It’s simply not true that all brides and grooms care about is PRICE.
I know it feels that way when you get hit with the “price question” in every email and phone call, but it’s not.
Consider this…
High Price = High Value
Low Price = Low Value
We’re conditioned to look at price as an indication of value. If an item has a high price, we assume that it has higher quality. If the item is low priced, we become suspicious that the quality is low, too. You can read about this in the fascinating studies done by Dan Ariely in his book, Predictably Irrational.
In fact, a certain group of brides and grooms will purchase the most expensive option just on principle! Just having a higher price means people place more value your product or service, right off the bat.
Up to 20% of customers buy the most expensive option, no matter what you’re selling. (Stats reported by Dan Kennedy)
If that’s not an argument for increasing your price, I don’t know what is!
But you can’t just arbitrarily raise your price and expect people to pay it. You need to deliver more VALUE.
Raise Your Price, Increase Your Value
There are two ways to raise your value:
1. Stack the Value – This involves adding bonuses, gifts and extra features to what you offer. Hint: You can make the packages you already have more valuable just by listing all the things that are included.
2. Increase Your Perceived Value – Influence the bride/groom’s opinion of your value.
Your perceived value is the bride or groom’s opinion of your value, which may have absolutely nothing to do with your price.
In other words, you can influence the bride’s opinion of your worth without actually changing anything about the actual product or service you offer. This is where we get into those stealth sales tactics we love so much.
The Instant Income Boost
There is a strategy you can use to increase your price that anyone can do, immediately. Right now.
Add a very expensive, high-end package to your offerings and you will increase your average selling price immediately.
The funny thing about us humans is that we judge the value of a price based on the prices around it. So when you add a very high price for comparison, your other packages become much less expensive.
Here’s an example. Let’s say you have 3 packages. Package A is $1,000, Package B is $2,000 and Package C is $3,000.
Package A – $1,000
Package B – $2,000
Package C – $3,000
Studies show that most people will buy Package B. Why? Because the average person says, “I don’t need the most expensive option, but I don’t want to be cheap. I’ll go with the middle option.”
So if your goal is to raise your average price to $3,000 in this example, you need to add a higher end package.
In addition to your original packages, you create a fourth package costing $4,000. By comparison, the $3,000 is a lot cheaper and you will immediately increase your average sale price.
Package A – $1,000
Package B – $2,000
Package C – $3,000
Package D – $4,000
Go ahead and try this experiment. One of our photographer clients did this by creating a $6,000 package she was sure she’d never actually book. She ended up raising her average sale price right away…and she did end up booking that $6,000 package a few times.