Continued From: Psychology of Choosing
Let’s examine the pain points associated with choosing. Making a choice requires sacrifice. Choosing one usually means not choosing another. In some situations, there’s a way to make trade-offs and enjoy the “best of both worlds,” as the saying goes.
But let’s stay focused here and agree that choosing a taco means no burrito, enchilada, quesadilla, torta, and so forth. Sacrifice sucks. No matter how much you might like all of the foods, you’re probably not going to order the entire menu to not miss out. That’d be really weird … and a waste of money.
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But people tend to be loss averse. No one wants to give up the range of options or make a wrong decision. Think about Choose Your Own Adventure books. By choosing one scenario, you cannot choose another. In life, unlike in the book, we cannot turn back the pages if we encounter an unpleasant outcome and take the path not taken.
No one likes making wrong decisions. Therefore, people want to make the decision that will benefit them the most. (Remember, customers have priorities.) It’s a matter of minimizing loss.
What this means for you as a photographer is that you need to develop your product options carefully. A package list, for example, that’s difficult to understand and navigate makes decision-making hard for clients, and it may actually motivate them to use someone else—someone with a nice, clean, easy-to-understand price list—for their photography gig.
Create Less Attractive Packages
Think in terms of how you can reduce the sacrifice of customers who choose your services and decide on specific packages. Understand that by committing to one package, an individual is choosing to miss out on some features of a different package. And the more attractive all of your packages are, the more loss your clients would feel because of opportunity cost.
Therefore, even though it is silly, create package(s) that are less attractive to make the one that you wish people to buy more desirable. Remember that people only understand value through comparison.
For me personally, years after graduation, I’m still imagining what my life might be like if I had studied computer science instead of political science. I can’t help but wonder whether I could have been one of those new tech startups published in Forbes. I’ll never know …
This is just one more reason you need to understand your target market and figure out what they prioritize. Help customers feel excellent about a decision to hire you to capture their once-in-a-lifetime moments by aligning the features that matter most to them and making it available at the right price.
Next: Create Photographer Packages that Sell
Other Sections
- What are You Worth?
- Psychology of Choosing
- Choosing is Painful
- Create Photographer Packages that Sell – New
- Secrets on How to Handle Discounters
- How to Make Discounting Work – New
- How to be Fearless in Pricing
- How to Name Your Packages
- Increase Your Perceived Value Easily – Coming Soon
Yours Chipotle-loving friend,
Lawrence Chan
P.S. Delightful note by Nerinna Valera about my pricing e-book.
The book was informative. I downloaded immediately after I got the link, hopped onto a train and finished it within 1.5 hours – just a few minutes before I had to hop off.
I’ll probably have to keep re-reading a few parts just to make sure it’s engrained into my brain. So, please keep putting stuff out there because everyone can learn from you. Really, really good stuff.
Read more about this rewritten 2nd edition pricing e-book HERE.
Or …
[price-item item_number=”2″ category=”pricing ebook”]
Hi Lawrence,
If you haven’t picked me yet, will you pick me now? I had this little misadventure last night, and really, I need all the help I can with pricing to make sure I am (amongst other things) financially covered when my equipment takes a nosedive on the concrete. Only the filter broke, the lens is ok…and I can bring food too, if you’d like!
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Hi Lawrence,
I’m Natan from the Loma Linda area. I’d love to attend the workshop because I can see how much I can learn from you and others both in photography, lighting, posing, and entrepreneurship. I also love marketing, and your blogs really are just awesome!
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Lawrence,
May I please attend this seminar? I have faith in my work and love what I do but my pricing/packages struggle most of all. I’m having a hard time getting people to “bite”. They like my work but getting them to get past the sticker shock is a hard thing to do. I know this would help!
I would be happy to bring something baked or even a veggie tray (with dip!). Let me know what I can do.
Hayley Burk
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Loving the series so far! Invite please!
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and…
My name is Jason. I’m currently in Long Beach, CA. I want get my creative juices flowing by hearing some new ideas. Trying to get my wedding videography shindig started, so it would be cool to also meet some other local professionals/artist.
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Hello Lawrence Chan,
I guess I am a little late in asking for an invite for your seminar, so sad! but if there is any chance you have any openings, I would love to attend. I live in Upland, CA…….. I will bring goodies too!!
Liz Garcia
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