Pricing: The Value Cliff-Drop

#SmallBusiness60: Episode 2

Have you ever felt that you spend longer in conversations with prospects than you think you should be doing? And giving more advice upfront than you’d prefer to, just to make the sale?

The military will ‘fire its big guns early’ to make an impact in battle. And there’s a lot to be said for this in marketing, by providing lots of value up front.

But there’s a fine balance to be struck. When insight and assistance you give away moves into what you’d be charging for, only your prospect wins. Because then you’re a charity.

It’s a lose-lose for you. You’re not only losing the revenue that you would otherwise make by selling this as a service. But also, if they do buy, the level of expectation that they then have of what they’ll receive in return is sky-high.

It only ever leads to a cliff-drop where high expectations hit the rocks of reality below. It’s impossible to keep what you eventually deliver that high.

Because if you’re not taking payments for the advice or help your prospects are getting from you, then you’re a charity.

If you know you can provide immediate value, don’t be afraid to prepare to ask for the sale; even a simple entry-level one.

Charity begins at home, not in your business

That’s not to say that charity doesn’t have a place in business, but without profitable sales, there is nothing left over for charity.

Marcus Sheridan talks about pricing as one of the five key tenets of engaging content in his book ‘They Ask, You Answer‘.

Getting paid is core to Connectably. In this week’s ‘Connectables’ Facebook Live on Friday at 10am, I’ll be walking through how to create simple order forms for your services.