The Essential Guide to Attracting High Ticket Buyers
Raising your prices may be the answer to many of your business problems. Apart from the most apparent benefit (higher prices often equate to more profit), several psychological factors behind premium pricing can improve your motivation and make your brand more desirable to potential buyers. Sometimes charging more is just as simple as logging into your website’s back end and taking the bold step of changing those numbers. However, if you have existing clients or enter into a negotiation space with a new potential, this process can be a bit blurry. Many mindset blocks may be holding you back that we will be addressing in this article. Keep reading to discover tangible tactics you can implement to display to the world that you are worth a higher price. In this article, we will describe how to present as a high-end brand so you can charge more for your product or service without fear that no one will be willing to buy from you.
10 Clues You Are Undercharging
You feel obligated, rather than inspired, to do the work needed to keep your business running.
You feel resentment against past projects because the amount of work completed didn’t make it worth the money you made.
Your prices haven’t changed in years.
You are charging lower than others in your industry at the same level.
You are always willing to go below a competitor’s quoted fee to get the job.
Your marketing strategy is rooted in being the cheapest.
You win most of the projects you bid for.
You only take on small clients.
You struggle to discuss money with your clients.
You are busy, yet there is never any money in the bank.
If any or multiple of these apply to you, then it is time to raise your prices. As a business owner, you deserve to earn a reasonable salary. I like to determine if I am paying myself fairly by noting what roles I play in my business and how one would translate that to a position at a traditional 9-5 job. Use resources like Indeed or Glassdoor to figure out the average annual income you would take home if you were to do that job for another company. You should be paying yourself something in line with the sum of the annual positions of the roles you play. This practice will also ensure that you have enough revenue to grow your team which is essential if you want your business to grow. Attracting talented and productive individuals to work with you costs money, so you want to ensure your pricing accommodates this so you are not forced to remain a solopreneur forever.
Additionally, many forget to take into account all of the money you spend on monthly subscriptions that are necessary to keep your business running. Think about your email list, booking platform, social media scheduler, website domain and hosting, cloud storage for files, computer programs... the list goes on. These seemingly hidden costs can quickly eat into your profits, resulting in some of the discouraging feelings stated in the list above.
Moving Past The Fear of Losing Clients
The biggest culprit that holds people back from placing a luxury price tag on their product or service is the fear that sales and bookings will nosedive post price increase. Something to remember is that if you were to double your prices today and your inquiries and bookings dropped in half, you’d be making the same revenue and working half the time. That is a win. Further, most find that price increases do not decrease the number of sales you are getting. If you are providing genuine value and communicating that well, then people are willing to pay. You need to take control of your brand’s narrative and have the courage to ask for what you are worth, and the people that cherish your offer will find you. In the next segment, I will break down how to understand and ultimately attract those people.
Understanding an Affluent Audience
There are buyers to whom price is the most critical factor. There are also buyers out there to whom convenience, trust, and experience are the most important, and the price is irrelevant if the service solves their problem and gets them what they want. I am convinced that you will find more joy by seeking the ladder of the two. The easiest way to filter out the people who are constantly seeking the lowest price tag is to simply not have the lowest price tag.
As your price changes, the clients you attract will too. It is important to note that you will likely be pricing yourself out of working with some of the people who may have approached you before. To see success in the price change, your brand must appeal to your new clients. Put in different words, your messaging and visuals should evolve with your prices.
For example, perhaps you are a business coach who is used to work with people who are using their business as a side-hustle, and as part of your marketing, you advertise that you will empower them to leave their 9-5 after going through your program. The thing is, with your new prices, you will mainly be attracting people who had already left their 9-5 and are already seeing success in their business but would like to take things to the next level. It would then be essential to shift your wording to accommodate this change. Your language and imagery should be a love letter to your ideal client. Once you are clear on who that is, make sure that you are speaking directly to them. This is just one example intended to illustrate a grander takeaway: When your price changes, your ideal clients will change. Therefore, your brand will likely need some tweaks (or a complete transformation) to communicate with your new community properly.
The Power of Charging More
As we’ve established by this point in the article, both higher and lower price points will attract some and deter others. If something is too cheap, it will give people who value quality pause. As humans, we have an innate understanding that if something is too good to be true, it probably is, so an overly low price typically means that you are sacrificing in another area. Conversely, a higher price evokes a perception that the item is high value and exclusive. Of course, this only works if your brand reads as sophisticated and professional. Here are three ways to elevate your brand such that it commands an expectation that it will be a higher ticket offer.
1 | Focus Your Offerings
Niching down allows you to become an industry expert faster. Having deep knowledge of a specific field will give you the confidence to charge more. Focus on making what you specialize in the best it can be, rather than spreading yourself thin. Historically, working with a specialist always costs more than a generalist. People understand that the specialist has refined their offer and is at the top of their field. For example, say you are looking into restaurant options for a classy dinner. There are two options:
This restaurant serves only sushi. The head chef has spent 20 years studying the craft and art of sushi-making and has garnered fame amongst the culinary community for being a master of their specific skill.
This restaurant serves sushi, pizza, burgers, and steak. The head chef has also been in the culinary world for 20 years but spent their time working in a diverse range of kitchens, gaining a base level of knowledge in almost every type of cuisine.
Which restaurant costs more? Which restaurant will feel like a more luxurious and sophisticated experience? My instinct says the first will, and yours probably does too. This is the power of focusing your offerings.
2 | Provide a Premium Experience
You want your pricing to feel worth it to your clients and customers. A way to do this is by adding to what comes with a purchase from you. Perhaps you add resources to your typical offer, or your clients get a gift after working with you. Embody superb customer service, and make every step of the buying and delivery process thoughtful and professional.
3 | Create Exclusivity Perceptions
The perception of exclusivity for a brand can garner a more affluent clientele. It’s human nature to go for the most exclusive offering that we can afford. We like to feel as though we have something extraordinary that is bespoke to us. To effectively create this atmosphere, you can use language and visuals that create an ambiance of exclusivity for the brand.
The Role of Appearance
As a visual brand strategist, I have to conclude this article by talking about aesthetics because they are instrumental. Luxurious visuals position you as appealing to a realm of clients and customers who can afford a higher rate. If you want to have high ticket offers, your brand must be trustworthy and look professional everywhere it appears. This means that your social media should be intentionally designed, your website should be clean and attractive, and most importantly: your branding needs to be classy, timeless, and sophisticated. If you’ve DIY’d your logo or your brand identity is a mess, you will have a more challenging time convincing people that you are worth what you are charging. Your brand is deserving of investment into its appearance. Don’t allow all of your hard work to be in vain because of unflattering visuals. If you’d like to discuss how to elevate your brand’s appearance, we are here to help. Atelier Oluwatosin specializes in sophisticated visuals. Take a look at some of our work here. The investment you make in your brand’s appearance will pay for itself over and over again, as having a polished look will empower you to charge more. Let’s talk about making your brand more beautiful.