How To Sell Expensive Products To Cheap People

Competing based on price and several other factors with other businesses is inevitable for one that aims to grow and attain market dominance. But while pricing is partly important to the successful sale of any item, convincing a customer to purchase an expensive product, especially one that’s higher than what the existing competition currently sells theirs at, can be a pain in the butt.

Why would customers choose to pay more, when they could go to a similar competing brand and pay lesser?

Since pricing is also important to most consumers purchasing decisions, here are 8 ways to sell an expensive product to customers who only want to pay little:

1). Sell It Along Side Another Expensive Product:

According to the book, “The Paradox Of Choice”, by Barry Schwartz, restaurants sell-out a lot of meals daily because they over-price one menu item, then mildly reduce the price of the next best menu item. This turns this menu item into a best seller. After all, it’s cheaper than the other over-priced menu item.

People sigh a breath of relief when they realize there’s actually an item that’s equally good and also affordable for them if they can’t afford a more expensive variant of the product.

The formula goes thus:

If you want to make a Bentley to be perceived as exotic, put a regular saloon car next to it.

If you want to make a sports bike look very valuable, put a commercial bike next to it.

Placing an expensive product along with an equally more expensive and more enticing product will make your prospects value the least expensive of the two more. Whereas, the least of both was what you were really trying to sell in the first place.

Read Also: How To Market A New Product In Nigeria

2). Make The Product Feel More Valuable Than The Price:

Prospects only see a product from the surface. They never know what went into creating it, and frankly, they really don’t care. Something advertisers have used to trigger audience interests for high-cost products, is to show what really went into creating it.

While watching some iPhone ads, you’d notice at some point, the visual effects narrow down to every single component the iPhone is made up of, and how a great effort was put in to stylishly couple the device just for you.

Software engineers use this strategy a lot. Before they give you their project costing, they start to talk about the total number of programming languages, frameworks, work hours, team strength, and more, they’d put into building that website or web application you simply see nothing too complex about. After a breakdown of the perceived effort, you slowly start to adjust your pricing towards the direction of the programmer’s price point, so you can both find a common ground.

See Also: 7 Ways To Immediately Increase Revenue In Your Business

3). Create A Perception That Many People Are Okay With The Price:

The best way to make people feel many individuals are cool with your pricing is to use social media to create an illusion of acceptance.

You can start a social media campaign where 50 paid, but highly influential individuals, are seen using your products. When prospects start to see a lot of people all over social media posting photos of themselves using your highly priced items, social incentives kick in, and people start to buy your products at that price.

A perfect example of this is the Chanel brand. Its wide reach on Instagram has got a lot of ladies emptying their bank accounts just to own one of their luxury bags and/or purses.

4). Make People Believe The Way The Product Solves Their Problem Is Unique To It, Is The Fastest, & The Most Efficient:

People want anything that can solve a pressing problem and save them a lot of time while it’s at it. While many businesses claim to have products that do this, very few actually do.

Build your product or service to really deliver true value by solving your prospects problems, and faster than anyone else. Show them many customers who have benefitted from your products painstakingly, and they’d consider paying a little more for the unique value added.

See Also: How To Market Your Farm Products

5). Spread Large Costs Into Daily, Weekly, Monthly, & Yearly Payments:

People find it easier to part with small sums over a period of time, than parting with a full sum at a go. A small win is key to getting prospects to pay fully for an expensive product or service. It’s a lot easier to mortgage a house than to sell it at a go to an individual. The same goes for cars and many other items.

Break the total sum into tiny fragments, spread it over a period of time, and people would find it a lot easier to pay for the product or service.

6). Add A Complimentary Product As A Free Purchase Bonus:

Everyone loves a good old bonus. This marketing strategy comes in handy when trying to sell an expensive item to a customer.

For example; selling a toothpaste that costs higher than other really good toothpastes in the market is a hard sell. But offering a free toothbrush in the pack would convert more people into customers. The same applies to kitchen utensils. Add a free low-cost frying pan to the expensive pot been sold, and the prospect would be more inclined to make a payment.

Bonus items make prospects act on a sales pitch. When they know they’re going to get a free complimentary item to their expensive purchase, they begin to feel that perhaps, the cost is truly worth it, as they’re rewarded for making the purchase decision.

7). Make People Excited That You’re Charging Less For More:

This tactic is a proven winner! Before you pitch the cost of your product to your prospects, enlighten them about many other much more expensive but similar products that are sold by your competitors, and their downsides, then show them how your own high-priced product costs a lot lesser than theirs but delivers the same, or an even better value.

A great example occurs when you try to purchase a Lexus. The sales person constantly tries to remind you that you’re getting the exact value of a BMW and a Mercedes for a lot lesser price.

Give people the relief that they’ve struck gold by discovering your own product. If your product delivers on its perceived value and promise, your customers would become your brand evangelists.

8). Make Your Sales Pitch Sound Like You’re The Most Intelligent Person In Your Field:

People always love to seek professional advice before they make a big purchasing decision. If they have any reason to feel you’re not good enough to enlighten them, they’d simply walk away with an excuse.

When making your sales pitch to a prospect, make it seem like every other salesperson around isn’t half as good as you are. Show them proof of other customer testimonials saying the best things about their purchases through you. People get excited if important people respect and seek advice from an acquaintance they’re familiar with.

Progress, facts and great testimonials would get prospects to spend their hard earned money on your expensive products.

Besides, you’re the expert!

What are your thoughts on these 8 ways to sell an expensive product? Let me know by leaving a comment below.

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