Naturally, your customers and potential customers consider price as a factor in their buying decisions. But you never want to be in a position in which price is the only deciding factor between you and a competitor.

Why?

Because what you offer and what you sell goes beyond a number or a price. It is about solutions. It is about value.

What is the value – not the price – of the service or product you are selling?

And, by the way, what are you selling? Your answer to this question should be more than the product or service you say you are selling. What you are selling represents the improvement in the business or even in the life of your customer. Is it more of something they desperately seek, like money or time? Is it freedom? Control?

Once you start thinking in these terms, you will find that the actual price tag you put on the solution is secondary - -though still important – to the bigger picture. Then the question becomes, how do you convey the importance, and the true value, to your potential customer?

* You speak their language. Know their problems, their issues and their concerns. Know them so well that you can hone in on what their pain is and on how your product/service will ease their pain. This is basic Marketing 101 stuff, and as important as ever.

* Don’t defend your price. Instead, show your potential customers how they cannot afford to be without your product/service. Think, instead, of what the cost for them of not taking advantage of what you are selling would be. Think, instead, of what their potential danger for “missing out” would be. Get good at conveying this, not just a bottom-line number, for them.

* Think in terms of saving, not spending. What would it cost someone who needs what you are selling to not have what they so need? (And you can even go beyond – how would they actually earn money by becoming your customer?)

* Don’t ever apologize. You are good at what you do. You offer a high-quality product or service. You are dedicated to customer success and satisfaction. Your pricing is not only reasonable and affordable – it is based on making your customer more money, and saving him time and other valuable resources along the way. He needs you and you exist to deliver to him!

This entry was posted on Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 5:45 am and is filed under Marketing During Recession, Pricing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.