Thinking about lowering your prices?

With all the negative economic news being reported by the media, your first inclination as a business owner may be to lower your prices fearing that unless you do, you won't have a customer segment willing and able to pay your desired prices. Consider that once lowered, however, it may be more of a challenge to raise your prices in the very near future. You're also assuming that your customers can no longer afford your standard prices. In actuality, pricing may not be the issue but rather customers are becoming more thoughtful with their purchases and merely need to be further convinced of the VALUE before plunking down their money. I recommend an energetically more ABUNDANT approach to this. Here are some new strategies and possible alternatives to consider in lieu of lowering your prices.

1. Have a sale or extend payment options.
Maintain your current pricing but establish defined sale periods with beginning and end dates to maintain the integrity of your pricing model but still offer customers a break. Also consider stretching payments over a period of time if feasible. I regularly offer a 6 pay plan with my Protégé program in addition to timed discounts.

2. Bundled offerings or gift with purchase.
Add additional products and services to your core offerings (for no additional cost) to substantially increase the value but without necessarily increasing your overhead. Can you add a "gift with purchase" that doesn't cost you any more money? Digital products & excess inventory items work great with this. Such as a gym offering complimentary towel and locker service for a year with a new membership.

3. Bonus gifts from other providers.
I still chuckle at an article submission site I subscribe to that would send me a 1lb box of fudge from an outside candy company every time I chose A $100 service package instead of a $60 package. Can you bundle with others to provide more value? I offer over $1000 in bonus gifts when you purchase my eBook and audio program at http://passion2prosperitybook.com/ . I created tremendous value for my customer that I did not have to pay for! Win-Win!

4. Rewrite your collateral materials to convey benefits.
This is a good time to review the benefits of your products and services line- by-line to be sure you're communicating maximum value to your prospective customer. One client wanted to lower her prices to attract more customers. Before she did that, I had her dissect her service, list out each benefit and assign a monetary value. This created a paradigm shift when she realized how much value customers were actually getting from her. She didn't lower her prices then, she raised them and customers are still showing up to pay.

5. Offer a sampling of complimentary products or new price point combinations.
Consider building in a new layer of products and services that you can offer for free so that prospective customers can easily experience you before making a purchase. When you sign in to http://passion2prosperity.com/ , you receive 3 free gifts from me. Also consider a new level of product offerings at lower price points without changing your premium price points. Even Starbucks is now offering bundled product combinations.

[Maria Simone is a business development expert with a spiritual twist. She'll show you "NEXT STEPS" for transforming ideas into products, effortlessly attracting investors and sponsors, and manifesting customers with ease. http://www.passion2prosperity.com/]