I have an unhealthy habit. I drink Diet Mountain Dew all day. I call it my “green tea” to make it sound healthier, but logically I know it isn’t the best drink for me. Especially not two or three—okay, who am I kidding—five or six times a day.
Because of the quantity I drink, I pay close attention to the price. Over the last few months I have seen an 8-pack of 16.9oz bottles priced anywhere from $2.49 to $5.29. Rarely a week goes by that I cannot find them on sale somewhere for under $4.
The fascinating thing to me has been to watch the “regular price.” While the sale price changes from week to week with so many different offers, the regular price has been slowly and steadily creeping upward. Walmart was the biggest jump going from $3.50 to $4.88. Meijer went from $4.29 to $4.99 to $5.29.
In fact a lot of prices have been going up on a lot of things. Some people are blaming the new tariffs. Some are simply chalking it up to inflation.
You probably need to raise your prices, too. Costs are going up. Expenses are going up. You already have a built-in excuse (tariffs, trade agreements, election results, insurance and healthcare costs rising, minimum wage rising, etc.). What are you waiting for? Oh, I know …
You are afraid to raise your prices.
No retailer wants to be accused of price-gouging (even if it isn’t the case). You are certain your customers have memorized the prices of every item in your store and will run out the door screaming if they detect even a whiff of price increases. You are certain that every customer that walks through your door is only there to price-check before going across town or ordering on Amazon.
The reality, however, is quite different.
First, there are only two categories of items people price-check regularly.
- Commodities
- High-Ticket Items
Outside of that, only the truly Transactional Customers are price-checking everything else. Let them.
The interesting thing about pricing is that there is actually a way to raise your prices that the vast majority of your customers probably won’t even notice. What if I told you there is even a way to raise your prices that will make some customers think you’ve lowered them?
Yeah, you probably think I’ve had too many Diet Mountain Dews today.
Yet that is exactly what happened for a friend of mine.
After seeing my presentation on Pricing for Profit and learning all the steps to take, she went back to her store and after closing Saturday night, she and her manager changed every single price in the store. Ninety percent of the prices went up, a few went down, some changed only pennies. By Sunday night they were excited at the changes.
But Monday morning that excitement turned to fear. The first customer through the door was a regular. No, not a regular, the regular. She visited their store at least once a week. If anyone would know they raised their prices, she would.
While the store owner and manager hid behind the cashwrap, the regular did her usual browsing. After a few minutes she came up to the counter and said …
“Looks like you guys lowered all your prices. Nice!”
That’s a common response to using the pricing method you’ll find in the Free eBook Pricing for Profit because it is built around your customers’ preconceived perceptions. It is built around making your prices more “attractive.” Quite often that means raising them to match what a customer would expect to see. Yes, raising them!
This is the lowest hanging fruit I can give you. When you make the changes spelled out in this eBook four things will happen …
- Your prices will look more attractive
- People will be less resistant to buy
- Sales will increase
- Profit Margin will increase
That second bullet point is the kicker. Just like there are things we do subconsciously, automatically, or unawares that turn off customers (hence the Free eBook Ten Mistakes That Sideline a Sale), there are price points that subconsciously turn off the buyer. Even though I have studied pricing for years, I still get turned off from buying when I see bad prices. It’s as natural and automatic as answering “Fine” to “How are you?”
Download the FREE eBook Pricing for Profit and go make some money. You deserve it. And if one of your transactional customers mentions your prices went up? Blame Trump.
-Phil Wrzesinski
www.PhilsForum.com
PS I convinced one other store owner to make a simple price change of her main item from $16.99 to $17.99. Her unit sales jumped ten percent and not one single person complained about the new price. Oh, and she had a whole extra dollar in pure profit for every unit sold. Download the Free eBook Pricing for Profit to see why that worked so well.
PPS Don’t play the price game where you raise it up only to mark it down and change it every week. That’s a game built for transactional customers. You can show your “discount” off the suggested price on your high-ticket stuff, but unless you sell commodities like staple food items, diapers, and gasoline, your goal should be “attractive” prices. Period. Your best customers will pay your price time and time again.