Are your Prices Right?

“Are Your Prices Right?”

I want you to think its Not just what you charge…
 But what your prices say about you.

Pricing is deeper than math. you have some people that are just pecking away on a calcualtor.
 Pricing is psychology. Psychological set
 Pricing is branding. a distinct identity that you set that people perceive good things about you and your product
 Pricing is confidence.
 Pricing is positioning. a price that’s fair but show the quality relative to competition

A lot of people struggle with pricing because they fear rejection.
 They fear people saying:
 “That’s too expensive.”
 Or:
 “I can get it cheaper somewhere else.”

But if you price yourself too low, you may accidentally tell the world:

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Episode 18. Episode 18. Today's topic is one that can quietly make or break your business, your confidence, and your income. In order to make money, you have to tell people what you expect for payment. What do you want to be paid? We're talking about are your prices right and how important it is for that to happen. Your prices have to be right. Now I want you to think it's not just what you charge, but what your prices say about you. Pricing is deeper than math. I mean, you have some people that will peck on a calculator and pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. And really, really, what is that saying? That says nothing to me. Pricing is psychology. Psychologically set, you know how you may go into a subdivision and they'll have on the subdivision pricing from$400,000 to$600,000. Well, they've psychologically set you, not to come in there saying, I'll give you$200,000 for this house. You already know you're going to pay between$400,000 and$600,000. That's a psychological set. You may turn around and leave up out of there and say, I can't afford it. But if you stay, you know what you're going to be spending. Pricing branding, that's the distinct identity that you've set for people that they perceive the good things about you and your product. That's the branding that you've put together. Pricing confidence. When you say what you charge, be confident in it and look them in the eye and make sure that they know I'm confident in this price that I just gave you. Pricing is positioning. You must come in at a price that's fair, but shows the quality relative to the competition. A lot of people struggle with pricing when they have a business because they fear rejection. They fear people saying, that's too expensive. Or I can get this much cheaper somewhere else. But if you price yourself too low, you may accidentally tell the world, your work is, you know, it has little value. Your business is unstable or you don't fully believe in yourself. And that's dangerous. I have found that there are businesses with average products making millions because they understand pricing and psychology. And then there are talented people staying broke because they underpriced themselves into exhaustion. Welcome back to the Zero to One Million Podcast, where we help hustlers, dreamers, and movers and shakers build extraordinary wealth, one smart decision at a time. This is episode 18 titled, Are Your Prices Right? That's right, are your prices right? I am your host, Vendero Jenkins of the Zero to One Million Podcast, author of the book Zero to One Million, and coaching Keith the Amasi Technique. It's a whole economic empowerment vibe. Let's make money while we sleep. I see you, I have been you, and now I want to empower you. Today I'm going to be coaching you on how to price professionally, why pricing affects perceptions, the psychology behind value, how to research pricing, why confidence matters, when discounts make sense, and how beginners can price smart without undervaluing themselves. Let's get into it. Recently I had some work done at the house, and I had three contractors to come out to give me uh some bids on doing the work. One of them, I could tell he was not confident in his price, and it said a lot about him, how he gave me the price. And uh his price was much higher than everybody else's. So I just asked him the question, how did you come up with the price you gave me? So he kind of uh paused for a second, he stuttered and he like he couldn't come up with how he gave me the price. So I said, I tell you what, how much money have you ever made a W-2 wage? So he said, Well, my last job I was making about$30 an hour. I said, I tell you what, this job is gonna take about eight hours. I'm gonna give you double that,$60 an hour. And you do that, and I'm going to buy all of the materials. You work for for eight hours, and that comes up to like$480. You know what? Let's make it$500. I'm gonna give you$500 and I'm gonna buy all the materials, and that's how we're gonna price this. And he was like, uh, okay. And I was like, really? So he didn't know what that said, but I would rather pay somebody$1,000 than to give him$500 because of what he was saying to me by even agreeing to that. Every price you give sends a message. Let's just think about it. If someone walks into a luxury car dealership, let's say Mercedes-Benz, and they see a brand new Mercedes-Benz SUV, and it's got$8,000 on it, most people would immediately become suspicious and say, what is this? This can't be. I'm not even gonna look at this. There's gotta be something seriously wrong with this car. Why? Why would they do that? Because pricing creates expectation. People subconsciously connect price with quality, cost with expertise, and value with trust. Value with trust. On Mercedes-Benz, there is no way in the world that it costs eight thousand dollars. Something is seriously wrong here. Run. Now that doesn't mean expensive always equals better, but perception matters. Perception matters in business. If you are a consultant, a photographer, a landscaper, a coach, an author, a contractor, or selling products online, your pricing becomes part of your brand identity. Low pricing can sometimes attract headaches, people who don't respect your time, difficult customers, and buyers looking only for the like cheapest option. Meanwhile, professional pricing often attracts more serious customers, higher trust, and better long-term relationships. And that's what you want. Better long-term relationships. A business owner must ask, what story do my prices tell? What is the story? What do you see when I give you my price? Do they communicate professionalism, confidence, organization, and value? A lot of entrepreneurs don't struggle with talent. They struggle with self-worth, especially in the beginning. Many people think I'm new. Ah, you know, I'm new to this. Nobody knows me yet. I should just charge less to get in the game. I don't want to scare customers away. And sometimes that fear comes from imposter syndrome. Remember that? That's episode 17. That's episode 17. I did a whole episode on imposter syndrome. You may secretly feel I'm not experienced enough. People won't pay me that much. They won't pay me that much. Who am I to charge premium prices? But here's the truth. If you don't believe in your value, your customers will feel that they can sense that you are not even confident. Confidence affects how you speak, how you present your prices, how you negotiate, and how customers perceive your professionalism. A nervous business owner sounds uncertain. A confident business owner sounds prepared. That confidence doesn't come from ego, it comes from preparation and understanding your market. And remember this, people are not just paying for the product, they're paying for trust, presentation, reliability, expertise, communication, and experience. Two people can sell the exact same service, but the person who communicates confidence and professionalism will usually command the higher price. Will usually command the higher price. One of the smartest things you can do is research your industry. Prices should not be random. You should study. You should study. Study your competitors, your local markets, national averages, know your customers' expectations, and business expenses that, hey, has to be marked in, has to be worked in on that. Here's some places to learn pricing. Study business similar to yours, websites, menus, packages, service rates, and online marketplaces. It's all out there. It's at the tip of your fingers on the internet. Do some studying. Make sure that you're in line with that. Don't copy blindly, but learn the market range. Learn your market range. There's a um there's platforms out there like Fiverr, it's F-I-V-E-R-R. Um, I have it on my phone, but Upwork, Etsy, and Amazon, these platforms can teach you pricing structures, package levels, customer expectation, and just premium positioning. Hey, there's the YouTube thing, man. I'm big on YouTube. YouTube and podcast, they're excellent business education teachers. Pricing psychology, profit margins, negotiation, and value-based price. And you can just put it in YouTube and they'll have five or six different videos that will kick that will help you out, man, just to understand where you are. There are organizations out here with free mentorship for entrepreneurs. Um, they have one at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Um, I think it is called um Apex Accelerator. Apex Accelerator. They can help you learn pricing, accounting, business planning, and customer positioning. These places have free services, free services. You know, you're networking, and you can go to like a Facebook group, other networking organization. Sometimes the best information comes from people who are already in the field. Listen to how experienced professionals structure and you know their retainers, their hourly rates, their packages, um, and premium options they offer. And see how they word it and position it. Knowledge removes insecurity. When you know your market, you speak differently. You speak differently. You know, pricing is emotional. Most customers do not buy based on logic alone. They buy based on feelings, trust, status, urgency, and perceived value. That's why presentations uh presentation really matters. For example, a twenty dollar burger at a luxury restaurant, it feels different. I mean, it's the presentation. They have everything laid out for you. The hamburger, then they got the lettuce, tomatoes, maybe they've got grape coupon, and you know, there's something different about it. And a burger at, say, a gas station, you wouldn't pay the same amount for it. It's the, you know, it's the environment. It's the branding, it's the experience, it's the expectation. You thinking to yourself at this luxury restaurant, this hamburger has to be better. That's why I'm paying$25 for a hamburger. But in all reality, that's psychology because it's still just a hamburger. Anchoring is such a great, great uh technique for any pricing. If a customer is first introduced the option at$2,000, and you can all of the bells and whistles, and then you introduce another product with most of the bells and whistles, and it's um a little cheaper. It's uh it's$750. And then you have your basic one, just basic one, and it's$600. Most people are going to do the$750, the middle one. That's just the way people are. It's just like, I'm not gonna do this high-end one, but I don't want nothing cheap either. So I'm gonna do the middle one. And people understand that with pricing. Also, pricing ending in$99 or$95 or$97. Psychologically, it feels cheaper to pay$9.99 or$9.95 or$9.97 more than$10. That's just psychology. So you have to understand how you're pricing things and understand that mostly pricing has a lot of psychology in. Now let's talk about discounts. Giving discounts when you're first starting is okay. In fact, strategic discounts can help you. You know, when I wrote my first book, I had a link and I put it out and I said, hey, I'm selling the books at 30% discount. Um, because I want people to give me testimonials. I want people to get the book and read it and um tell people about it. And so um I'm going to sell it for 30% discount. And that's that's okay. That's okay because it builds testimonial. You gain experience, you create referrals and establish momentum. That's big, that's big. But there's a difference between a temporary discount and permanently undervaluing yourself. See, because if you go too far with it, uh people will start to say, like, well, this is what it's cost. So you want to create a value and say, hey, I'm giving you this, so then when you go back up to the normal value, what other people are charging, they understand that that was just a temporary discount and you're not undervaluing yourself. Confidence, confidence in your price grows through preparation, repetition, results, and competence. The more you study your industry, improve your craft, understand your customers, and deliver quality service, the easier pricing becomes. You stop apologizing for your rates. You stop shrinking your value, and you begin understanding an important truth. Cheap customers often create expensive problems. People who only shop based on the lowest price may complain more. They disrespect your time. They don't respect your time. They create unnecessary stress. Meanwhile, quality customers, they appreciate. They appreciate. They realize they're getting reliability, professionalism, communication, and expertise. Do not build a business that burns you out trying to please people unwilling to pay for value. Hey, quick story. When I was a kid, uh, let's say when I was in kindergarten, my mom used to pick me up a half a day, and she'd fix me lunch, eat some poking beans and hot dogs, a good bologna sandwich, uh, a grilled cheese sandwich, and we'd sit down and we would look at the price is right. She liked that show. And we would look at it, and I was just really, really intrigued about how they would uh be playing these different games about people understanding how pricing works and how close you could come to a price. And some people were good at it, but most people were terrible at it. And I was just just really, really intrigued about how one car could cost this and another car could cost this. Vacations would be this, and another vacation would be that price. And it was then that I started to be really intrigued by pricing and how people price things and what went with pricing and the psychology with pricing and how people would uh guess what the price is based on psychology and their homework and just understanding prices. And every day when me and my mom would be watching the prices right, and uh people would be getting so excited and winning big things if they could just understood pricing. And uh so this segment of what we're talking about pricing, it just really, really took me back to that time as a kid with my mom watching the prices right. As we close today's episode, remember this pricing is not just about money, it's about identity. It reflects how you see yourself, how you run your business, and how you communicate your value to the world. Understand that you do not have to be the cheapest to succeed. You need clarity, confidence, consistency, and professionalism. Research your market, know your numbers, improve your craft, present yourself professionally, and never be afraid to grow into higher pricing as your value increases. Because one of the biggest wealth building skills you can develop is learning how to properly value what you bring to the table. This is the Zero to One Million Podcast. I'm your host, Vendero Jenkins. Let's learn to make money while we sleep. I see you, I have been you, and now I want to empower you. Keep building, keep learning, and keep growing. And remember, your future wealth may depend on whether your prices match your value. Are your prices right?