This week there's been a lot of talk in the news about insufficient water supplies affecting the south of England - a country that the rest of the world jokes about as being wet & rainy! One water supply company in Kent has just won the right to force households to have water meters fitted so they will be charged for the water they use rather than the previous flat rate all households paid. The thinking behind this is that people will always think twice before using something for which they're being charged rather than what they think is free.
Well, this got me thinking.....
They're absolutely right. Take me with my ironing, for example. Since I've started paying someone by the hour to do my ironing rather than doing it myself, I put fewer garments on the ironing pile. Track suits, t-shirts that get worn underneath sweaters, those kind of things, all get put back in the drawers without meeting an iron en route. And that's because I want to cut down on the expenditure.
There's also a flip side to this coin. It concerns getting your pricing right because if you price something too low people will wonder whether it's really going to be any good. BUT, you don't want to price your customers out of buying either. This is why price is such a crucial element of your marketing.
If you do price something low, make sure people know there's a reason for it. For example, I've priced my two-day Powerful Persuasive Presentations Seminar (22-23 April at Heathrow, London) at just £397 (including VAT) for the early birds. It will go up to £467 later, but a lot of people who've seen me presenting or had experience of my presentations training have told me that it's way underpriced. BUT, there's a reason for that.
You see, I'm having the entire event filmed, so I want all attendees to also agree to whoop and holler and make sure the recording comes out great, too. Also, it's my first such event, so I want to give as many people as possible the opportunity to test the water because I know they'll tell others.
Of course, there will still be people who will ponder about coming and then still not come, but I'm absolutely determined to give my all and make this one of the best events delegates have ever attended. Partly because if they've had the faith to book, they deserve it, partly because I need to do so to stay ethical and comply with my own inner values. But the evil me (we need an "evil smile" emoticon here) wants to make sure that those people who didn't book will regret not being there.
And they will! :-)
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