 How to increase the price of your products without losing customers is a big challenge. Price has a significant influence on our profits, our sales volumes and our customers, and we're all barred in with messages about charging what our products are worth, but also often it feels easier said than done, doesn't it? So let me help you with implementing your product price increases, which you need to get the retailers to agree to. I'm going to let you in on seven secrets on how the experts deliver a price increase as part of their retail pricing strategy. And then towards the end of the video, as a bonus, if you like, I'm going to give you two options to use in an emergency only that will help land that increase but still keep the customer happy. My name is Anna Taylor and I've spent 20 years working on pricing in multinational companies such as Cabri, Peroni, Asahi and Unilever. We worked alongside sales and marketing teams, successfully creating and launching a range of new products and selling and negotiating them into key retailers. Now if you're new to this channel, Enhance Stop Trading provides online business courses to help professionals, managers and business owners improve their performance. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up, subscribe and share it with friends. Now many of us don't like talking about money or pricing in the first place, so talking about increasing product prices can seem even harder, but let me reassure you, price increases are nothing new. They're expected. It's common to be reluctant to put up your prices. So if this is you, please don't worry because we can all overcome it. It comes from perhaps a fear of avoidance or of confrontation or perhaps a rejection, but there are things you can do when thinking about how to increase the price of your products, which will make success much more likely. So let's start with the first secret to product price increases and that is confidence. And yes, I know this might sound obvious, but hear me out because it is about believing in the value of your product and the value of your product price increase. This is the element that's firmly in your control, yet it can also be one of the hardest. So let me share three pricing tips to increase your confidence and chance of delivering a price increase successfully. First of all, you need to believe in your product price increase. Now product price increases often fail not because the customer doesn't accept the increase, but because the salesperson fails to believe in that price increase. Now it may sound like a cheesy mantra to believe in yourself, but any lack of confidence will come across in the meeting with the customer. Of course, once the by sense is a lack of confidence or uncertainty, then they're free to use this insecurity in negotiating a discount. On the other hand, if you're confident in your words, your body language and attitude, then this will also shine through and the customer is much more likely to believe in that price increase too. Now a sales director for a top drinks company described how to increase the price of your products like this. He says, there is a mindset with price increase. You should have confidence in what you're asking or you will never achieve it. So whether you're in sales and have been told to sell in a price increase or you're making the decision for yourself and your own products, you must believe in it. Banish the negative thoughts and you can do all you can to increase your confidence and resolve. I mean, these next two tips should also help because the second secret on how to increase the price of your products is to think about an even higher product price increase. This will help you put things into perspective. So let's say you were planning, say a 5% price increase, I'd like you to plan for a 10% price increase. Now you're not actually going to sell in the higher price increase, but it will help in your preparation because if you could justify a 10% increase, detaining the reasons, the value that you're giving is worth 10% more than you've been charging, then the 5% will seem relatively small and increase your confidence to deliver the price increase successfully. Now the third secret of how to increase the price of your products is to go into the meeting with one price only. Because if you go into that sales meeting expecting to give a discount, it will show in your voice, your body language, and your communication. Be confident so the buyer doesn't get any signals they can negotiate. Now I'm not suggesting arrogance nor extreme stubbornness, and I'm not against offering things to make the price more palatable. What I'm saying here is not to go into the meeting thinking that you'll never get your target price. Let me give you a real life example. Yeah, a buyer for a big four supermarket told me they were delighted every time somebody started their price discussions with the words, well, this is my starting price. Now she said this was great, and she would simply ask, well, what's your end price? And the price was lowered without any effort at all. Do not make the buyer's life too easy. Preparation for product price increases is crucial. And the first step is to believe in what you're doing, to have confidence and to plan for and expect the best outcome. So now we have confidence and belief in our product price increase. We can now focus on the fourth secret of how to increase the price of your products, and that is understanding the value you offer in addition to the product. So increasing the perception of value provided to the customer will help you deliver a price increase successfully. So what you need to do, create a list of all the things you or your company have done for that customer. Focus on the value that you brought that customer since the last price increase. It could be all the times you've gone the extra mile and yet did not charge your customer extra. Did you perhaps run initiatives to get more customers into their stores? Did you deliver an urgent order the next day but only charge them standard delivery price? Or did you recommend them to others or feature them on your social media? You don't need to share your list with your customer, although, well, yes, it might come in handy. But you do need to understand the value that you provide. Do you've earned that price increase? Do you deserve to be paid for the value you're providing to your customers? Keep in mind all your examples of adding value and helping this customer when you speak to them about increasing the price of your products. Now, the fifth secret of how to raise product prices is to understand the value the product offers to the customers. So revisit your sales numbers. Show what your product has done to drive sales for the customer and how your plans will continue to do so. Make sure you know your customer's objectives so you can talk about how your product can deliver those objectives. That same sales director I spoke about earlier also told me when planning how to increase the price of your products that you should be able to push for the maximum price and sell the benefit, but without ever justifying the price increase or pinning it on market forces. Always remember, the price increase allows you to work better and invest in your product and brand, which in turn will benefit your customer and allow them to grow too. The sixth secret for how to increase the price of your product successfully requires you to present your price increase in a favorable context for your customer. Do your homework on your customer and research what they've done over the past year also or since your last price increase. For example, have they put up other or competing product prices? Find out the percentage price increase so you can frame your price increase within their pricing strategy. Let me give you another real-life example. So a customer we sold to had put their product prices up to their consumers by one pound during the year. So we proposed to increase our price to them by 50p. All we were proposing was splitting the benefit of the increase that our customer had already put through. Doing our homework showed our customers able to successfully increase the price of the consumer thanks to the strength of our brand and the value our product provided. Now the final and seventh secret for how to increase the price of your product successfully is to provide a favorable context for the customer. Now there's different ways to provide a favorable context, such as framing your increase to get something big so your product price increase looks proportionally smaller. An example might be the increased spend of your product per year compared to the cost of purchasing a cup of coffee each day for a year, something like that. This type of comparison will give you confidence that your customer can afford it, but will also help you demonstrate the insignificance of the increase should you need to. So there you have seven secrets for how to increase the price of your product successfully. What if after all that, you're still met with resistance? Because you all should also prepare for what you will say if the customer refuses or is unwilling to accept the increase despite the great value you and your product provide. So what else can you do to deliver the price increase successfully? Well, let me give you a couple of options that I promised you at the start of this video. It's all about preparing for making the price increase easier or less painful for the customer. But I'm certainly not going to tell you, well, just to reduce the price straight away or to discount any increase away, it's all about offering alternatives to help the customer and to support them. Now, one option when working out how to deliver retail product price increases is to provide a lower value product offer to match the customer's desire for a smaller product price increase. Now, by offering your customer an alternative option at a lower price that they are happier to pay, their reaction will show you whether your customer cares more about the cost to them or the value they get. Because if they care more about the value they receive and getting the original product, they're more likely to accept that original price increase. But if they're driven more by cost over anything else, then they'll accept the cheaper and lower value alternative product. This should still be a positive outcome for you. After all, if they're so cost driven, the cheaper product is likely to be a better fit for their store and consumers. And additionally, as long as you've priced your alternative product correctly, you should still be making strong margins on these cheaper products. Now, a second option when working out how to increase the price of your products is to offer your customer perhaps a transition period such as a pre-price increase stock buying. A stock buying gives the customer a chance to buy a limited quantity of products before the price increase. Now, you can present this as an opportunity for them, a favor, as they can buy more stock than they normally would, but still at the current price which would then last them longer before running out. Now, you do need to do your calculations and planning in advance so you know how much you'll offer them, how long that stock should last, and the monetary benefit to them of taking that deal. That way, you know that you can afford it and whether you've got enough stock available. Overall, in this scenario, the customer will still get the price increase, albeit a bit later than first communicated, and you'll get an increase in revenue from the stock buying. And as for your customer, well, they'll be happy that they got the chance to buy extra stock at the original price before that price increase kicks in. So, we've gone through seven secrets of how to increase the price of your products. If you've designed and made a product that is valued by its consumers, you deserve to get a price that relates to that value. Over the lifespan of a product, there will always be price increases, and you shouldn't fear product price increases, you should just prepare for them. Be confident, focus on the value you create for the customer and consumer, and present the price increase in a favorable context and you'll be able to deliver product price increases successfully. Good luck with your next price increase meeting. Do drop me a note and let me know how you get on because I love hearing all your stories and your feedback. If you liked this video, please hit the thumbs up button below and subscribe. Thank you for watching and I look forward to seeing you again soon.