NEVER Put Your Prices Down!
by Chris Sanders on 21/09/09 at 1:29 pm
Last week I had a conversation with one of our Inner Circle members and I gasped with horror at the words that came out of her mouth. This member has been getting amazing results using the program since February this year, so much so that she has just bought a new house in a more up market part of her town and is now going to be running the salon from there – plus she now has room to expand her bustling salon.
Anyway, for obvious reasons I won’t name her, but here’s the line that made me gasp…
“I am thinking about putting my prices down to match all the other salons in my area – do you think that is a good idea?”
Putting Your Prices Down Will Hit You Where It Hurts The Most - Your Pocket!
I answered her within 0.000003 of a second with… “NO WAY!!! If anything, you should put your prices up, NEVER put them down!”
Needless to say I think my message was heard loud and clear, and she will not be putting her prices down…she was obviously just having a blonde moment….which we all have from time to time!
As salon owners we have to remember that most people don’t really shop on price, but on the value and service that we give them – Most salon owners outside the program don’t really get this and that’s why we see so many salons discounting. If you keep your customers focused on price then they are going to shop on price. That is one of the reasons why we teach you to never discount, and add value instead. And of course discounting or putting your prices down is going to hit YOUR bottom line – NOT GOOD!
I find it amazing that people will takes months if not years to make a decision to put their prices up, but will put them down in the blink of an eyelid. The fact is most people in the hair and beauty industry in New Zealand by far under value what they do and sometimes I can’t believe it when I hear how much people are under-charging for services…
Profit is NOT a dirty word you know!
If this particular salon owner had put her prices down then what would make her different from all the other salons in her area? And by putting her prices down it’s just like saying ‘I don’t really believe what we offer is anything different or better from the salon down the road, so let’s just copy them.’
Further still, all those clients that she has trained to her current pricing structure and way of offering value add packages would instantly be paying less – but I’m sure they wouldn’t be complaining!
It’s simply human nature to believe that the person/business that charges more for their service, must be better at what they do.
But I am not writing this article to pick on this particular person, but just to make sure that if you have been considering dropping your prices, then don’t…but I challenge you to put them up!
If you would like to learn the techniques that will have your customers spending more with you, more often and not giving two hoots about what the price is, then you need to be a Member of the Inner Circle program, complete with your own edition of the Essential Salon Owner’s Marketing Toolkit®. Go here to see if you qualify for a 30 Day Money Back Guaranteed Test Drive of the entire system – completely risk free.)
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A post by Chris Sanders Chris and his wife Rachael D'Aguiar own a successful salon in Auckland - so successful, thanks to their involvement in the Worldwide Salon Marketing Inner Circle program and the tools and strategies in the Essential Salon Owner's Marketing Toolkit that they grabbed the opportunity to become the NZ franchise of WSM. |
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Amy
Aug 9th, 2010
Hi Greg,
I know you say that we should not be putting our prices down but what do you do when the prices you charge are just too high for the area your salon is in? We’ve only been open 5 months and when we created the price list i thought, lets see what everyone else is charging and then add onto it. However people constantly complain about price.. For eg: Lets say we charge $40 for a haircut, All other salons in the area charge $27.50.. They just walk straight out our door and to the salon across the road. We are being told that our prices are too high for the area were in as were not a city salon. I mean, is there a price point you recommend or does it not matter whether you charge $30 or $90 for a haircut?
Greg says: Amy, quick Direct Response Marketing 101 lesson: it’s only about ‘price’ if that’s all you give prospects to choose between you and your competition. If that’s ALL you give them to differentiate, then of course they’ll choose the lowest price.
You’re a LITE member… but even so, if you’d paid attention to the video tutorials online, you would know it’s all about value.
Do some more research…upgrade to the Premium Program…do whatever it takes to find out how to raise your prices and still beat the competition.
I’m not going to spoon-feed you. As I would say to any member, stop complaining, stop the ‘woe is me’ nonsense. The answers are available. If you don’t want the benefits of the Premium program (where you’d get private coaching on this stuff) then do some searching on the internet. If you look hard enough you’ll find it.
GAi
Aug 10th, 2010
Hi Amy,my salon is in a high uni student area and I have a student rate which is very affective as word of mouth .My walk in haircuts are $40 and no one every Question the price as we give the client the highest standard of Hairdressing reguardless of how much money is in thier purse my saying is you get what you pay for .