SOWPub Small Business Forums - And how about YOUR self-sabotaging beliefs?

Hi Marcia and fellow Sowpubbers,

I have a LOT I could write on this topic - but unfortunately I only have a short time to say it at the moment....

But what Marcia says in her free report is right on the mark!

By the way - Marcia - I saw your book, "6 Steps to Free Publicity", in the bookstore a few weeks ago - so I bought it. Marcia, you really know your stuff! I thought that Chapter 2 - "Thinking Like a Publicity Hound" - was worth the price of the book in itself!

Okay, back to Marcia's free report.

I think that unless you're big like Walmart of Safeway, then trying to compete on price is NOT the way to go. It's very hard to make a living by competing on price if you're running a small business.

In order to survive and succeed, you have to find something else to compete on. Compete on the quality of the product, or on exceptional service, or by servicing the needs of a particular niche more effectively than anyone else. Then you can charge a higher price for your product or service. Higher profit margins usually means you have more security, and you're more likely to succeed.

One example in Marcia's report caught my attention - the example of the photographer. She wrote about how photographers had noticed that the most popular frame people bought was the one that was the next-to-largest. By adding a larger frame, the new next-to-largest frame (which USED to be the largest frame) became the best-selling frame!

What I wonder here is - what is the principle at work here? WHY are people preferring to buy the next-to-largest frames? I find it fascinating (from a psychological point of view). I wonder what's going on?

Here's another example, from my own experience. A few years ago I was selling a digital info-product, at quite a cheap price. We made a lot of sales - but we also found that a few people wanted refunds. (Of course, I always gave them refunds, since the product had an unconditional money-back guarantee.)

Then, we decided to double the price. We found we had fewer sales. Though - percentage-wise - we also had fewer refund requests. It's as if people who had paid more, were happier with the product.

Then, later on, the price doubled again. We found the same phenomenon. Fewer sales, but practically no refund requests.

I had felt that by raising the price, we were making less money because of the fewer sales. But when I did the math and added up the profits, I found out that we were in fact making more profits. In addition, it seemed that by raising the price, we were getting a different "quality" of customer too.

My experience, I think, validates much of what Marcia has written about in her free report. Thanks, Marcia, for the valuable info. :)

Best wishes,

Dien Rice

"Create $2,142 of repeat business with a 15 word classified ad" - it's not too late to still get it!