Don't Use Yourself as Your Pricing
Yardstick
By Marcia Yudkin
"I wouldn't pay more than what I charge now."
If you are not a member of your target market, toss this
thought about your own preferences out the window this very
minute. What you consider a reasonable price has nothing to do
with how they spend money. Even if you are a member of the
market you are selling to, it's a fallacy to assume that
everyone in that group feels as you do. Chances are, some feel
that your current rates are more than they want to pay, some
feel you're charging just about right and others feel you're a
real steal. You probably don't need to sell to all three of
those categories and can do well by aiming at those who'd
respect you more if you charged more.
The belief that she couldn't charge more than she herself
would pay was a huge barrier for a friend of mine who was a
photographer. She had to do a lot of talking to herself about
her customers' enthusiasm for her work, her strengths as a
photographer and the fact that the few colleagues charging more
in her town weren't any better at their work than she was.
She also had to steel herself against customers trying to
bargain with her. She reminded herself that when she held firm
on her fees, most customers did pay what they'd just objected
to. Some people bargain mainly as a habit or a game.
Additionally, she joined a mastermind group of other
photographers and picked up a few pointers on subtle ways to
increase the average amount a customer spent with her. For
instance, photographers offering frames in different sizes along
with enlargements of family portraits always sold the most of
the next to largest size on display. By adding a larger size
frame to those hanging on the wall of her studio, she sold more
of the next-to-largest size, previously the largest.
Create a solid difference between yourself and competitors to
feel more confident about raising your rates. To separate
yourself from colleagues, you can emphasize selectivity (you
accept only a certain level or kind of client), specialization
(you possess more experience and expert knowledge on one aspect
of your industry), results (your superiority consists of a
spectacular success rate that you can document) or concrete
benefits of your work (results that your colleagues also produce
but never explicitly point to).
Pricing is a psychological phenomenon primarily, and the road
to higher profits begins with getting your own head straight
about what's reasonable to charge.
Marcia Yudkin is head mentor
for MarketingforMore.com and the author of 6
Steps to Free Publicity and 10 other books. As
an author, marketing consultant and coach, she
has spent 22 years successfully turning words
into money. By going to
http://www.marketingformore.com/survey.htm ,
you can download a free report, "Charge More &
Get It," that discusses five common
self-sabotaging beliefs that stand in the way of
higher earnings.
