If there is one thing that says the most about how you perceive your skill-set, your knowledge and your business, it is the prices you set for the products and services you sell.
They tell the prospect and client precisely what and how you feel about yourself and your business.
Your pricing is so important. It can have a monumental effect on your sales, your profits, your businesses longevity, your position within your marketplace, how you and your business is perceived by others and many other factors.
Many people think that to compete they have to set their prices on the lower side of the scale. That will get more clients into the business surely.
Whilst this may be true, the problem is that you are merely attracting people who purchase mainly on price, and so when a competitor comes in cheaper than you, chances are that client will be off or you’ll be dragged into a bidding war where you both start to drop your prices.
Imagine if Rolex, Harrods, Rolls Royce halved their prices overnight and backed this up with an effective marketing campaign. Sure they’d get a lot of new clients eager to own something they thought they could never afford. But the damage they would be doing to their brands would be immense.
Taking the same scenario down a few levels.
People often aspire to be able to comfortably afford higher priced versions of what they normally purchase. In supermarkets, people who buy the value brands would doubtless love to easily be able to afford the luxury brands as they usually taste so much better and include healthier ingredients.
People who do buy the luxury brands know that they are receiving quality produce, they understand that the manufacturers have an assuredness about their products that allows them to sell them at that higher price.
So, how can this apply to you and your business?
Do you set your prices solely based on profitability?
Do you even know how much you need to charge to be profitable?
Is it possible, that you are setting your prices too low?
Your prospects and customers are looking for a certain quality, a certain assuredness about your products and your business. Of course they want value too, but not at the expense of the confidence that you will be able to over deliver on their expectations. If you set your prices too low, where is the certainty from you that your business and your products are worthwhile investing time and money in?
Be prepared to heighten the perceived value of your goods, raise your prices to new levels, have the ability to then over deliver on your promises, make people aware that you are certain that you and your business are more than worth that amount, they are still obtaining fantastic value for money.
Attract those customers who will not change suppliers to save a few pounds but who realise and demand quality and are more than prepared to pay for that.
Show that you have the utmost confidence in your products and services, attract the increasing percentage of the population that are not price driven.
People are drawn to confidence, they may not always realise or admit it, but they are.
Build a business supplying this group of people and your business will be much stronger for it.