Lesson: What’s Your Pricing Strategy?

0:02Hi, and welcome to this week's episode of the Epic Entrepreneurs podcast where we are all about helping business owners just like you achieve success. So we don't do fancy smancy. We don't do flashing lights. We don't do a lot of things that a lot of podcasts will do. These are just real stories about real people and their entrepreneurial and business experiences. We go into their wins, their challenges, and their learnings. So we hope you enjoy it.

0:37Welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs powered by Action Coach Growth Partners. You likely went into business to have more freedom and flexibility so that you could spend more time with your family, do more things or travel or enjoy your hobbies or whatever it is that you like to do in your spare time. We're here to help you find better ways to make more money, build better teams and get that time back so that you can have that freedom and flexibility. We'll help you simplify things and make sense of business, investing, and wealth building so that you can be epic and achieve all your dreams and goals.

1:10And now, enjoy the show. Hey there, welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. And this week, I'd like to talk to you about your pricing strategy. But before we do that, let me remind you why we're here. We're here to help you be epic. And what does that mean? Well, that means if you do the education, if you do the planning, if you do the basics well, you'll find the inspiration to commit to a course of excellence that will allow you to stand out, to be different, to be better, to have some fun, and to create exponential results for you in your life and in your business. So we're here to help you be epic.

1:56So let's get on to the show. I'd like to tell you a story and I don't want you to get, if you're not a golfer, it's okay. Just pay attention to the rest of it. I've got to lay it out for you. I was lucky enough. I am a golfer and I was lucky enough to be able to go with my sons and some cousins and one other person to, that was a friend of ours, to go to Scotland to play golf for about a week. that's every golfer's dream it's the home of golf it's where golf was invented we were going to st andrews to play golf and we were fortunate enough we got on the old course uh to play golf we we played on a number of other courses one of the other courses we played is called king's barns and so it's part uh for those of you who are not familiar with golf there are four major championships, one being the Open Championship.

2:53We used to call it in the U.S. the British Open. Now we just call it the Open Championship. The Open Championship rotates around the various courses. It's played at St. Andrews and it's played at Carnoustie, but it's not played at King's Barns.

3:12There's another golf tournament on the European Pro Tour that plays on three courses at once. It's kind of a pro-am and they use St. Andrew's Old Course. They use Carnoustie and they use Kings Barns as the three courses. And then they play the final round over the Old Course to determine the champion. So each member plays one of the three courses and then they play the final round again at St. Andrew's Old Course. So Kings Barnes is right up there. It's a big course. It's famous. But I want to talk to you more about what their pricing strategy is because it's interesting. It's over 400 pounds, which is you can add about 25 cents to come up with dollars.

4:03So that would make it about almost$500 to play a round of golf there. We also played at other courses much, much less. We played at one that was 40 pounds to play. Now, was Kings Barn, let me tell you, the Kings Barn's experience is amazing. They come in, they take care of you. They're super high customer service. They have all the facilities and the amenities and locker rooms and a place to eat. They even have their own whiskey brand. They have their own distillery. Kings Barn's does a fantastic job. They have a nice pro shop where you can buy merchandise. their setup to help them maximize separating you from your well-earned dollars.

4:53So there's nothing wrong with that. It's a great business model. They have a lot and they do extremely well. And I mean, from dusk until dawn, they line up group after group after group after group. You can go out there as one person and they'll pair you up with other people. but you need to make a resume. They have a big demand for Kingsbarns. Yet the price to play Kingsbarns is more than either the old course, which was the original golf course, and or Carnoustie, or pretty much every other golf course in the region. Now what they've done is created demand with the price. Let me give you an example.

5:39If you didn't have to pay for it, would you rather have a Honda or a Mercedes. Mercedes, look, I rented a Honda the last time I rented a car and virtually everything on it, all the technology, all the quality things were just the same as a Mercedes. It just is. Everything, it was a high-end car. It was very well done. yes there's a few little nice touches in a mercedes that the honda may or may not have but they're you gotta argue that they're both great cars they're both excellent cars why does one in a similar size cost more than or is priced at more than the other one at that length because they've created this perception that it's better.

6:39And they've largely done that through quality and they've done it through price. So I want you to think about it. I mean, you know, Starbucks has done a great job. What does it cost to actually make a cup of coffee? I mean, if you make a cup, if you have a cup of coffee at home, going to cost you less than a buck, probably. You go to Starbucks, you're going to pay four to 10 bucks for your cup of coffee. They've done a nice job of creating a belief that their coffee is better. Now, let me ask you a question about this Kings Barn thing. So I played a perfectly good golf course for 40 pounds. I played Kings Barns, which was a better golf course, but it wasn't 10 times better.

7:22It was just better. So the experience to me was the same other than a few things. I, you know, it was golf and it was in Scotland. Was I on a better course? Yes, I was. Was it 10 times better? It just wasn't. There's no way. And so what have they done? What have they done is they've created this pricing strategy that we can learn from as business owners. So my question to you is, what's your pricing strategy? Often what we have, my clients come to me all the time and say, well, I can't possibly go up on my price because then I'll be more than my competitors. I'm like, well, are you better than your competitors?

8:12Are you better than your competitors? If you're better than your competitors, shouldn't you be at a higher price? Shouldn't they be willing to pay for more value? And they always say, yeah, I'm better than my competitors. I said, well, put a higher price on it because that's going to peg you as better. I've had it happen in my coaching. I was talking to a prospective client and he told me, you know, I gave him, when we went through our deal, I did a strategy session. We talked about the strategy and tactics to get him where he was. And he eventually hired me. And I didn't know this at the time.

8:50He said, you know, I was interviewing another person. And I'm I'm like, great. He said, you were four times higher. I said, why did you go with me? He said, well, you must be better. It's all there. I like to think I was better. I have no idea. So my question to you is, what is your pricing strategy? Are you setting your price at the correct level for the target audience that you're, if you're going after high-end clients, you're going to want to charge more than your competitors. If you're going after the price shoppers, you're going to have to be fighting the deal. I believe lowering your price is a game and a fast race to the bottom.

9:41So what I would suggest is go ahead and raise your prices about 10%. Check around, and if you're the best and you're not the highest, keep checking until you are. So I hope this has been informative. It was informative to me to see how a truly great golf course could even be priced more than certainly the old course is better than Kings Barnes in anybody's mind, but yet they've priced it higher. Certainly, Carnoustie, which Gary Player once called the hardest golf course in the world, is better. I've played it. It is far better than Kingsbarns. I don't even think it's in the same league. And yet, Kingsbarns has created the mysticism and the perception that they're worth it.

10:39And I believe that they are because people are paying it. So what's your pricing strategy? If you'd like a little help with your pricing strategy, just reach out to us. You know how to get in touch with us. It's all in the show notes. And I look forward to chatting with you. And until next time, all the best. Thanks for joining us for this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. Here's four things you can do. First, you can listen every week on Biz Radio, Mondays at 1. Second, you can subscribe to the podcast. Hey, you get it. The more subscribers we have, the more cool things we can offer you. Three, you can also go out and give us a five-star rating everywhere.

11:22And number four, if you'd like a free copy of my book, The Coach Approach, Five Principles to Build an Epic Business, just go to giftfrombuild.com. It's your roadmap to building your epic business. That's giftfrombuild.com. Until next time, all the best. hey thanks for listening to the epic entrepreneurs podcast here's three things that you can do number one remember to subscribe to the podcast it takes very little effort on your part it's going to help you and your fellow entrepreneurs plus you you guys know how it works the more subscribers we get, the more cool things we can offer to you. Second, to learn more about growing your business, just download my book, The Coach Approach.

12:10It's free for you at giftfrombill.com. That's giftfrombill.com. Hey, and if you'd like more info about growing your business and what we can do to help you grow your business, send me an email directly. Just send it to williamgilliland at actioncoach.com. That's my personal email that I read. No one else reads it first. It's not screened. It's my real email. Just send it to me. I can't wait to talk to you. Hey, and until then, all the best.