Hold Your Value

I spoke to Kiwanis - Auburn Chapter last night. Part of the presentation, I discussed pricing on products and services. More specifically, I addressed holding your value and talked about not making the mistake of doing what I call "the info-merical" special where you debase your price to give the semblance of a deal. What I said is, if you say your product was really worth $2,000 and for this day only you're offering it for $99, you debase and devalue your product or service. You see the problem is, no one will believe it was ever worth $2,000 in the first place. They'll think it was really worth $99 all along. This technique doesn't work. It is often the wrong positioning, especially for professional services, and it reduces you down to nothing more than the "As-Seen-On-TV" huckster that only appeals to a small segment of the buying audience, which typically doesn't include white-collar professionals. When I hear about the $99 special, I don't buy it -- and I don't buy it.