Latest / The Resilient Retail Game Plan - retail insights, retail trends and best practices / Product pricing and the value triangle
Transcript
- 0:00If you want to build a resilient retail business, then you need to
- 0:04start pricing your products like a business and not like a hobbyist.
- 0:08In this episode, we're going to be talking through pricing, step by
- 0:11step, discussing why it's so difficult and how the value
- 0:15triangle, which covers price, quality and desirability,
- 0:19can help you feel really confident charging what you and your products are
- 0:22worth. Welcome to the Resilient Retail Game
- 0:26Plan. I'm Catherine Edley and in the next few minutes you're about to get
- 0:29powerful real world retail strategies from insights shared both
- 0:33from my guests and myself, backed up by my 25 years
- 0:37in the retail industry. Keep listening to learn how to grow a
- 0:40thriving, profitable product business. Let's jump in with this latest
- 0:44episode. Now,
- 0:48pricing is an absolutely fascinating topic and one that I love
- 0:52to dig into. And one of the reasons that it's so
- 0:55interesting is that it stirs up a lot of feelings for a lot of
- 0:59people, which is why I sometimes feel like starting your own business can
- 1:03be a bit like a crash course in therapy. But
- 1:06pricing is really something that cuts to the heart of all of
- 1:10those questions around money mindset. It can make what should be a very
- 1:14objective business decision into something that is quite
- 1:18difficult. So there are different pricing
- 1:21conundrums based on your business model. For example, if you are a
- 1:25reseller so you mostly sell products that other people send you,
- 1:29or that you mostly sell products from other retailers, retail businesses
- 1:33or brands, then you will be given ARRP
- 1:36recommended retail price by your suppliers. Now just
- 1:40a quick note on that. Remember that the R, the extra R is there for
- 1:44a reason. The recommended Nobody can actually tell you what you have to
- 1:48set your prices at, that there has to be a recommendation only to
- 1:51avoid things like price fixing. So no one can legally enforce
- 1:55and make you sell your products for a particular price. However, it is
- 1:59often a little bit easier for you if you are a reseller because
- 2:03you are effectively given a product and you're given an indication of what the
- 2:07price should be. Most of the time, product creators, whether it's something
- 2:11that you're making yourself or manufacturing, they face a different
- 2:14challenge. You've got to set your own pricing from scratch and that is
- 2:18what this episode is going to focus on. Now, there's lots of concepts in
- 2:22this episode that will be really relevant for you if you are a reseller as
- 2:25well. If you're somebody who is communicating to your customers
- 2:29about your products and their prices, there's going to be lots that you'll take away.
- 2:36Ultimately, the heart of this is about what do you do when you
- 2:39know that you need to set your prices and you're not already given something
- 2:43to work from? One of the issues that I see come up a lot, and
- 2:46one of the reasons that I wanted to address this in this episode, is
- 2:50that undercharging is a real epidemic
- 2:53amongst small business owners. So what is undercharging?
- 2:57Undercharging is when you consistently charge
- 3:00lower than what the market rate suggests for your products.
- 3:05And it is something that a lot of small businesses do. And
- 3:08there's a few key reasons why it happens. One, simply speaking,
- 3:12undercharging often comes from lack of confidence and lack
- 3:16of confidence either in yourself or. Or in your product. So people might
- 3:20say, oh yes, I know that people do spend
- 3:23£90 on the Diptyque candle, but this is just my
- 3:27candle, so why would somebody pay that? Or perhaps
- 3:30you're looking at it thinking, well, you can get other handmade brands for this price,
- 3:34but I think because it's mine, would people really spend that much on my candle?
- 3:38So if there's an issue about belief in yourself and your product, that can often
- 3:41lead people to end up undercharging to. The second thing
- 3:45that often people talk to me about is they'll say,
- 3:49I want to create a product that is affordable for my customer.
- 3:53And therefore they feel like what they're doing is effectively kind of a
- 3:57mission to keep their prices lower. And what I'd love to say to this,
- 4:01which is said with much love, is that what your customer can and
- 4:04can't afford is none of your business. Now, somebody said this to me
- 4:08way back at the beginning of the my business, and it's actually really quite liberating
- 4:12if you think about it, because if you're going to be insistent that
- 4:15your customer can't afford something unless you keep it a certain price,
- 4:19you can end up fighting with yourself and feeling like, oh, I can't increase
- 4:23my prices. But actually, the truth is, you don't know what your
- 4:27customer can afford. And it's not really your business to know. It's your
- 4:30business to create a business that is going to
- 4:34be sustainable for you financially in the long term. A
- 4:37sustainable business has to support you financially. And if you don't get your pricing right,
- 4:41if they can't charge enough money for their products, then they can't make enough profit
- 4:44and they can't make enough profit, then they can't pay themselves. And I can
- 4:48guarantee that if you can't pay yourself from your business in the next three to
- 4:51five years, you will make a decision that this is just
- 4:55something that you can't keep going with. If you really want to help your customers,
- 4:58be around for the long haul and don't let yourself fall into
- 5:02that trap of feeling like, oh, I can't charge more because my
- 5:06customer can't afford it. The question of affordability is something
- 5:09that I find really fascinating because we often tell ourselves these
- 5:13stories about what people can and can't afford. The truth is, if people really
- 5:17want something, they will find the money for it. And you only need
- 5:21to look at the Latest tech fad, AirPods or things like that that you
- 5:25just think, reasonably speaking, you wouldn't expect people to be able to afford, but
- 5:28somehow they do. So I think affordability can sometimes be something
- 5:32that we tell ourselves that is maybe a story that we tell
- 5:36ourselves that keeps ourselves feeling stuck. Three and the final reason
- 5:39that people tend to underprice is that
- 5:43they believe that low prices are more appealing. And of
- 5:47course, yes, there are psychological price barriers. I'm not saying that price isn't
- 5:50important, but people will often say, oh, I can't
- 5:54charge more because I just won't sell anything.
- 5:58But don't forget, there is also this idea of being reassuringly expensive.
- 6:01And ironically, I've actually seen people increase their prices and see their
- 6:05sales go up. Because before there was this disconnect in the
- 6:09customer's mind, they were naturally a bit suspicious, thinking,
- 6:12wow, if this product is really as good as they're saying it is, then why
- 6:15is it this price? It just doesn't make any sense. Pricing too low
- 6:19can backfire. It can lead people to believe that quality is not as
- 6:23good as you're claiming. So if you're ever tempted to just keep your prices really
- 6:26low because you're convinced that's the only thing that's driving your sales, then I would
- 6:30challenge you to really have a listen to everything else that
- 6:34I'm saying in this episode about how you actually go about setting your prices in
- 6:37a logical way. Ask yourself, is it true that I have to keep my
- 6:41prices at this point? And sometimes, you know, I will absolutely put my hands up
- 6:44and say, sometimes there are people whose businesses the customer has a really,
- 6:48really clear price point in their mind for that particular product and it is hard
- 6:51to increase it. So I'm not saying that's never the case, but I've also seen
- 6:55lots and lots cases of where people have told me categorically they can't sell
- 6:59it for more, and they've actually gone on to increase their prices. And either seen
- 7:02no impact on their sales, but a big impact on their bottom line or
- 7:06actually seen their sales increase.
- 7:12So how do you know if you're undercharging? Well, partly, as
- 7:15we come on to talk about later, we'll have a look at how your products
- 7:19are priced compared to your competitors. That's a really interesting and obvious
- 7:22sign. If you wholesale your products into a retailer,
- 7:27they are quite happily pricing it up and selling it at more
- 7:30than what you're selling your products for, then that is a really, really clear indicator
- 7:34that actually your products could be sold for a higher price.
- 7:38So for example, I worked with a baby
- 7:42skincare brand and they were selling, they had
- 7:45small batch production, they were selling it into a retailer. They weren't really offering the
- 7:49retailer full retail margin, but the
- 7:53retailer was happy to take it in anyway. And I said to them,
- 7:56they seem happy with this pricing, just check what they're actually selling it for. And
- 8:00when we looked on that company's website, they were selling it for quite a lot
- 8:04more than the person supplying the retailer was selling it for. And that is a
- 8:08really good indicator that somebody else believes that your product can be and is selling
- 8:11your product at more than you're selling it for. Another way that
- 8:15you can tell if you're underpricing is how you actually feel. And this,
- 8:19it may sound like an odd thing to say. One of the biggest indicators about
- 8:22underpricing is that you just feel really resentful. You think, I put all of
- 8:26this time and effort into this product and after I've sold it to the customer,
- 8:30this is how much I'm left with. And it just doesn't seem right. It just
- 8:33doesn't seem like it's enough. And I think if you're feeling resentful about the
- 8:37amount of money people are getting your products for, then that's a really good sign
- 8:41that you need to look at increasing your prices.
- 8:45So how do you actually go about setting your prices?
- 8:54So how do you actually go about setting your prices if you
- 8:58are struggling with this? If you find it really difficult, get somebody
- 9:01who's not as close to the business, who's not in the day to day, a
- 9:05friend, a partner, family member who can help you be a little bit more
- 9:09objective. Make sure that they get what you're doing. They're not going to
- 9:12tell you, oh, do you know what you've got to match as the prices or
- 9:15something like that. Make sure that they get the mission and what you're doing, but
- 9:19preferably someone who's a little bit removed. So they can help you be more logical.
- 9:22What I recommend in terms of the approach to setting your prices is
- 9:26that you start by setting your retail price, the price
- 9:29that you intend to sell to the end customer.
- 9:33Now, the reason I say that is that there is a school of thought that
- 9:36what you need to do is you get the cost price or the amount that
- 9:40you're spending on creating the product, and you multiply it by two
- 9:44or four or whatever number people come up with in order to get your retail
- 9:47price. But I'm not a fan of that approach for several different
- 9:50reasons. First off, I think it's not rounded in reality.
- 9:54I mean, you could do that. I did actually meet a team once from
- 9:58Christian Labuta, and they were able to
- 10:01do that. That's how they priced all their shoes. But that was Louboutin, you know,
- 10:05I mean, they could set those prices because they could say it's going to be
- 10:09800 pounds for a pair of shoes and somebody out there would pay it. But
- 10:12most of us don't have that luxury. Most of us need to work within the
- 10:15parameters, the marketplace in which we're operating. So
- 10:19therefore, we don't just start by saying, these are my costs and therefore I'm going
- 10:22to multiply it by four and get my retail price. The other reason we don't
- 10:26do that is because if your prices go up, then the only option you've got
- 10:29is to try and increase your retail price, which doesn't feel right either.
- 10:33So I would suggest that you start by setting your price
- 10:37that you would sell to the end consumer. If you're somebody who sells a lot
- 10:40at wholesale, I still think you start with the price that goes to the end
- 10:44consumer, because ultimately the person who's
- 10:48selling your product at the end, the retailer, they're going to have to sell your
- 10:51product in that marketplace. So you've got to make sure that your retail
- 10:55price is grounded in reality. And this may sound obvious,
- 10:59but I cannot tell you the number of people who, when I asked them how
- 11:02they set their prices, they basically pulled it out of thin air, which
- 11:06for some people works, they go with that approach. But for most of us, we
- 11:10want to start by having something to pin our price on.
- 11:14So how do we actually set our retail price? Well, the first step
- 11:17I would suggest is that you find three similar brands to you
- 11:21in terms of materials, sourcing and production, not necessarily
- 11:25aesthetics. So, for example, if you
- 11:29are a baby clothing brand, then if you are
- 11:32making it in the UK with organic cotton, try and find
- 11:36other people who are doing the Same thing in the same way.
- 11:40There's no point in you comparing your UK made
- 11:44organic cotton baby clothes to the Primark baby clothes, for example,
- 11:47because you're just not even looking at anything similar in terms of
- 11:52the production method or the materials used. So try and find
- 11:55three people who are similar to you. As I said, aesthetic is irrelevant.
- 12:00So if they're bright neon and you're scandi paired
- 12:03back, that's absolutely fine. But we're just trying to get a sense of the
- 12:07actual way that products are made and then have a look
- 12:11at how they are priced. Now, big retailers have software that scans
- 12:14all of their competitors and tells them what all the price comparisons are. But back
- 12:18in the day, we used to have to go out to the shops and go
- 12:21around with a notepad and make notes as to what all of the competitors were
- 12:24doing in terms of pricing. And it wasn't about copying, it was about
- 12:28understanding the reality in which your customer operates.
- 12:31So that's what you're trying to do here. You're just trying to understand if you're
- 12:35in the market for a pair of organic baby leggings, how much
- 12:39might you pay or how much might you be able to get them from somewhere
- 12:42else. So once you've done that, you
- 12:46effectively work out by product type what their pricing
- 12:50structure looks like, where it starts at, where it ends at, what the kind
- 12:53of range is, the products that they seem to sell the most of, where
- 12:57do they sit? And you get a really good sense of what's going
- 13:01on. And once you've done that, you then decide your pricing
- 13:05in comparison. Now, there is no need for you to match it
- 13:08exactly if you don't want to, you can do, you can say, right, everyone's
- 13:12selling their leggings for £28. I'm going to pitch my leggings
- 13:16at that price. But also you might say, do you know what? Ours
- 13:19are hand finished, ours are reversible. For example,
- 13:23they're all at 28, but I think we could go at 32. Whatever you
- 13:26feel is appropriate, you can do it, but
- 13:30you just need to benchmark it somewhere. So you either go in at the same
- 13:33parity, you go in above, which is the premium
- 13:37pricing model, or you might go below, which would
- 13:41be a value pricing model. In other words, everyone's at 28. I think we can
- 13:44bring ours in at 24 and still make an okay margin. So we're going to
- 13:47go there. Now, I don't generally recommend a value model for
- 13:51small businesses because before you know it, we'll all be trying to undercut each
- 13:54other and that's not good for anybody. And most small business owners are not
- 13:58going to ever be able to compete on price, especially when you compare it to
- 14:02big retailers. So don't try the value model unless you've
- 14:06really got a compelling reason that you feel that you can come in under your
- 14:08competitors. Don't do if it's just a confidence thing. If you're like, oh
- 14:12well, maybe their leggings are nicer than mine, I don't think I can
- 14:16charge that now. That's not okay. You want to pick your
- 14:19pricing position based on your competitors, but it doesn't have to be the same as
- 14:23theirs if you don't want it to be. After you've done that,
- 14:26then you want to sense check with your customer. Customers. Now the
- 14:30most important thing is that do not go to your customers and ask them, would
- 14:33you pay 28 pounds for this pair of leggings? Because most people
- 14:38are aspirational. In other words, they'd like to think that they would spend 28 pounds
- 14:41on a pair of leggings or they're trying to be nice so they'd say, yes,
- 14:45of course I would. But what you really want to understand is what their past
- 14:48behavior has been. You want to understand, for
- 14:52example, you could ask them when you've bought baby leggings and in the
- 14:56past, how much have you paid for them? And get an understanding
- 15:00of what they actually paid their actual real world behavior.
- 15:04This gives you an anchor in real world insight into your prices.
- 15:08If everyone comes back and it's a much lower than you expected, which often is
- 15:11the case because ultimately most small business owners
- 15:15are operating in effectively kind of a premium pricing model already.
- 15:19Most people are not competing on price. Ask them how much they paid when
- 15:23they bought it for a special occasion or for a gift. Because again,
- 15:27most small businesses, we tend to sit in that gifting price
- 15:30bracket because it's not the cheapest that you're going to get something, but
- 15:34it's always the nicest. So make sure that you're getting
- 15:38an insight not just into what they would pay on an everyday basis, but what
- 15:41they would pay in the case of something that they were gifting. And that will
- 15:44help give you some confidence around your, your pricing and
- 15:48where you're sitting. Now, if you're first starting out or you don't have access
- 15:52to your ideal customers, have a think about somebody. Do you know someone in the
- 15:55real world who would fit your ideal customer profile? Even if they'd never bought from
- 15:59you before, could you do a bit of research that way. In fact, I remember
- 16:02being told once when I very first started my business, before you start your business,
- 16:06you should talk to 100 potential customers and ask them what they
- 16:09want and ask them about their buying habits before you even get started started. So
- 16:13if you're early on in your journey, how many people can you find and how
- 16:16many people can you ask about your pricing? So there you've
- 16:19set yourself your pricing, you've given it a bit of a check with some real
- 16:23world customer feedback, and then once you've done that, you can actually
- 16:27go back and check your margins. So last week's episode was all
- 16:31about profit margins. So if you want a bit of a refresher on that, then
- 16:34go listen to episode 259. I'm not going to get into
- 16:38margins too much now. But even though profit's really important, you always have to
- 16:42start with the final retail price and then at the end of that, work out
- 16:45whether or not it's making you enough profit. This is the best way to do
- 16:49it because you've set your price in reality and now you're going to
- 16:53check the profitability. And the question is, what do you do if you do all
- 16:56of this and then all of a sudden you work out? Well, actually, I'm
- 17:00not making enough profit. I really can only sell these for 25,
- 17:04but it's going to cost me £18 to produce.
- 17:10It's much better to know about this now than to figure it out 612
- 17:14months down the line or even several years into the business. And
- 17:18then I would encourage you to think about, are there any ways that you can
- 17:21tweak your costs? Can you simplify production? Can you use a different material,
- 17:25a different way of producing things? Can you negotiate with
- 17:29your supplier? Especially, especially if they've been supplying you for a while and you've got
- 17:32a good track record. Can you see if there's anything they can do on their
- 17:35pricing? This is what big retailers do every single day. The number of
- 17:39meetings that I was in where effectively we'd be starting with a product,
- 17:42working out what the ideal price was for it, and then working backwards to get
- 17:46an ideal cost price. That is something that happens all the time.
- 17:50So if you're working with a supplier, they will 100% be used to having this
- 17:53kind of conversation. How can we make this cheaper? How can we bring the costs
- 17:57in down for me? The thing is, is you mustn't compromise on
- 18:01something that is core and essential to your business. So, for example, if
- 18:04we're saying, can you make it with cheaper materials? If you have a certain
- 18:08fabric that you use that is absolutely your calling card, do not
- 18:12change that. But is there something else that you can do? The supplier
- 18:15also will be able to help you. If it's not something you're making yourself and
- 18:19you're having it manufactured for you, then ask them what would it take to bring
- 18:23it in at this point, this price? They may be able to help you come
- 18:25up with some answers. Because often the things that cost
- 18:29money in the manufacturing process, they're usually related to time.
- 18:33So if you want a particular effect or a particular stitch or a particular
- 18:36type of construction, but it's taking a really, really long time, then
- 18:40that is usually going to be adding cost in. So if you're trying to bring
- 18:43your cost down with the manufacturer, make sure that you are
- 18:47asking them to run through ways that you could bring the cost down and some
- 18:50of them will be acceptable. They might say, well we could try
- 18:53changing the placement of this item and actually you don't really mind, but it makes
- 18:57the production that much quicker. But other times they might say, well, you'd need to
- 19:01switch out this for this and that's just not acceptable. So know
- 19:05what your non negotiables are, but don't be afraid to have
- 19:08that conversation with your supplier because they will be used to it. Big retailers do
- 19:11this all the time. They say, okay, how can we make this work? And if
- 19:14you're making it yourself, have a think about the supply. Same thing is, are there
- 19:18any elements that you can switch out, other ways of producing
- 19:22things that take less time? The other thing that I would say as well
- 19:25is really importantly, you must make sure that when you're checking your
- 19:29margins, if it's a handmade item, that you're factoring in your time as
- 19:32well to make sure that you have that cost covered.
- 19:39So once we've set our prices, then we've checked our margins, we're
- 19:43happy that they are where they need to be. How do
- 19:46you communicate your price to the customer? Now that might sound like an odd
- 19:50question because obviously your customer could go onto your website and they can see your
- 19:54price. But I think one of the most important elements of pricing is
- 19:57understanding that customers don't buy based on price
- 20:01alone. Customers buy based on value.
- 20:05So that is effectively whether or not they
- 20:09consider the item that you're selling to represent good value.
- 20:12If they believe it represents good value, they will buy it. And if they don't
- 20:16think it's good value, they won't buy it. This is what I call the
- 20:20value triangle. The value is made up of three things. The price of a product,
- 20:24the quality of the product and the desirability.
- 20:27So to dive into that in a little bit more detail, all three of those
- 20:31have to be aligned for something to sell. So if we take an example
- 20:35of two pens, back in the day, I worked at
- 20:38Paperchase and we had two pens that were best selling
- 20:42for different reasons. The number one unit seller was the Bic
- 20:46Biro, a black Bic Biro for £1 50. It was
- 20:49great value for the customer because they knew that it wasn't super
- 20:54high quality, but they knew it would write it was the right price.
- 20:58And therefore it was what you'd call a commodity product
- 21:01because it was all about low price and acceptable quality.
- 21:06And we sold lots of those. That was our number one unit bestseller. It did
- 21:09the job, it got things done and people were happy to pay
- 21:13£1 50 for that. But then we also had a 65 pound fountain
- 21:17pen that was one of our best sellers in terms of sales value.
- 21:20Now this had desirability, it looked beautiful,
- 21:24it was high quality, well made, would be long
- 21:27lasting. And therefore the price of
- 21:3165 pounds felt like it was good value because everything else
- 21:35was aligned and they did a lot of around desirability, limited
- 21:38edition colors and that kind of thing as well to really kind of trigger that.
- 21:42But ultimately it was about having a beautiful pen that was well
- 21:46made, that felt like that £65 represented good value.
- 21:50So the word value is not synonymous with cheap. It's about,
- 21:54do you think that the money that you're paying for this is worth it? If
- 21:58you find that you're struggling to set your prices at the right level,
- 22:02if you feel like, I know that this needs to be 60 pounds, but
- 22:05I'm really struggling to get people to understand that it
- 22:09should be £60 and everyone thinks it should be cheaper. The question you
- 22:13have to ask yourself is, am I doing enough to
- 22:16communicate the quality of this product?
- 22:26Let's take another example. We've got two black bags. We've got one is
- 22:2915 pounds and one is 250 pounds. And if
- 22:33you just had them side by side, no explanation as to the two
- 22:37bags, then yes, obviously one you could tell one would be better quality
- 22:41than another. But you would have to really love
- 22:45the 251 to say, right, this is definitely the one I want to go for.
- 22:48But imagine that instead of just it being
- 22:52£250, there was a whole story around this bag,
- 22:56that it was made from leather off Cuts from the
- 23:00leather industry. Therefore it was reducing waste.
- 23:03The interior had a lining made out of recycled
- 23:07polyester from bottles that would otherwise go into the
- 23:10ocean. So recycled ocean plastics to make the
- 23:13polyester for the inside. The bag itself was made
- 23:17in an East London atelier by women
- 23:21who had been stitching bags for high end fashion houses
- 23:25for the last 40 years. And as you can see, the
- 23:29storytelling element of this, the story of the production, the
- 23:32story of the quality of the materials
- 23:36used, the purpose behind it, that all of a sudden
- 23:39starts to become a lot more interesting and a lot
- 23:43more desirable and the value starts to make
- 23:47sense. So the great thing about this is it makes great
- 23:51content, it's great storytelling content and it can really, really help you
- 23:54illustrate your customer why they need to spend that money with your brand
- 23:58as opposed to picking up the 15 pound mass produced tote instead.
- 24:02This is really the value triangle in action. And I would
- 24:06suggest that if you do not feel that you're able to charge the
- 24:09prices that you know that your products deserve, really look at the way that
- 24:13you communicate that value to your customer and see if there's
- 24:17ways that you can illustrate it in more depth. Can you show behind the
- 24:21scenes footage? Can you show the people who are making the product? Can you show
- 24:24the process? For example, Indian block printing, it's
- 24:29such a labor intensive technique and it's absolutely fascinating.
- 24:32If you have block printed products, are you explaining to people what that
- 24:36means? Because people don't know. And it's always
- 24:40useful for you to remember that you
- 24:43have to explain this to your customer. You are in the weeds all the time
- 24:47in your business. You know why it costs, but your customers don't until you
- 24:51tell them. So if you're struggling to get the prices that you need,
- 24:55make sure you're communicating it. One of my mantras is if
- 24:58it's worth more, charge more. But explain why that
- 25:02explanation piece is absolutely crucial and
- 25:05desirability is the final piece as well. So desirability,
- 25:09it's completely subjective. I've worked in lots of different businesses and worked
- 25:13with hundreds of different businesses and I can tell you that their number
- 25:17one bestseller is often extremely different ones to the other.
- 25:20But the thing that unites all of them is that they are something
- 25:24that the ideal customer really wants. It is really
- 25:27tuned into the ideal customer and it's getting an emotional
- 25:31response from them. So this is something
- 25:35that it's hard to manufacture. Exactly. But you've got to
- 25:39keep going. Got to remember that the more your product is
- 25:42completely attuned to what your ideal customer wants, the easier it will be
- 25:46to sell. And also it gives you what I call price elasticity.
- 25:50So it's not like you can charge twice as much for something that somebody really
- 25:54loves, but you want them to have an emotional response to it. You want them
- 25:57to just really want this item because then they don't ask
- 26:00as many questions about the price. So if you're struggling with pricing,
- 26:05ask yourself, is this the best product for my ideal customer?
- 26:11And also, are you doing enough to explain to the customer the
- 26:15ins and outs and the why behind why something needs to be the price that
- 26:19it is? If you think your prices are too low, then
- 26:23why not take a minute to go back over the process that I
- 26:26outlined in this episode, Reassess where you sit in the market, talk to your
- 26:30customers, and then once you've done all of that and you've assessed, do you need
- 26:34to change them? Do you need to tweak them? Then check your profitability. And
- 26:37if you're struggling to get the prices that, that you know that your products deserve,
- 26:41then make sure you use the value triangle concept to help guide
- 26:44your messaging. And the other thing I would say as well is that if you
- 26:48haven't checked your prices against your competitors in the last three to six months,
- 26:52check them again. Because it used to be something that we could do once a
- 26:55year, but in the era of rising prices all the time it
- 26:59stabilized a little bit. But still you need to be double checking that the
- 27:03whole market hasn't moved. And I've had this conversation with a few people where they
- 27:06say, well, I can't charge more than that this for a T shirt because that's
- 27:09what everyone else charges. And then we've double checked and everyone else has been putting
- 27:12their prices up. So make sure that you can, hand on your heart, say that
- 27:16you've got the most up to date information. And just remember that
- 27:19customers don't pay for products, they pay for perceived
- 27:23value. So if it's worth more, charge more. But make sure you
- 27:27explain why. And if it feels really hard, then help bring somebody
- 27:30objective into the process and be brave. You might be
- 27:34surprised by how well your customers actually end up responding.
- 27:38Thank you so much for listening. Do take a moment to follow
- 27:42the podcast or subscribe whatever platform that you're on and
- 27:45if you have a minute to rate and review it inside Apple Podcast that makes
- 27:49all the difference. See you next week.