You Get What You Pay For

Author: Angie Jackson, Director of Marketing and Key Accounts, Professional Pricing Society

Recently, I attended a free Creativity and AI Virtual Summit. The topic sounded promising, the agenda looked strong, and the registration fee was just right: free. 

At the end of the day, however, I realized I had spent hours listening to what was largely a series of sales pitches, demos, and grandstanding. While there were a couple somewhat useful insights, I could probably fit the truly valuable takeaways into a 15-minute conversation. And I didn't leave with any more creativity or AI knowledge, let alone a better understanding of their intersection. 

As pricing professionals, this experience felt oddly familiar, and I wanted to write about it. 

We spend our careers helping organizations understand, communicate, and monetize value. We know that price is more than a transaction, it tells a story. Price communicates confidence, quality, expertise, and commitment. When a company offers a genuinely outstanding product or service, it deserves to be monetized accordingly. That's how we spend our days, right? Creating, defining, delivering, communicating, and, therefore, capturing value. 

The inverse is often true as well. When something is free, expectations naturally decrease. There is often less accountability for content quality, attendee experience, and measurable outcomes. Free can be useful, but it is rarely optimized for efficiency or depth.

Professional development is no exception.

Research consistently shows that investments in employee training generate meaningful returns through higher productivity, stronger retention, improved performance, and increased profitability. Organizations that prioritize structured learning programs often outperform those that treat development as an afterthought. The return isn't just financial, it's reflected in better decisions, greater confidence, and stronger business results.

That's why I believe high-quality professional education should have a price tag. Not because learning should be exclusive, but because meaningful learning requires expertise, preparation, curation, and accountability. Those things cost money to create, and they create value in return.

As pricers, we understand a simple truth: value should be recognized, and recognition often comes through price.

Sometimes, you really do get what you pay for. 

Happy to discuss and off soap box. 

Angie