Sell Value Not Price

One of our dear friends, business partners and clients is a world-class photographer. She has recently decided to stop jet-setting to Hollywood every week and to do more of her business here in Las Vegas.

Although she has done business here for years, she has suddenly been hit with questions about her pricing from a few of her existing clients. She may charge $2,000 for a particular project, while her competition is charging $1,000 or less.

Her initial reaction was to question if the Las Vegas market was significantly different than her LA market. Perhaps she needed to lower her prices to be more competitive.

We started by asking her if she was “better” than her competition. Her immediate reply was emphatic – she had decades of professional success stories in her portfolio – her competition’s work could be created by any amateur with a camera. The difference was night and day.

Our counsel was to hold her ground on pricing, but to get to work on communicating the difference. She needed to educate her clients on not only how she was different, but what those differences meant to her client’s in terms of the results they experienced. She lost one client by holding her ground, but her new positioning – communicating the value of her services compared to others – has won her many more clients who are more interested in value, regardless of the price.

What are you selling – value or price?