38 The Financial Times Guide to Business Development
When was the last time you increased your prices?
What would happen if you added a small percentage or even a large
percentage to your price?
How much business would you lose to your competitors?
How much new business might you gain from new clients who start
to see you as at the premium end of your market?
Clearly it is not for me in this book to advise you to put your prices up.
I’ll bet you, however, that you don’t have real and tested answers to all the
above questions.
Time and time again, whenever I ask these questions I see business people
being fearfully xated about their prices and territorial over their often
inexible charging structures. There is always a great reluctance, particu-
larly in a tough economic climate, to increase prices.
The thing to remember, however, is that contrary to popular perception,
price is not always the only factor. If you doubt this, go for a walk up your
local high street or around a nearby car park and see how many expensive
cars you can spot.
When was the last time you switched your main supermarket, hairdresser,
favourite food items over price? Remember, if there are sufcient ‘weight
blocks’ people will buy from you at the prices you want.
8. Use division and comparison
Suppose you are selling an item at £450. For most people this is not a
cheap casual buy. It is a substantial purchase that for many requires a
considered bit of decision-making. If however you were to point out that
this is the equivalent of only £1.23 per day, less than the price of a cup
of coffee, your customer might look at it very differently, particularly if it
was something that they could get years of pleasure and use out of. You
could even go one stage further and bundle in a year’s supply of coffee to
add to the value and complete the business development and marketing
metaphor.
How can you use this technique in your business?
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