Would you like to make a minimum job charge of $3,000?
That’s exactly what one company does when they sell multi-channel print. At first I thought they were crazy. Surely they would be undercut by their competitors?
When I talked to them about this they gave me a very interesting response. They said four words, which have forever stuck in my mind. Here they are:
Charging more creates interest
When they first started selling multi-channel print, they struggled like many others. They offered cheap print and buyers often rejected them in favour of a cheaper supplier.
Then they started applying the strategy of price anchoring. Price anchoring is an effective way to persuade people to spend more. I talked about it in my previous article.
As soon as the company raised prices, prospects were convinced that they were being offered something special. It wasn’t just the high prices that created the interest.
This company stopped selling print and started selling value
The sales message stopped being about print. Instead, it became all about increasing the return on investment in a company’s membership or fundraising activities.
The sales efforts now started conversations about how charities could increase donations. Or how sports clubs could increase their memberships. These sorts of conversations often won them meetings with senior management from their target customers.
But didn’t they still get pushed on price?
Naturally, buyers were often after cheaper prices. However, the company stood their ground. They weren’t selling commodity print. They were selling improved marketing returns.
They successfully argued that their ability to achieve this goal was not a commodity offering. To obtain the right results the customer had to pay the right price.
The strategy succeeded because of price anchoring
The company had already put the value in the prospect’s mind. They never talked about cheap print. They talked about their investment in software. They discussed the cost of doing this type of work in the right way.
They successfully kept their $3,000 minimum price.
How often do you put a value on the non-print elements of a job?
If you can price anchor these elements successfully, you too may be able to create a very different level of pricing.
Editor’s Note: This post is part of a larger series on how to effectively increase profit using price anchoring and price valuation selling :
- How to Upsell Your Customers With a Two-Price Offer
- How to Increase Your Print Prices Through Valuation
- How Price Anchoring Increases Print Profits
- Case Study: How to Increase Profits When Selling Multi-Channel Print With Price Anchoring
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Matthew Parker has been buying print for over 20 years. He’s had over 1,400 sales pitches from printers. Now he’s using that experience to help printing companies engage with their customers and sell print more profitably. Find out more about Matthew on his site. Download his e-book “Ten Common Print Selling Errors And What To Do About Them” for free here, and also check out his latest e-book “How to Use Social Media to Create Warm Prospects” for free here.
