How to Beat the Competition Without Lowering Your Prices

Many of us feel like we're in a market space where people don't value what we do and it feels like we're commoditized. And a lot of you have been taught or have taught yourself some crazy rule in the universe where if the market gets tricky, the way you win clients is to do what?

what? So when we lower our price, what does the other person think if they lose the business to you? They lower their price. And what do you do? Lower your price. And then before you know it, you pay the client to do the work. How long can you run a company when you pay the client to do the work? However much cash you have at the bank and when that's done your credit card and then you're done done. And I'm reading this book implementing value pricing. It's written by Ronald Baker. Highly recommend you read this book if

you want to be a master of pricing. And he says in the book, there is no such thing as a commodity. You just lack imagination. You lack imagination. And he gives a couple examples that will blow your mind. So in the example, he talks about like a head of lettuce or cabbage or something which you buy at the supermarket, right? You go in there and basically one head of lettuce is the same as another head of lettuce if it's organic, if it's fresh. You don't buy one that's necessarily more expensive if you can't see the difference, right? And so you might be thinking, I can't differentiate what I do from a competitor. I'm like the head of lettuce. they just buy the cheapest one because they can't see one design firm versus the next, one marketing right? And he says

versus the next, right? And he says, "So, let's apply a little imagination here. " So, I don't know if you've noticed, but people have started to sell handle leaf pre-washed, triple rinsed bags of lettuce. How much is that? So, one head of lettuce, that's the cheapest version of it. But applying a little creativity and labor, you make it more convenient. My wife buys the bags. I buy the bags because I just grab it, throw it in a bowl, and I can eat it. Okay? And this is going to hint at an idea in a little bit. So, that bag of lettuce goes for more money than the head. And if you take the head and you split up to two or three things, you can sell three bags for four times as much money. Everybody follow so far? And you're like, "Okay, that's it. That's pretty cool. " And then what they do is somebody's like, "You know what? If we put the like, why do people even want lettuce in the first place? Why do people buy lettuce? Make a salad. — Make a salad. You want a salad? So, like, why don't we throw in some croutons, a little cheese on it, and have a package of dressing and now instead of charging you, you know, 79 cents for a head of lettuce, we're going to charge you $12. And they're like, well, why would people buy this one? Well, let's go license Wolf Gang Puck and call it Puck Express and put that sticker on it and say, you know, it's Wolf Gang's dressing and let's sell that for $14.

And so you kind of have to and it doesn't end. It can just go into infinity if you want, right? Because in Japan, anybody been to Japan before? Do you ever go to a supermarket? They have like $150 cantaloupe. I don't know what that canop tastes like, but it better be good. So I understand that these are like lovingly cared by Japanese farmers. I don't know what they're doing. They're talking to it at night. They're like telling bedtime stories. I don't know. But it is $150 cantaloupe. I don't get it. So there is no limit to what you can charge. It's just you have to say and you have to come to terms. I lack the imagination to describe this. Okay. And let's take it further. He says, "Can anything be more a commodity than money? " Like who here would buy $1 from me for $110? Even 101. Would you even buy a dollar from me for 101? No. Because the face value is $1. He goes, "You lack imagination. — You got to sign it. " — Huh? — Sign it. — I could sign it. You're right. So now you're using a little creativity, right? Okay. Now he's like, "A stock certificate or a stock, you know, you buy it has a price. It goes up and down. " He says, "There's a company that charges you more for a stock than you could buy in the market. " And who would do that? So here's what they figured out. They found that there are grandparents who want to give their grandchildren something for their birthday, be mitzvah, for Christmas, whatever it is, and they want to be able to print the certificate of the stock and frame it, and they sell the stock for more than what it's worth. Now, the company only buys blue chip stock like Disney, like Apple, whatever. So, the stock might be $99 at that day, but they're going to sell it to you for between $150 to $250 depending on the quality of the frame. Is that amazing? A total commodity that has no real value other than the value of what it represents in the market. By using a little bit of imagination, they can charge a lot more. Now, this is the part that's going to hurt your soul a little bit. Ask yourself, do you lack imagination? Okay. Now, why would people pay more for

something than they need to? Why? Well, there's an answer. It's because if it's immediate, like we pay more for things if we can get the results immediately, right? I bought a salad, I got to handle leaf, if I got to wash it, I got to spin it dry. That takes time. So, time to purchase to my mouth. Make it faster. I'll pay you more. Right now, Alex Herozi, who writes the uh who wrote the book $100 million offer, also another book you probably need to pick up. I will be teaching lots of concepts from this. If you like the concepts that I'm sharing with you today, I highly encourage you to support the authors. I'm not trying to take money from people. Please buy the books and support them. So, as often as I can, I will mention who they are and we'll repeat it. Okay. Alex Ramosi talks about this. So, there is pain that we feel and we want to get the solution as fast as possible. So, if you look at like um like meditation, it's going to take time to practice to learn. It's a whole thing. And you want to clear your mind, right? Or you can take is it Prozac and you can get that instantly. So if you're a meditation teacher, you run meditation workshops, maybe that entire industry is worth $100 million where Prozac is a multi-billion dollar industry because the time to result is short and it's

guaranteed. So there's two variables and I'll talk about this more later is time delay which will influence price and certainty of outcome. If I meditate I get distracted. I'm not sure. Does this work? I don't believe in it. It takes a really long time to master. Right? Some somebody can do it in a second. Somebody will take three hours to do it. But the Prozac will put you in that happy state really fast. It's guaranteed. So when you think about your product, your service, or whatever it is that you're doing, try to reduce the time to satisfaction and completion and try to increase the certainty of the outcome happening. Now, if you put yourself in everyday life, every time somebody gives you a money back guarantee, you're more likely to buy because the certainty of outcome is there. But if you're going to do a guarantee, there has to be a way for you to do it so you don't get killed. But think about that. And every time I've had a client who's going to spend a couple hundred,000 with us sit on the fence like, "Oh, I'm not sure, Chris. " And we've done everything we can to convince them. The last thing I do is I throw in the guarantee. And every time I've done that, I've done it twice, they close. So, use it wisely. Use it for the right moment. not to get the job, but to secure it. And there's a difference.