Want to know how to increase your profit in your carpet cleaning business IMMEDIATELY?
As soon as next week? It’s simple...
Raise your prices!
Do it today, right now...by at least 10%. Your customers won’t even notice.
I know what you’re thinking... If I raise my prices, I'm going to lose customers. But first, have you considered what is happening if you’re NOT increasing your prices? The answer is that in real terms your prices are going down because of the effects on inflation.
Yet increasing prices is one of the easiest and quickest ways to increase revenues and profit.
So how do you raise your prices? The answer is more to do with YOUR mindset than what your customers will think. If you’re convinced that your customers wont pay more, think again. After all, many, many people buy BMW’s and Mercedes when a simple KIA would get from A to B. (and probably not much slower). When I last looked these cars are considerably more expensive than others! In fact, in every category of ‘something for sale’ there is a budget range, a middle range and a very expensive high quality range.
The best mindset to have is the latter, that of ‘Premium Pricing’ to those who are quality seekers.
I've heard from a few carpet cleaners recently who have told me how they originally set their prices?
Does this sound familiar?...
You phone all your competitors and then price yourself either at the average or just below theirs...then you’ll get all the work!
Simple.
And their minimum charge? Well, I can tell you that its a third of what we charge. Yet they insist that customers will never pay it.
An increase in price might actually make your customers view you differently - in a positive way. Robert Cialdini’s famous book, Influence tells the story of a jewellery store inadvertently pricing some jewellery too high...by mistake!.
The result?
Whereas previously it couldn't sell, now it sold out. The items hadn’t changed...peoples perception of it had.
Price equals quality in their minds.
Before you think...â€but my customers will never pay higher prices†here are some facts about dealing with those who are only concerned about PRICE:
- People who buy on price are slow to pay and expect you to jump through hoops to please them at the same time
- People who pay low prices are looking for a bargain and almost always want more than what they pay for
- They'll also be quick to complain and ask for a refund
- They’ll also tell their friends how they managed to get you to clean their carpets for such a low price., especially if you gave them a discount. Their referrals will now be price shoppers too
- And of course, you have to make it up in volume, by doing MORE WORK
On the other hand:
- People who pay premium prices are easier to deal with but they wont accept shoddy work or second-best
- Price is simply not the most important thing for most people. Quality is
- Most people equate a cheap price with low quality
- The price of your service is based on its value to the customer and has nothing at all to do with your competitors prices
- And of course, with higher prices you make more money for doing LESS WORK
Hmmm... MORE WORK or LESS WORK? Which would YOU rather be doing?