It’s funny, of all the millionaire habits I’ve blogged about, I’ve yet to talk about my routine of raising prices. And it’s made me the most money of all. I’m serious. You need to charge more and here’s why.
1) With the advice I’m about to give you, be careful of the “yeah but my business is different” myth. I’m sure it is, but it doesn’t matter. Principles are principles. These will work for everyone and every type of business.
2) There’s no leverage in making excuses. Anyone can do that. There is leverage, however, in creatively figuring out how these principles can work for your business.
3) Aim for every business advantage you can get: build a better brand, have more personality, create a superior product, treat people better, out-market the competition, have better systems, hire top talent, etc.
But what about raising your prices? This is one of the most misunderstood and underutilized advantages in all of business.
And yet, it’s the easiest to acquire – requiring only a decision to do so – and may offer the biggest benefit.
It wasn’t until I committed to charging more that I built my first million dollar business. And then my second. And this website will be my third. And I’d rather endure bamboo nail torture than go back to “low ticket.”
4) Selling for less is not sustainable. Unless you’re Walmart, it’s a race to zero. Never ever try to be the low priced provider. So stupid.
5) The ultimate source of power is when you position yourself as the only provider of a valuable expertise.
If you can carve out a unique category in a common industry such that you’re now the only one who does exactly that? You’ll have a true economic advantage.
You can eliminate price comparisons since no one else does what you do. More power; more profit. Warren Buffett agrees.
6) The more you charge, the more options you have for getting new customers – options your lower margin competitors will not have.
Such as advertising channels they can’t afford to test or better placements or higher bids on channels they can.
The wider this gap, and the more you exploit it, the faster you can scale and the more bulletproof you become.
7) Remember, price also effects product performance, the user, and their satisfaction with said product. Usually, the more you charge, the happier a customer or client is with their purchase.
In my experience, once I went high-end, clients were way more committed, made more use of my services, and even sent me more referrals.
So don’t be cynical and think bumping prices is amoral and selfish. When you do it right, everyone benefits.
8) With far fewer clients making me exponentially more profit, guess what: I had the time and the means to roll out the red carpet for them.
I wasn’t rushed to “get the next sale” and play the “high volume, sh*tty service” game everyone else was playing.
9) Most businesses are too timid to calculate their cost per sale. After all, the number could very well drive a guy to day drink.
Don’t be that guy. Run towards the fire.
Figure it out: what does it cost to acquire one new customer? Once you know this, instead of shrinking marketing to make the number work, do the opposite. That’s how you dominate.
(But you can’t do it if you don’t out-charge the other guys, can you?)
10) Speaking of which, why not put yourself in a position where you don’t have to do all that well to do great?
Like, say you start a copywriting agency and you’ll only work with one plastic surgeon in each major city. Few things here.
First, notice how we’ve defined a new category: copywriting for plastic surgeons; not to be confused with the bazillion freelance copywriters who’ll write anything for anyone.
Second, appreciate how exclusivity can warrant premium prices. For example: “We can only work with one per city. Will it be you?”
Third, pretend, in a perfect world, your monthly retainer is, oh I dunno, $8,334. Now let’s say in your first year you do awful. You only land 10 clients. Ten lonely sales. In 99% of businesses you’re f*cked. But not in this one. Here, you’d gross a million.
See what I mean?
And if you don’t think this applies to what you do, reread bullets one and two above; or hell, just continue down the page.
11) No, not every business can justify a recurring monthly fee of nearly nine Gs, but you could always (a) start a new business, or (b) find a more affluent customer base to sell to.
If you do the latter, change the who, then the language, then the price.
For example, here on Millyuns, I’m trying to market to real-ass entrepreneurs – peeps down to do good and make millions; and not the low-level biz opp crowd. So I’ve identified my who.
Now I attract ’em by speaking their language. Instead of writing about “making money online,” I cover “increasing net worth.”
Finally, as the right type of readers find this website, we’ll figure out how to net thousands of dollars for a single sale – probably through high-performance coaching and done-for-you services. Make sense?
12) Always attempt to sell to those who’re affected least or last by recessions, housing hiccups, credit crises, terrorist attacks, political drama, etc. Ideally, you’re not marketing to those who spend next week’s paycheck on this week’s groceries.
Ironically, I’ve found, the further up the “affluence ladder” you climb, the less people there are trying to sell to them.
It gets better. I’ve also found that it’s easier, not harder, to sell big ticket products and services. If you don’t have a brain boner right now, I’m offended.
13) If you’re still struggling with the idea of charging a lot more for whatever it is you sell, look around.
Find examples of businesses in all sorts of industries who’ve found ways to raise their prices successfully. The more you see, the more normal it becomes.
But if, after that, you still feel miles away from millions, it might be time to pivot, pal.
