Lessons

Lesson Info

Negotiate Your Numbers

So that brings us to lesson six negotiate your numbers that's right? We had a question that I said this is when we need to ask so daisy go my question was so you decided what you're new price point should be decided all the values all this and go ok, I have to raise my prices by double or by fifteen dollars about fifty dollars how do you do that? And then the second part to that question is if you have preexisting wholesale customers that you've already you know they're already buying at my existing wholesale price how do I put him going? Hey, I'm going to increase my prices how do you do that? Yes, the answer to this question I love on this question gets asked the answer to this question is way more self explanatory, direct, simple then you think it is because of all the psychological baggage that comes with it. There are a few key ways that you can go about raising your prices. The first is to just do it because no one's paying that close attention on that is personally my favorite w...

ay to do it. Just go into your website, do it now if you're watching at home like literally you come up with your new prices great, just do it, just do it now no one's paying that close attention on ly you so that's the first way, the second way is to give everyone a heads up and say, starting september first starting october first, I'm gonna have new prices, they're going up by about twenty percent. They're going up by fifty percent because I realized my business, justice and sustainable, and I want to be here to keep making these things for you or to keep producing this art. And so you give everyone a heads up, you bring in nice cash in the interim on do you put some of that aside? Just in case you get a dip, I will tell you I've raised I have doubled the prices in my business many, many times have raised prices in business many, many times every time I raised my price, I get mohr customers, which is that's. Exactly what we're talking about in these lessons is basically how your customers might actually be waiting for you. Your best customers might actually be waiting for you to raise your prices, because buying at your current price point doesn't make sense to them that's like super important thing, you know, it makes no sense, but it is. So true for that same reason that you decided to splurge on something because you're passionate about that product you're passionate about what allows you to accomplish because you value that particular thing at a certain price point. If you're under that price point for your customers, they're not going to buy from me. Oh, they might be paying attention to you that might like following your instagram feeds, but they're not going to buy from you. You bump it up to up to a certain point and all these people come out of the woodwork, I'm not going to say it happens one hundred percent of the time it happened one hundred percent of the time for me, it may not be the same for you, but I think that dip after you raise your prices is not as big or doesn't happen as often as most people fear that it does another ah way that you could go about raising your prices is having a nev event around, and I'm going to sell off my old line at this price, and I'm going to launch a new line at the new price and you kind of make this clean shift so that people can't compare your old prices to your new prices and you just make it a party essentially and again you bring in a lot of money while you're selling off that line and then you save some of that just in case there's a problem in the interim so that you've got some wiggle room there in terms of your wholesale customers, I'd probably encourage that that second one so you give them a date say, if you if you want to place orders at this price point your time you've got until october first on dh, then I'm going to update my line chiefs and you'll need to order at the new price if that if that's not the right decision for your store, no problem, but I just wanted to give you a heads up on this and then you do the exact same thing makes sense. Okay, cool, but yeah, the biggest lesson in terms of raising your prices no one is paying nearly as much attention as you are most of the time people don't know they're just like, oh this, I'm just gonna buy this now it's great anyhow details make stories, work or not your details around the story about your products that can be wrong if you're details are right. The story about your product is right. The thing about details is you are in control of them and I'll tell you more about that in a second details also make prices work or not if your prices are one thing and the experience on your website is a whole other thing your prices won't work if your deed, if your prices are one thing and the experience that your craft show booth or the cross shows you go, teo, if those things don't line up, your prices don't work. And so you want to be very careful about curating every single detail about your brand, about the way you package your products about your website about the words that you use to describe your products carefully curated each of those details so that they're telling the story that you want to tell let's talk about haggling, this is this was ah question that came up when I announced that I was going to be doing this class. How do you deal with people who haggle? How do you deal with people who haggle? Well, people haggle when the details don't add all up when they don't all add up. People haggle when the details don't all add up the location, the price, the package, the branding if it doesn't all work together. If something's off you open yourself up to people questioning your price and haggling with you. Do people have a lot at wal mart? No, because all the details at up to people haggle at neiman marcus no, because all the details at up to people haggle at the gap. Probably sometimes, actually, because some of their details don't add up, but that's a good example to I mean, look at the businesses right now that are struggling a little bit interesting. Example, sorry, tio, use a big business example, but sometimes that these air the best, because these are the brands that we use every day they're the things that were most familiar with j crew right now is struggling made well, which is a j crew brand is thriving j crew started doing some things a couple of years ago, like bringing in designers for special collections, and then, I don't know charging eight hundred dollars for a pencil skirt. This is not an eight hundred dollars pencils. Um and and so that was kind of that was one of the details that started to be off about their brand. People didn't know what to expect from them anymore. They didn't know what the experience was anymore. Now it wasn't just a place that you got chinos and polo shirts and really great button down shirts. It was a place you could go and buy an eight hundred dollars were dish designer skirt that doesn't make sense made well, on the other hand, is you walk into one store and you know what you're going to see in every other store for the next ten years I'm sure it's a set of genes it's a set of t shirts it's a set of shirts and dresses and it is consistent to the nth degree that experience that expectation is completely consistent so that brand is thriving while j crew which is a very similar brand on the same company is in a pickle right now that's how details work if you start doing something in your business or you've been doing something in your business where the detail doesn't line up with everything else, you can get yourself in a pickle so positioning is all about the details. Positioning is the story that you're telling about your products through all the different details that you have it's the it's the story that you're telling about how your product relates to the rest of the market remember when I asked you the question, what brands do you want your brand to be mentioned with that's part of position and wesley when I asked you are there? Is there a shoe designer you'd like to be mentioned with? Is there a shirt designer you'd like to be mentioned with? You were like, oh yeah yeah there is that is a tip off to your positioning you want to be positioned in the same place in the market as those people and so you can take their details, put your spin on it, look for the consistent and make consistencies there so that people make connections between your brand and their brand in their mind. Now, your product becomes part of the identity that these other products bring to the table a swell through the tiny little details, like the way your logo looks like. What find your logo is in what kind of website you have, the words that you used to talk about your products, it's, no coincidence that, you know, you can look at five different hipster websites, hipster brand websites, and they've all about the same fonts, the same styled pictures, the same kind of low goes the same kind of products, even if they're selling drastically different things, they all look the same. Why positioning there, telling a story about what these products are? It's not that it's, unoriginal, it's the it's, telling a story about it's, just smart marketing, not encouraging anyone to be a copycat. Please don't get me wrong, it's not about copying something it's about creating connections and consistency. You've been do your own thing, and I really hope you do. I mean, we're just talking about differentiation, right, but you also want to make sure that you're intentionally creating a next syrians connection to things that people people feel comfortable with but they know what to expect from especially as a tiny business as a new business these things are really important so what kind of details are your customers expecting? What kind of details trigger the perception of a brand they're looking for and this is a great opportunity to tweet me at tara gentilly hashtag craft week twenty fifteen what kind of details or experience are your customers looking for? What are they expecting let's get some answers here kitty what kind of details are experience are your customers expecting from a from a handcrafted jewelry that's kind of meaningful and the little quirky right? Um the example I've been working with is one of my jewelry collections which is all about comics my focus on this particular collection is to develop stylish kind of classic healing jewelry that represents people who are passionate about comics and kind of that whole geeky arena so that customer is going to expect a super simple online retail experience because they're probably pretty web savvy you cannot skip on your e commerce experience not at all that would be a serious problem these people are geeks I mean yeah I know yeah it's you know one time out one type of one little thing going wrong we'll go shop somewhere else yet because I would go shop somewhere else they are looking for a uniformity in the website but they're looking for the products to really leap off the page so kind of like from that techie perspective a color balancing but what I'm trying to position is jewelry that can transition and actually just wrote this down so thank you from the con to the conference room oh that's really good yeah so when I think of the pieces it's like you wear this out and about with your friends they get what you're into but it's still classy and stylish enough that if you wear it to work no one's going to be like that's kind of but we're no yeah eso in addition to that super seamless online experience which not everyone has to pay attention to but I definitely do especially since I host my own website I think they're just really expecting resonance and they're expecting me teo get their fandom, which is good because I have a lot of my own fandom but they're looking for that that connection like if I'm going to buy this piece from you, I expect you to kind of like you got to know your comics you can't say this is marvel and it's actually d c yeah yeah so I want to pick up again on that web experience e commerce experience example that you gave because not every jewelry designer needs toe have a fully functional e commerce experience on their website if you're a fine jeweler whose main thing is creating custom ah commissioned pieces you don't need a shopping cart you need somewhere where people can email you with their inquiry right don't spend five thousand dollars getting a whole fantastic e commerce experience up just get the bare minimum of that particular detail is an important because what people want they don't want to put something in a shopping cart they want to set up a phone call with you to talk about the peace they want a commission but for you probably at the price point you're selling out the type of jewelry or selling and for the customer that you're selling to that e commerce experience is hugely important. If your user experience is bad, they're going to jump ship on bennett's not even a question of will they chart pay these prices it's a question of will they buy it period that's a problem so that's a great example how about from one other person? What kind of details are your customers expecting? So I do the farmers market right on and that's a haggling environment yes, right your challenge to go with twenty bucks and you get a third of it if you're you know really good so they come up and there's sign it everywhere there's there's the sauce you know which there's a million things on the jar itself and then pick it up but there's the anxiety that customers have kind of like coming here I've watched this you know, hundreds of times so I've already connected in a way and then you know like I told kind of earlier way connect um out there too so it's easier you know somewhat easier to formulate questions I'm still trying hard to formulate some questions but you know the customer has that anxiety and they don't see what's right under their nose so you have to say it over and over and like you said you know repeated and you have to say it in different ways you know I learned a long time ago don't repeat yourself with the same words you know I said this didn't you hear me right you know you rephrase it yeah totally so at the farmersmarket are you giving samples of the sauce? Of course you're okay and I'm in a chef coat I'm presenting it with food delivered in a professional way I'm not just saying slap it on try this yeah you know yeah and so your doors were about this size there yeah I mean I know what eight ounces of fear there is one in a mason jar by the way ok perfect do you have well do you make deals with people know ok god but if they say you know I'll give you six and citizens and I've only got this much you know more than likely give one purse in the deal? Sure, sure, sure. That that's a bit of a different scenario, then I'll get over it. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I I think you've hit a lot of the details you've put the chef's coat on, which is a connection with the right people and also a differentiator from a lot of the farmers market where they might be a lot of food people selling food that aren't chefs so that's really interesting you're giving out samples, eso that's a particular detail, you know, it might even move you to not put up sign it about how much something costs, which is not normally if you've listened to me at all that it's not normally the advice that I give but you might go for your first interaction being here, taste this and then say, oh, did you love that it's only seven bucks a jar because if they taste it before they know what the price is, if they can experience it, you might actually be creating a more compelling value story, especially for the right people. And I bet you can identify the right people by sight at this point and it's not just about what they're wearing or how their hair is done right it's about their mannerisms the way they're interacting with other vendors, not that I think you should discriminate I'm not saying that at all but you know, you can really go that extra mile with the right people and I bet I bet you could turn over some serious jars that way it's kind of like you're seeing with websites and sign ege you know relating when you're walking through the farmer's market like many of us have done you don't want to be bothered by every last booth you know try to start this right you know? So there is like you have a moat of flames around you or something so they need something to pull them in but maybe just something graphical or something that's you know, uh whimsical or whatever you wanna call it that brings them to your table and then yeah yeah, well and you could even do something like taste the sauce even your kids will love you know, a big sign like that is inviting people and I would think about your farmersmarket booth the way you know, I think about inbound marketing when it comes to my website, what is it that I'm going to attract people with? What is it that's going to get them to take that next step for me on dh? How can I make the right people feel the most comfortable and what are all those details were involved with that so yeah let's uh let's get moving uh, because I have a chart for this it's called the positioning inventory it's in the workbooks that comes along with the class and this just has basically all sorts of details that go into lots of different kinds of businesses today not all of these things are going to pertain to everyone watching and you can add your own in at the bottom you could go nuts with this if you want but these air all all the kinds of details that I look at when I look at a website when I look at a new business when I'm when I'm consulting with someone what's their visual branding like is it consistent with the price that I see is a canoe assistant with the story that they told me in their email when we first met with the photography look like is the photography telling the story that I expected to see is the quality good? Does the quality match the price that they're charging what's their website experience like their e commerce experience, their packaging there copyrighting their show booth? Those are all little details that you can start to play with to make them more consistent and so the way I like to break it down is just I think we can improve everything all the time basically so that's why the second column is how could I improve it? How could I make it closer to the story that I want to tell how going to take that detail and transform it so that it better supports the story that I'm telling who could help me because you shouldn't be doing this all on your own? Maybe maybe it's just that you need someone to give you some input. It might not even be that you need to hire somebody. You just need someone to give you some input. Who could help and what's that deadline? This is an action plan for pulling that whole value story that we just created the full story behind the price that you want to charge through your business so that every aspect of someone's experience with you every aspect of the exchange that they have with you reinforces the price that you want to charge. So let's go to another hot seats. And you, I haven't heard from you yet. I don't think come on up, you you are cynthia. And while she's coming up any questions about positioning the positioning inventory daisy yeah, in the in the column, if you could help to me is it seems a little difficult to figure out. Like, who could help me with marketing. Like I mean, they just got craigslist me like, into, you know, assistant wanted, like, how do you find people that are, but you can pay to help with, like, marketing staffer with you know package designer packing your stuff like that seems like it's a little it's a conceptual it's like how do I find people like that yeah the best people always for your business are people who are already in your network ideally people who are already in your customer base who are already in your audience you already love your product marketing isn't hard the hard part's here's how you set up a facebook ad here's how you post consistently on instagram here's how you style a shot that's all learn herbal what what they can't learn is how to love your product if they don't already love it how to love your unique perspective your unique point of view if they don't already love it so I look for people who have the passion for what it is that I'm doing and then I train on skills if I need you to do something specific I'm going I'm going to say this is what you need to dio or you need to go figure out howto post a facebook ad so yeah so that's I always look inside my my network my audience first and then I branch out and go to people I know who might know somebody because through that personal connection they're also more likely to be a good fit for my business beyond that I mean sure you post not on craigslist you could go teo uh a lance you could goto desk but I don't think you'll need teo I think you'll find someone in your network yeah and rita, did you have a question you need trust? Sorry okay when you touch a little bit on positioning as it relates to packaging because for me I love the idea of creating some really dynamic engaging packaging but often times like forty by all these extra things that make it so fabulous and engaging and what exactly should I be putting together to make it? You know, engaging and exciting? Yes, so if you can't afford the packaging that you want to use, you probably should raise your price to important take anybody but you know, it might be a simple is just a really fabulous hang tag, right? It doesn't necessarily have to be a box or a whole set of ribbons, although it might be it could just be a really fantastic can't hang tag and maybe a ah nice plastic bag instead of an amazon plastic bag to put in the box if you're shipping things out too, that makes sense. Yeah, yeah so you can think about it and all sorts of different ways the same way that we were thinking about materials because it's kind of material cost there are yeah, you could go all out you could have this custom box made with custom ribbons and custom tags and all that stuff that might make your product it might price your product into the wrong place instead you can think what can I use instead that would give me a similar feeling but would cost way less okay, perfect cool hi, cynthia nice to meet you tell us who you are what you create and where we can find you online my name is cynthia and you'll find me at the social photography dot com in a very infant stage um and I'm working to do documented style family documenting family's history fantastic I love that onda how do you feel about your pricing right now in light of today's talk needs to be it's still in the progress I definitely need to raise my prices okay? But it's always a fine line making it affordable but yet sustainable for my business absolutely absolutely. And so you know, something that you might want to really think about is where you might be able to cut cost to make the price so to make the profit what you need it to be but make the price tag what your customers need to be right on I think for families that's really important thing as well they might not need the whole enchilada right? But they do want to have these amazing photographs that commemorate memories and experiences so tell me about some of the details in your business right now where many because we're starting to run a little out of time what are some of the details that you know you want to change because of the value story that you've created? So what I put down was just I want to be able to see the bad story telling the details of their story so I don't want to dio camera where are opposed photographs I want him to document their stories like, you know, favorite places they like to go or when they joined the home that's very rudimentary but it's just documenting it so they have that experience you know later that they can, you know, memories fade, but a pictures were, you know, it's forever yeah, and you could always go back to those memories, so let me give you an idea actually inspired by that one thing that I didn't put on here was blawg but most of us, how many of you have blogged yeah, most of you ok, you have a block get no no ok here's an idea for a block I think that you should have a block and I think you should have your clients right it so if they're not going to be camera where if this is documenting their stories, I want them to tell their stories so the photograph that you're putting up on the site I want them to write, you know, one hundred words for it and every week you just share these stories of your clients and so you become the conduit instead of the storyteller there, the storytellers, you're empowering them um and empowerment is hugely valuable he's banking I love it cool! You could do the same thing with your instagram feed and everything else as well and I would say in terms of web site keep it's super simple make the family is the star the storytellers and let your website kind of blend into the background some guy sounds perfect cool thanks on that simple is it can be you can get really creative with these details to reinforce the value story that you want to tell so it's time to create your action plan, you can pull out that work, pull out your workbook or you can, you know, create that recreate that positioning inventory for yourself. Look at all those details get creative think think innovative thoughts about how you can communicate the value story that you have. What changes do you want to make? When do you want to make them? The more every detail of your business supports the price you charge, the stronger your negotiating your side of the story price is all about negotiation, you should be a strong negotiator and when all the details match up, your comfort customers feel more comfortable and you're in more control of that negotiation.