts the kind of buyers who hesitate, refund, or never even open what they bought. You’re not helping more people by pricing low. You’re helping them devalue your work before they even experience it.

Price sets the frame. It shapes how your offer is perceived before anyone clicks the buy button. When you price at $27, you’re telling people this is a small, disposable product. Not a serious solution.

You’re setting the expectation that this is something they’ll skim, not something they’ll implement. And you’re competing with every other $27 offer out there that’s promising the world but delivering a glorified checklist.

That kind of pricing doesn’t just affect how they see the offer. It affects how they see you. People don’t separate the product from the person behind it. If you show up with confident messaging, clean design, a focused solution, and then slap a $27 price tag on it, there’s a disconnect.

They start to wonder what’s wrong. If it’s that good, why is it so cheap? And that doubt is enough to stall the sale. Low prices don’t make things easier. They make people hesitate for different reasons.

Now compare that to $97. It’s not high-ticket. It’s not luxury. But it signals commitment. It tells the buyer this is something worth paying attention to. Something with depth. Something with weight.

You’ve immediately filtered out the freebie hoarders and the impulse buyers looking for a dopamine hit. You’re now talking to people who are ready to act. And that shift alone changes everything about how your product is used and talked about.

People who pay $97 don’t just buy. They show up. They open the file. They watch the video. They take notes. They schedule time to implement. Not because $97 is a huge investment, but because it feels just big enough to take seriously.

That seriousness is what gets them results. And those results turn into testimonials, case studies, referrals. Those things don’t happen when someone buys your offer and forgets they even own it.

A higher price also changes how you show up. When you sell something for $27, there’s a tendency to underdeliver, not because you’re lazy, but because you subconsciously match the price with the effort.

You don’t want to burn yourself out creating a masterpiece for something that barely pays for dinner. So you keep it small. You rush the copy. You skip the walkthrough video. You cut the offer down so you can justify the price.

But when you decide to charge $97, your entire posture shifts. You approach the offer with a mindset of leadership, not just convenience. You polish it. You think through the experience. You want it to feel like it’s worth more than they paid, not just worth exactly what they paid.

There’s also something important about margins. With $27, you have to sell four times as many units to make the same money you’d make at $97. That means four times the customer service, four times the traffic, four times the complexity.

You’re scaling chaos instead of scaling value. With $97, you have room to breathe. Room to reinvest in your business. Room to run ads if you want. Room to bundle later without cannibalizing your income.

And even if you’re brand new, that doesn’t mean you have to underprice yourself to “earn your stripes.” No one gets extra credit for grinding through a low-ticket phase. You don’t get a medal for building an audience full of bargain hunters who will ghost you the moment you raise your rates.

What you build from day one becomes your baseline. If you start by setting the expectation that you’re the $27 person, it becomes ten times harder to reposition later. People will compare your $97 offer to someone else’s $27 eBook and wonder why you changed. But if you start at $97, you build authority faster. People assume you know what you’re doing. They treat you like someone with answers, not someone still figuring it out.

Another myth that keeps people pricing low is the fear that no one will buy at $97 without a long track record or massive audience. But people don’t buy because of your resume.

They buy because the offer is clear, the result is specific, and the presentation builds trust. If you can show someone how your offer solves a problem they’re tired of dealing with, they’ll buy.

If you can give them one breakthrough they can’t find on YouTube, they’ll buy. If you can present that offer in a way that feels clean, confident, and backed by intention, they won’t care whether you have 100 followers or 10,000.

Buyers are savvier than ever. They’ve seen every sales tactic. They’ve downloaded every lead magnet. They’ve been burned by $9 templates and $17 eBooks that promised to change everything.

What they want now is clarity. Direction. Simplicity. And they’ll pay $97 to skip the fluff and get a focused solution delivered by someone who gets it. That’s the offer you want to build. Not the one that tries to beat the price of every other creator in your niche. The one that steps outside that game entirely.

And pricing isn’t permanent. You’re not locking yourself into $97 forever. You’re setting a standard. A benchmark. Something that allows you to raise, bundle, or restructure without having to make giant leaps.

Starting at $27 puts you in a hole you have to climb out of. Starting at $97 gives you options. You can add tiers. You can build down if you want. You can launch higher-ticket offers without sounding like you had a personality transplant. You gave your brand room to grow instead of keeping it boxed in by fear.

People want to spend money on things that feel like they’ll actually work. That’s why $97 beats $27. Not because it’s more expensive. But because it frames the offer as something that matters.

Something built to solve, not just to sell. And when people feel like they’re making a smart, confident decision—one that respects their time, their energy, and their goals, they click buy. Even if you’re brand new. Even if your list is small. Even if you’re still getting your footing.

Pricing isn’t just a number. It’s a signal. And right now, the market is full of noise. Everyone’s shouting. Everyone’s launching. Everyone’s offering discounts, bundles, last-minute deals.

You want to stand out? Charge a price that commands attention without apology. Back it with clarity. Deliver the result. And let your reputation be built on the confidence that started with a number most people are too scared to choose.