Page 146 - Paulisms: Gold Nuggets for Small Business

moments where you go to use your pen and it doesn’t work! It also comes in various colours to suit your needs, and the price, including delivery to your door, is eighty dollars.’
The response now is usually something like, ‘Well, that’s not so bad.’
What I’ve done here is added perceived value to that pen. If someone asked me, ‘How much is that pen?’ and I just replied, ‘Eighty dollars’, where is the value there? We haven’t built any value, and that price seems very expensive. But, if you break it down and describe more about the product and what services it can provide, it certainly brings up the value.
When you give a price right away, it adds no value. Often the value is not perceived and we are not differentiating our product and service from all the other companies that are hunting for the same dollar value. Try to probe and find out exactly what the customer wants, or inform the customer more about the product that you are selling. When you slow the whole process down, take control and provide perceived value (basically giving more content and more information to add value to what you are selling), you are more likely to realise your price and make a sale.
5.6.2 Example of showing value
Someone rings up after seeing an advert in the paper that says ‘Widget for sale: $999’.
Customer: I see you have a Widget advertised in the paper for $999.