In my SB2 talks I bring up the idea of perceived value quite often. I talk about wearing nice clothes and how well designed sites work to make you look more professional than crappy sites do, etc.
Perceived value can also be linked to price. People expect a BMW to be a better car than a Hyundai because it costs more.
Well, it seems that humans really do associate price with effectiveness, more so than we could have imagined. Scientists did an experiment about price and placebo effectiveness. The results are telling.
Time to raise your prices, maybe?
Once upon a time I worked for a veterinartian trade magazine – covered the annual convention, etc., at a major Canadian hotel in Hamilton.
The medical sessions were fairly well attended. The elections etc slightly less so.
But the one significant “business session” – full, Full, FULL!
The annual theme – “charge more”. Find more billable items. That was when veterinarians first discovered how much folks will pay to have their dog’s teeth
cleaned 🙂
The main idea I took from several of these events? When do veterinartians raise their prices? The day after they get home from the annual convention.
I’ve been raising rates and pruning the client list. (Leslie has a PDF file on this topic called “Bring Out Your Dead. It’s good. Read it and apply it.)
What are the consequences of my actions? Well, I have been doing a lot of cold-calling to replace the tired, old clients with fresh, new ones. And those efforts are starting to pay off. I’m also finding that I’m knocking out better work than I have in years.
A while ago I saw an ad in “The New Yorker” for a luxury car which had a little line at the bottom: “Reassuringly Expensive”