As I stood outside the auditorium after my recent speech in Toronto, a striking grey-haired man beelined toward me and made a comment that made me twing.
“I need a word with you. Stay here.”
I immediately began worrying. Had my speech offended him?
He returned from the rest room and began his apparent complaint.
“Harry, my wife is an interior decorator here in the province,” he said. “Before she read your book The Invisible Touch, she was charging the going rate here, which was $55 per hour.”
“That sounds attractive,” I said.
“Yes, but she wasn’t that busy. She was billing fewer than 20 hours a week.”
I flinched, feeling a left cross could be coming.
“Then she read your sections about pricing, and decided to start charging $105 an hour. And you know what happened?”
Don’t hit me, please don’t hit me.
“Her business has grown so much that now I have to do all the housework.”
I shouldn’t have been anxious, actually. I’d heard three stories just like after previous speeches. They all reinforce my mantra: Price is not just price. It’s a quality cue.
A higher price suggests that the quality simply must be there.
Some say this seems obvious, yett they never ask, “What does our price say about us? Does it speak well of us?”
“Do we sound really good, incredibly affordable–or lost in the muddle in the middle?”
What do your prospects hear when you talk price?
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