Yesterday I spoke about how the easiest way for you to boost your profits was to raise your prices.
Sadly, it drew a very predictable response from some individuals, peeps who claim that there was no way in hell they could “jack up their prices” without losing a substantial number of their customers.
Include this rather irate response from a gentleman named Dave..
“listen mate, I’m not sure what world your living in, but there’s no way a business like mine can all of sudden raise our prices. While we’re not struggling or anything, we’re doing all we can to keep the customers we do have, and our competitive prices are a large part of that…”
But y’know what, maybe Dave is right after all.
Now I did warn that increasing prices was not for everyone, and only certain businesses should try it.
It is quite possible that if he were to raise his prices, it would have a severe impact on his business.
I don’t know Dave’s business well enough to say for absolute definite, but odds are his business has succumbed to the dreaded ‘c’ word, commoditization.
You see, if your business is one where you offer little else but the cheapest price in town, suddenly raising your prices is a bad idea.
If most of your clientele and customers are bottom-feeders there just for that reason, jacking up your prices will almost certainly result in a customer exodus of Biblical proportions.
So any price increase you do must be predicated on the fact that the service you offer is unique and can’t be replicated easily by your rivals.
And if you’re a subscriber to my list and have completed my “9 Nuggets of Marketing Wisdom That Drive Torrents of Traffic to your Website” mini-course then I sincerely hope you’ve clearly defined and refined your Unique Selling Proposition(USP) and are able to rattle it off backwards, forwards and sideways.
(You have refined and defined your “USP” AND taken my “9 nuggets” course, haven’t you?)
‘Cuz if you’ve not, you’ve a LOT of work to do..
Work that no amount of web design can fix.
Quite how you differentiate yourself from the competition is up to you, but differentiate yourself you must.
Then, and only then can you think about raising your prices, and crawl out of the filthy dustbin of commoditization.
Banishing the bottom feeding, low-balling pond life who drain your time and sap your bottom line into the bargain.
But get that USP down first..
Stay Hungry,
Keith “Bottom-Feeder Banisher” Commins
P.S. In my case, my unique selling point is that I am the only “direct response” web designer in the whole of Ireland, a web designer who designs from a standpoint of sales, and nothing else.
This, along with my lifetime, no-quibble guarantee, means my prices are higher than most of my peers, but because the service I offer is unique, it’s only right and proper they should be.
Expensive as they are now, they’re going to get helluva lot more expensive in the New Year, by an order of 15% in fact.
And there’s not just the monetary cost of what you’ll save. There’s also the opportunity cost of a whole month WITHOUT a profit producing website to consider.