There are businesses that worry about the cost of their products/services, and there are those who don’t. Success goes to the business that doesn’t have to worry about the price of what they sell.
Want to know why? Ok, here you go!
When price is still part of the factors your target customers consider before buying from you, then you don’t matter!
When what you offer isn’t credible enough to communicate to your target customers that you’re the best option, then you don’t matter!
When customers begin to compare your price with that of others, then you are no different than others!
To businesses that matter, their deeds outweigh what the customers could ever pay for, so this makes price irrelevant. They define, create, communicate and deliver extraordinary value in the market that their target customers can’t seem to quantify only in monetary terms. The value they add is so overwhelming that you don’t care how much they charge!
Wouldn’t you want to own such a business?
Don’t know about you, but for me, hell yes!
I never want to be the cheapest option in the market.
I never want the value I add to the customer to be quantifiable only in monetary terms.
I want to be the one that provides a value that is far more than what the customer could ever pay for.
I want to be the one whose value in kind will exceed the value in cash.
I want to be the one that will build a business that is MORE than the prices of what we sell.
So this doesn’t become an all about me rant, in this unusual article, I want to show you how you can charge whatever you like for your products/services without losing the customer.
Let’s begin!
Pricing Secret #1 – Determine What They Really Want
How much a thing cost is not as important as whether people want it or not. No matter how cheap salt costs, it wouldn’t change the value people attach to it. Pricing must begin with what people value. Why? Because people will only pay more for what they truly value.
The first step to charging whatever you like for your product/services without losing the customer is to determine what they want and give it to them better than they ever thought possible.
So your first task before pricing is research. You have to deeply understand what your target customers call value. You cannot determine value for them, you can only communicate it clearly to them what they have first clarified as value.
This is what I refer to as value definition. As a business, you have to define what value you bring to the market based on the needs of the target customer. This value must match their needs before it can be called an offer – product/service. People don’t buy what you think they want; they buy what they know they want. So to sell at whatever price you like, you just have to remind them of what they want and show them why you are the best provider.
Pricing Secret #2 — Go Beyond Survival
Being more in life never kills. Being something in life never kills. The real killer is being nothing!
Survival is for animals! Humans thrive!
Meaning, in life and in business, don’t just survive (make ends meet), thrive (make a difference).
Why?
Because your target customers needs a reason(s) to compare and differentiate you from others and if you don’t give them one, they’ll regard what you’re selling as commodity and will default to PRICE comparison.
To be able to charge whatever you like for your products/services without losing the customer, make thriving your survival strategy!
Don’t start out in business to survive –doing enough to make ends meet. You must be prepared to take the game to another level. You have to go beyond survival if you ever want to make price irrelevant in your business. You have to be prepared to do more than enough.
Businesses that survive by doing enough sell commodity – what other people are selling but calling it a different name.
Businesses that thrive by doing more than enough sell solutions – a unique product/service to a specific problem customers have.
And here’s the shocking truth; people will only pay more for solutions and will never pay more for commodity.
So the big question is this; what are you selling – solutions or commodity?
To charge whatever you like without losing the customer, you must define, create, communicate and deliver Solutions and not just commodity. And this can only be achieved by focusing on thriving rather than just surviving in business.
Pricing Secret #3 – Go against tradition
Tradition is the way things have always been in a particular industry or niche. Tradition is what is generally acceptable as RIGHT. Tradition is simply being like others.
To charge whatever you like for your products/services without losing the customer, you have to be a radical –a person who challenges tradition.
Every industry or niche has certain way of things and because it so popular, everyone seems to assume it is the best way. Here’s the truth; what is popular isn’t always the best choice. The best choice is not measured in terms of popularity, but in terms of results. The best choice is the one that brings you the kind of results you desire.
My favourite example is the Virgin brand led by unusual entrepreneur Richard Branson. In every industry they enter, they challenge existing tradition. When they entered into the aviation business, their airplanes [Virgin atlantic, Virgin America, Virgin Blue] went against the traditional way of running an airline. They changed the traditional colour of airplane seats and made theirs spacious leather seats, allowed passengers to watch their own programs, buy movies or favourite games on air and create their own playlist, there’s a bar, a pool and casino on air, you can order your own meal, drink or snacks rather than eat what you’ve been given, there’s even Wi-Fi on air!
Don’t expect to charge whatever you like if there’s nothing extraordinary about you when compared to others in your industry or niche. While thinking of the tradition to break, make sure you come up with what will add value to the target customer. Don’t just go about breaking tradition for tradition sake, you must break tradition because breaking it will amplify the value to the target customers. Don’t just be a radical, be radically useful.
Pricing Secret #4 – Let your value in kind exceed their value in cash
This is the summary of all 3 points above; overwhelm the customers with extraordinary value.
People will pay more naturally if they can vividly sense and see that they are getting more. Who doesn’t want a bargain after all?
The problem like has been addressed above is asking people to pay for more when what you are offering less in kind value than the cash value they have to pay. The way to charge more is to give more than you ask for.
When the total value in kind exceeds the total value in cash, customers don’t find it hard paying for whatever you charge. In fact, they are more inclined to do so than if you simply charged them in cash for the exact value you provided in kind. The reality is this; customers always want to get more than they pay for. So just doing enough won’t help you enough, you have to overwhelm them with more than they ever could pay for.
Take, for instance, exotic 5-star hotels that charge far higher prices than other lower star hotels. At first thought, you would wonder why people pay so much for a night or more at such hotels if all they wanted was sleep. But when you begin to look deeper at such other less obvious factors like the caliber of guests who also lodge at such hotels? When you begin to imagine the kind of business relationships that staying in such hotels can forge? When you imagine the extraordinary confidence spending a night at such hotels can bring into your life? Then the whole price they charge begins to look irrelevant in comparison to the value in kind gained.
Conclusion
To charge whatever you like for your products/services without losing the customer is absolutely possible. You only just have to position your business as one that offers more to the customer than the price tag on your products/services.
In other words, your business in general has to be more than the monetary worth you attach to the products/services you sell.
When people fly Virgin, they don’t just pay for air fares, they pay for an extraordinary experience. One that is so rare and can only be gotten by flying Virgin airlines.
When people buy Apple products/services, they are not just paying for hardware -iPad or iPod or a Mac. They are paying for an extraordinary user experience that comes from those hard wares. They are paying for design, quality, durability, simplicity and prestige.
So the big question for entrepreneurs who want to charge whatever they like for their products/services without losing the customer is this; what is your true purpose? What is the result, outcome or transformation that you deliver?
In other words, how will your customer’s life or business be different as a result of buying from you?
It isn’t always about the price. It is always about the value!
To charge more, let your value exceed the price!
