Reassuringly Expensive

Let’s talk about pricing… Remember Stella Artois’ campaign?

Their whole thing was, “we use only the most expensive ingredients, and we pass the cost onto you.”

Best part? Their tagline:

That’s so great! Think of the emotion it evokes. And how it turns something negative (high price) into a positive feature. For the right customer: somebody willing to pay for quality, knowing that Stella doesn’t compromise, is very compelling. And that’s exactly what you want your ideal customer to feel about you. You want to be the Stella Artois for the people who are a perfect fit.

And it all starts with the same simple exercise…

“What would you do if you only got paid when your client gets the result?”

But here’s the thing…

At this stage, you DON’T think about pricing yet. You should put no limits on what you charge. Because if you do, you’ll start looking at the whole thing through the goggles of… “We charge this much, and this is our price point… and if we do all these extra things, we’re not going to make any profit..”

This stops you from creating the very best result-getting journey. So here’s what you do instead… Ask yourself, “if I was only going to get paid when I get them the result – even if the price was really high – what would I do?” Next, design the very best algorithm and experience… the very best protocol you can. Don’t compromise on quality.

And then?

Pick your VERY BEST PROSPECTS… and ignore everybody else. Only your ideal candidates… only the ones you know for certain that will get the result, are allowed to get in. Because that’s the part that makes everything work. Look at the last 10 people you’ve worked with and think about the successful ones. What do they have in common?

Then, think about the clients who didn’t get any results. What was blocking them? Is it something that… if you knew ahead of time you would avoid working with them? People often forget, but understanding your ability to deliver results is not enough. That’s only one part of the “what would you do…” exercise.

You also need to understand WHO IS THE IDEAL PROSPECT you can deliver the result for. And only when you have both… your very best algorithm and prospects… only then can you price it whatever it NEEDS to be priced. Because for the right customer…

it’s going to be reassuringly expensive!