“How much do you charge?”
“Your competitor will do it for $25 less, will you match that?
“Why does your service cost this much when the lady down the street sells the same service for less?”
I don’t know about you, but I don’t know many business owners who enjoy these questions. While they are legit questions from your prospective customers, price is a terrible place on which to compete.
In this video on differentiation, John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing, says something immensely important about what your prospects are saying about you when flipping through a phone book, looking online, or staring at a newspaper full of ads:
If I can’t tell how one is different from another, I’m gonna call ’em up and say ‘HOW MUCH?’ Because price is now the only way I can differentiate.
As John continues he begs us all not to try and compete on price because of the precarious position that puts you in inside a competitive marketplace:
Do not try to compete on price. There will always be someone willing to go out of business faster than you.
This is a great reminder this Friday about differentiating your business.