In earlier posts in this series, we looked at why human nature causes you to underprice your proposals and favor sins of omission over sins of commission, even against our own economic interests. Now we’ll look at some strategies for … Read More
psychology
Sell More by Selling Less
You walk into the doctor’s office with a cut on your hand. You think you need some stitches and perhaps some antibiotics, but you’re not sure. The doctor says, “great to see you. Looks like you could use a heart … Read More
Selling a Commodity for a Premium Price
How can you charge more for a commodity? Here’s one of my favorite examples. 24 ounces of ketchup at $0.07/oz. Turn that idea on its head. 32 ounces at $0.079/oz. The price per unit goes up almost 13%. Not bad … Read More
Real vs. Perceived Value
If your maximum price is determined by the perceived differential value of your offering, how do you know what value customers perceive. Many of them won’t tell you, especially if they think you’ll use that information to jack up the … Read More
First step in running a profitable business: don’t be scared of making money
In my line of work, I encounter a lot of small business owners who set their prices by copying the “going price” in “the market” or by sticking their fingers in the wind. This is unfortunate, but fixable. What really … Read More
If you think you’re worth it, but can’t say it…
A lot of businesses think they have a great product or service. Something above and beyond what the competition offers. But when it comes time to put a price on all this awesomeness, they are still cheaper than the competition. … Read More
Pricing and the Placebo Effect
This summer, Steve Silberman over at Wired wrote a great article called “Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.” While the implications for pricing in the pharmaceutical industry are obvious, there are also important analogies to … Read More
I Am Rich– No More
We’ve had other discussions about how for some luxury goods, the exorbitant price is part of the value (see $300,000 watches that only tell you whether it’s day or night). Meanwhile, as some of you may have heard, Apple launched … Read More
An Innovative Way to Sell $50 T-Shirts
Here’s an interesting pricing model for t-shirts. 200nipples (yes, even the name is, umm, remarkable) sells limited edition runs of 100 tshirts. The first shirt costs $1, the second $2, all the way up to $100. This has the nice … Read More
The Psychology of Price Increases
In last week’s post How to Raise Prices, I referenced two interesting articles on techniques for raising prices, and also suggested using unbundling to differentiate between customers who want maximum value and customers who want minimum price. Today, let’s look … Read More