Every day we consumers buy stuff. What do we buy? Lettuce and cars and houses and envelopes and pens and cat food and gas…the list is pretty much endless. But what do we actually buy?
Well, in the case of lettuce, we usually buy whatever looks fresh and, often, what is on sale. Envelopes are bought at Costco or Staples, the cheaper the better. Gasoline is over-priced all over (especially here in SoCal), so I usually look for the cheapest…but not too cheap because that stuff might be tainted and gunk up my engine.
Or at least that’s what I tell myself.
Truth is, more of what we buy we do not buy based on price first. Beautiful houses in less desirable parts of cities are much cheaper than their counterparts, but people pay more for the location. I buy a more expensive cat food because my vet says it’s better and I want my cats to be healthy, and I am not alone in this (over $34 Billion was spent on US pets in 2004). Even the lowly pen–I can’t stand the feel of ballpoints so I buy a certain brand of rollerball or even get ink for my fountain pen, thus paying much more than I need to…and this from someone who is not a “spender.”
So what kind of car do you drive? Was it the cheapest you could get, or did you spend more for a certain brand, certain amenities, or a certain level of “quality” or even prestige? Why did you do that instead of getting the cheapest? We make the rationalization of “price to value” or claim a need that really isn’t a need but a want (like an iPod plug-in or leather seats…or even power windows, if you want to be brutally honest) and we make the purchase. Buying is much more about how we as humans feel than we might want to admit.
The good thing for us is that our clients think generally the same way the rest of us do, and so that means that even when they say they are buying based on price, they aren’t really (mostly).
That means you don’t need to compete on price ever. Instead, find out what they really want, what will make them happy and give them that at your price. If you can find a way to give the impression of quality before the sale, to fulfill your potential client’s need during the sale, and back that up with a quality product to build trust with a potential client after the sale, you will get sales…no matter what your price.