Pricing By Proxy

One of the rants I had during the Strong Collective GSD day

(I had many rants about the industry throughout the day, that got dramatically less lucid by about 1am the following morning…)

Was about price.

All of my thoughts about price simply will not fit into this one story

But I want to just highlight 4 or 5 of the the prevailing thoughts that everyone shares in the industry, to highlight how they are nonsense

‘No one should charge that much for coaching or mentoring’

Really? No one? Ever? No matter who they’re coaching or mentoring, what the outcome is worth to that person? Not even if the person is desperate to spend more money on that thing?

No one should force someone to commit money they don’t have - but to say no one should charge past an arbitrary amount is the stupidest idea, that shows a lack of understanding of how markets work, and how buyers think.

‘Charge your worth’

Not even sure what this means - And if I think I’m worth loads of money to solve a problem, because of my own perception, or money invested in qualifications?

That doesn’t mean shit if the consumer doesn’t agree, or I don’t solve a problem people want to solve for a set amount of money.

‘Look around at what everyone else is charging’

This is occasionally useful information, but is almost never enough to inform your pricing strategy.

And generally on some timescale, leads to a race to the bottom on pricing.

Which leads me to my last one (for now)

‘2 or 3 people have said it’s too expensive, so I think I might drop my price’

You’ve had 100 people through your programme over the years

But you’re in a bit of a slump, could do with some income

And 2 people say ‘I can’t afford this right now’, and that becomes ‘There’s money being spent on God’s green earth, I’d best drop prices’

It’s a nonsense

The psychology of pricing is generally under discussed in the fitness industry, with most people burned by the ‘high ticket bollocks’ of yesteryear

All I’ll say for now is please think harder about your pricing and how it relates to everything else you do - than ‘Low price good, high price bad’