MyBusinessDashboard Blog: How to Be High-End

From http://www.MyBusiness-Advisors.com


Price can be a difficult concept for a small business owner. The good old supply and demand curves are the ultimate factors, but there are things entrepreneurs can do to change those curves. There are basically two strategies when it comes to pricing: Skim and Shove.

When you price yourself lower than the competition in order to increase market share, you are executing the Shove strategy. You are shoving your way into the market with a lower price. If you offer a higher-end product/service and price it accordingly, you are Skimming the cream off the top. In the Skim strategy, there is more to just having a great product and pricing it higher. You must know how to be high end.

The key to being high end is service. In most cases, the better product or service alone will not justify the higher prices. Let's consider a couple of examples.

First, the hair salon. The salon might have some of the best hair dressers/stylists in the area. These professionals might be head and shoulders above the competition (pun intended). However, if they were to treat their customers like a typical barber shop - take a number, read a magazine, and get your hair cut as fast as possible, ending up covered in your own hair - they would not be able to justify the high-end dollar price. These salons make the entire experience a luxury. They wash your hair, give you a sparkling water while you wait, massage your head/neck, etc. They treat you like royalty. It's that whole experience that creates the value and makes them high end.

Second, the car dealer. It's one thing to make a really fancy, high-end machine. It's another to make the entire car-buying experience a pleasure, to make it a unique experience. That is why many high-end car dealers will make their show rooms feel more like resorts. They understand that being high-end involves more that just the product.

In one of Bill Clinton's successful presidential campaigns, his team boiled the issues down to, "It's the economy, stupid!" I think we can boil "how to be high-end" down into, "It's the customer's experience, stupid!"

It's not enough to have a high-end product. You have to make the entire customer experience a high-end experience.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• small
• business
• dashboard
• tool
• success
• ideas
• strategies

[bananabananaculture]

Hey! Thanks for this brief and informing vlog. I need to know these things for my interview next week to be a receptionist at a highend hair salon in Toronto. What did you think about the Salon calling you back to ask you how it was? Do you think they would have done anything if you hAd not liked it? Do you calling was just so pompous and unnessesary of them?