In the current business climate, price has become the ultimate differentiator. It sometimes feels like it’s the only thing that matters to our potential clients and customers. The global economy has impacted both product prices and services. Want a cheap knee replacement? Go to Asia. Ditto if you want your website updated or your book printed.
As women, we are conditioned to seek the best bargains for our families and to stretch the family budget almost to the breaking point. And yet, if we try to run our business only by giving the cheapest price, we will soon run into problems. Economically, we just can’t compete with Asia. Our housing costs alone prohibit that. And that’s before we get into the cost of making sure that our employees are adequately cared for in terms of safety and health.
Yet I see too many business women compete on price. It’s as if they have no other idea of the value of their product or service. They get into the price discussion too early and let it dictate the marketing and selling conversations. If you find yourself always competing with another business in terms of price, these five suggestions can keep you out of the price discussion until you are ready to have it.
1. Know your value. Too many women don’t truly believe what they have to offer is of value. They don’t want to “sell.” They think it’s demeaning, beneath them, and a synonym for getting the other person to spend money that they don’t really have. Women in this position find themselves deeply discounting their products or services, giving their hard work away and eventually going out of business. If you find yourself in this position, you need to change your belief about yourself and your service.
One way to think about it is to look at how the world would be without you and your company? What drove you into business in the first place? If you are like most women, it was the search for time flexibility and autonomy. However, you also developed a product or service that you believed in. Why? Sit down and answer the following questions:
What happens to your customers if they don’t have your product or service?
How is your customer’s life improved when they use your product or service?
How valuable is that?
2. Stop making price your own defining value when you purchase something. By becoming aware of your own attitude about price, you can see how it influences your prospects. A woman came to me who was selling a line of clothing. All of her discussions with customers were about price. When I asked, she admitted that her clothes were expensive, but were worth the money because of the quality of construction. In her own mind, she separated the cost (expensive) from the value (good quality). No wonder her conversations were always about price! When she began to change how she thought about her products and realized that they were the right price for the value offered, her conversations began to change.
The next time you make a purchase, bring your awareness to the conversation going on in your own head. Are you justifying the price? Making up a story about value for your husband if you are buying something that isn’t in the budget? When you hand over your plastic, what exactly is the reason that you are making your purchase? The more you know about your own buying process, the more you will be able to understand your prospects.
On Thursday I’ll post the remaining three ways to sell so price doesn’t matter.
