Let me ask you a question about pricing this morning: What is the biggest fear you have when quoting a price for your product or service? Is it one of these bangers like:
The price is too high!___ only charges ___!Everyone else charges by the hour!
Maybe, just maybe, it is something even worse.What could be worse?When you pre-object to your own price by telling yourself things like:
I’m a small business, there is no way they’ll pay me this.If I don’t give them a discount, they’ll walk away. I can’t possibly justify more than ___ because it will only take me an hour to do the work.
All of these are pricing myths. On Wednesday, September 20th, I’m running a FREE webinar to help bust some of my favorite pricing myths just for you. That’s why I want you to send me the things that stand in your way when setting your prices. More importantly, let me share 5 quick pricing ideas that will help you set better price ASAP.
Focus on tangible and intangible value: People are buying due to the value, even when they are shopping on price. Sometimes, if the problem isn’t super important, the cheapest option wins. In other cases, no price is too high because the issue is so important. Stress. Time. Earnings. Are all value, both tangible and intangible…each can elevate your price. Emphasize impact: You aren’t doing strategy, you are focusing on whether or not you can maintain a competitive advantage for people. Strategy is an input. Competitive advantage is life or death to a business. One is a commodity. One is essential. Focus on the essential, the high pain. Don’t sell based on arbitrary units: Lawyers do this with their ridiculous embrace of the billable hour. Don’t be like a lawyer. Apple doesn’t sell you an iPhone that is priced based on how many phone calls you make, they sell you an iPhone for the price. You should think about how you can do the same…price according to the service or the product you deliver, not the arbitrary unit of time it might take you to deliver the results. Don’t fall into the trap of comparative pricing: What your competition is charging doesn’t matter. Charge what you are worth and what you think is far. Your competition might be idiots at pricing. They may have a different strategy. The market may have a different value they place on them vs. you. What the competition is doing is probably irrelevant unless you are a commodity. That’s a story for another day. Don’t discount: Oh so many reasons not to discount like lost profit, lowered brand equity, and tougher future sales, but the most important is that it opens an endless cycle of you being considered a “discount brand” and one that a potential customer will always look to haggle with and beat down on the price. You get the money, but when you start getting haggled at every turn…the business sucks and the customers treat you like crap, they don’t pay on time, and it makes you miserable. Don’t do it.
So, what is your biggest pricing challenge? What makes you afraid to quote the price you know you deserve? Let me know and I will work the best ones into the webinar. By the way: I’m hosting a special day with me in New York City on Thursday, September 28 called ‘Rethinking Revenue: Creating New Opportunities in Any Market’.I’m limiting this to 15 people or so.In the session, I’ll share things with you like:
Why you need to know the real buyer.Why you should be speaking about outcomes and how this will drive up your fees and your sales.Why even if you aren’t in marketing, you are in marketing, and how you can use that to your advantage.How to use my good friend, Google, to uncover secondary market research to help you find new opportunities.Plus…MORE! MORE! MORE!
Do you want to join me?The fee is $495 and I will buy the first round at happy hour when we are done.Reply here and I’ll get you set up.Again, small group so that you can get individual attention!Don’t miss it.Do you know someone that needs to hear the message about not discounting? Or, that value can come in tangible or intangible form? Share this note with them. And, I THANK YOU! ShareSee you next week!
Dave