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What is Your Customer Willing to Pay?

Lesson 6 from: How to Make a Living Selling What You Make

Megan Auman

What is Your Customer Willing to Pay?

Lesson 6 from: How to Make a Living Selling What You Make

Megan Auman

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Lesson Info

6. What is Your Customer Willing to Pay?

Lessons

Class Trailer

Session 1

1

Class Introduction

19:47
2

Define Your Big Goals: What Gets You Out of Bed?

31:09
3

Finding YOUR Ideal Number

37:12
4

How Much Should You Pay Yourself an Hour?

32:03
5

Who is the Ideal Customer for Your Products?

30:33
6

What is Your Customer Willing to Pay?

38:34
7

Pricing Your Products for Profit

31:06
8

Where Does Your Brand Need Work?

51:31
9

What Are The Strengths and Weaknesses of Your Products?

40:07
10

What Makes You a Great Business Owner?

36:19
11

What Should Your Product Be Now?

43:38
12

Bonuses w/ Purchase

01:33
13

Bonus w/ Purchase: Your MAL # (ideal #) in Detail

05:50
14

Bonus with Purchase: Testing Customer Profiles using Facebook ads

16:27

Session 2

15

Live Check In

40:19
16

Shift Your Money Mindset

43:12
17

How To Finance Your Business

33:57
18

Are You Ready to Crowdfund?

52:51
19

Analyze Business Opportunities

35:12
20

Test the Market by Entering with a BANG

50:33
21

Plan Your First Big Sales Event

55:31
22

Market and Promote Your Event: How to Build Buzz

57:00
23

Make Your Event a Success

54:17
24

Analyze and Move Forward

33:18
25

Bonus with Purchase: Calculating ROI

20:10

Session 3

26

Evolve Your Product Line

59:42
27

Create a Production Strategy

52:12
28

Plan for Growth and Future Revenue Streams

35:47
29

Your Big Business Vision

41:23
30

Draft Your Daily and Monthly Action Plan

44:09
31

Keep the Momentum Going

19:48
32

Live Check-in - Finale

28:59
33

Bonus with Purchase: Adjusting your MAL # with employees and contractors

15:16
34

Free Bonus: Student Interviews - Catherine Utschig

00:54
35

Free Bonus: Student Interviews - Christine Herrin

01:35
36

Free Bonus: Student Interviews - Holly Tanner Straus

01:17
37

Free Bonus: Student Interviews - Joy Jenkins

01:03
38

Free Bonus: Student Interviews - Leah Drapkin

01:08
39

Free Bonus: Student Interviews - Lisa Jones

01:12
40

Free Bonus: Student Interviews - Monica Jacquay

01:12
41

Free Bonus: Student Interviews - Richelle

01:13

Lesson Info

What is Your Customer Willing to Pay?

Hello, everyone. So today we are on lesson five. What is your customer willing to pay? Let's, take a look at today's goal we want to identify where your customers shopping and what they're willing to pay for your products because we can't set your ultimate price that we don't know what your customer wants to pay because that's really our secret right to making a living, selling what you make that we have to make a product at a price that people want to buy right? And we have to make a profit at that price. So in the last lesson, we developed your ideal customer profile, so we took a look at who the individuals are who are buying your product. But today we're going to live a little bit deeper, find out a little bit more about them and where they're shopping, which is gonna lead us to what they're willing to pay. So let's, take a look at where we are we are in session one set the foundation for your sustainable business, and we're on lesson five. What is your customer willing to pay? So ...

the reality is that if the market you're currently in can't support the prices you need to charge to make a living, selling what you make it's, not the right market for you. I don't care if you've been there for a million years I don't care if you love all the customers that air there I don't care if you think it's amazing and it's how you got your start and it's so important to you and I don't care if that market can't support the price is that you need to charge to make a living selling what you make it is not the right market for you right? So what I want to do before we start to look at what the markets are that could potentially be serving your customers I want to talk about what we mean by market because this is one of those things that we throw around a lot right now I want to make sure that we're all on the same page so a market is anyplace where buyers and sellers come together to exchange value and it could be anything it can be any size if you're standing on a street corner selling lemonade and one person comes up that's a market right you've got something they've got money exchange value we're all good right? It could be huge it could be the entire internet now that's a pretty big giant market we want a narrow it down a little but they could be a lot of sizes so in a few minutes we're gonna bring up a guest terror gentili, who is a fantastic business strategist and creative a lot creative live expert instructor because I want to talk about an idea that I first learned from terra, which is that markets are conversations and I have to admit the first many times but I heard tara say this I really could not wrap my head around it I was like what I like and I sort of get it but it was it was really not feeling very concrete to me but what I'd open a little deeper so this idea comes from a book called the clue train manifesto and in the book they talk about this idea that the first markets were filled with people not abstractions or statistical aggregates they were the places where supply met demand with a farm handshake. Buyers and sellers looked at each other in the eye they met they connected the first markets were places for exchange where people people came to buy what others had to sell and to talk. This makes so much more sense to me because now I can picture shopping in the markets in india right? That's what that's what the marketplace was originally place on the street it doesn't need a place in the town you came you met you interacted you talked gossiped whenever that was and then sometimes you exchange value so then I start to think about how this comes to play in our current world and I realized that one of the things that trips me up and it probably trips a lot of you up to is that conversations don't have to be verbal right? So I was like, I don't know conversations where my customers I don't get it interest is a conversation, right? It's a visual conversation, people are putting up products, but they're talking about the things that they like. They're thinking about their hobbies, I get my news off a pinterest so I'm getting the day's news all of these things are happening and pinterest knows their conversation, right? Because they added that messaging feature sometimes the only way that my sister and I interact for entire week by sonny each other pin's knows that people are having conversations here. This is a marketplace they really know it's a marketplace, right? Because they're in the process of rolling out those by buttons real excited about that. So this is an example of a marketplace where the conversations that are happening are visual as opposed to verbal so don't get really wrapped up in this conversation's idea that such a sticking point anyplace where this interaction or this exchange of ideas happening is the potential for a marketplace. The other thing with marketplaces is that there is a huge range of markets available for the same product let's say that you needed to buy an engagement ring there are a lot of places that you could go to get an engagement ring. You could go to wal mart well, but you could you could go to the chain jewelry store, you could go to your local jeweller and get something custom you could go on at sea, you could go to your local craft show, you know you could call a high end artisan jeweler there's a lot of different places where you could go to get the same product, and I'm guessing that a lot of you are probably selling yourself short, right? You haven't thought of all of the marketplace is right. You make scrapbook products, we're all the places that people go to make scrap of products that they go to craft, right? But there's, probably even within that there's so many different areas that they're going tio you may go to the craft store, they might also go to target or wal mart or the office supply store, right? There's a lot of places that people are looking, so don't limit yourselves to kind of the very first obvious markets because the opportunity maybe in the one you're not thinking about the other thing that's really important to remember is that the markets that urine can change the perceived value of what you're selling right? So back to our engagement ring example before my husband and I got engaged I told him that if he bought me an engagement ring from a chain jewelry store or the mall I would say no because the perceived value is very different right I mean jeweller I have standards so think about where you're putting your product because it changes the value completely right so when you know what conversations remember conversations can be visuals wells verbal so when you know conversations your customers having and where they're having them you can start to figure out what they're willing to pay for your products this's really the key right if we know that our customers looking for an engagement ring at a high end one of a kind independent jewelry store that's a different price point then if they're looking forward at walmart it's also a different price point that if they're looking for it on etsy most likely right so we need to know where our customers are going and what they're talking about so we can figure out what they're willing to pay so before we go into actually looking at some of those prices I want to bring up our lovely guest sarah gentilly terra why don't you join us on stage so I am so pleased to have you here in the studio I was so pleased to be thank you for joining us so you guys don't know terra I don't how you wouldn't know because she is a creative live rock star I'm going to make you blush on a super business strategist and this is really your area of expertise so we know what we're going to talk about this that I absolutely had to have you on so I'm gonna need my cheat sheet here come a lot of things I have in my brain right now so you were the first one introduced me to this idea of markets is conversations so what is it about this definition that you find so compelling there's a lot of different definitions of marketplace why this one so I think the reason that this definition is so compelling to me is because of how rapidly commerce this changing right now and you know you made the point of like, you know, going to india and you know the marketplace in india is just so obvious right? But you also made the point about the corner you know, the street corner there are so many markets that are just not obvious you know, people are doing business on facebook they're doing business on instagram they're doing business over email just back and forth really casually and so I love this definition because I think it gets us thinking less about place and more about people and we start talking about people and thinking about what people's actual behaviours are how they're actually making buying decisions what what goes into their choice between, you know, a chain store or a high end jewelry jeweler then we can really start to understand why someone would choose our product over another and so that's why that definition is so compelling to me and so in your boot camp here in creative lives stand up is you gave this example of when you're thinking about conversations that you keep it really broad right? So can you talk about that? Because I know we tend to think it has to be narrow and that's the wrong way to approach yeah, absolutely so you know, when you're thinking about your niece sure, go go narrow get really specific about what you're creating and who you're creating it for, but when you're thinking about conversations or when you're thinking about markets, you need to go a lot more broad because there's a lot of products that compete with ours that don't look like our prop sucks, right? You know, when we're thinking about a ring, it is easy to think about shoes is competing with the ring right? Then just other rings, right? So it's not you're not in the ring conversation, you're in the personal accessories conversation you're in the personal style conversation, so when you go really broad with what your market is, you can actually look at all the opportunity there is to create value for that market to find the right price in that market to your point about that on do you really start to see who your real competitors are in the market and that's especially helpful if you're coming to market with a really innovative product, something that maybe somebody hasn't done before? Maybe it's just a really innovative material or style, you know? You can't say no, I don't have any competitors, you have to look at the other things people are going to buy so that you can figure out how to position yourself for your product similarly to those things and it's also way more fun, I know I want to be in a conversation that includes rings and xu wei doesn't want me in that conversation, all right? Really? So, you know, you started out working with a lot of makers and crafters back that was how I met you, but you've really shifted your business too much broader range of entrepreneurs and one of the things that you've pointed out and this is something that you and I have talked about is that crafters tended to find themselves by really narrow markets, etc why do you think this happens and do you see it happening in other fields as well? Or is it just our problem? Oh no, no, no like in every single guy it's a big problem, so I think the reason that this happens is because people, they gravitate to what is kind of easy and available and on, and they get really stuck in a narrow understanding of, you know, how they can sell their products, how they could market their products and who they can sell to and because of commerce is changing so rapidly because we have so many opportunities today we kind of pick one of those opportunities and stick with it, and then let that opportunity to find us our business, our brand, our products are price, and that is really limiting. If you're letting the mark, please, if you're letting kind of a narvik terry decision about your marketplace, define all of those things about your product, then there's all sorts of other things you can't define for yourself and there's all home, a lot of mobility and, you know, interesting things that you could do that you're really limiting yourself against so it's a big problem and that's why, yeah, on hopefully what we're going to do in this campus, we're gonna break you of that way and that's, why we're having this conversation? We want to get you out of the marketplace that you jumped, too, because it was the obvious choice and get you into the one that has the prices and the conversations that your customers were taking part in so one of your superpowers is the ability to listen to customers online. You're really good at that. So how is it personally impacted your business? And then can you share? A few strategy is that we all can use to listen our customers better? Yeah, absolutely. So I love listening to my customers through social media. To me, social media is way more about lift, meaning that it is about broadcasting. Sure, I do a lot of broadcasting it's, one of the ways that I interact with people, but it's also the place where I go to observe what people are doing and saying and thinking and feeling about the products on services that they're looking to buy. And so the way I go about doing that is just kind of by watching I mean, it sounds really obvious, but but that's what ideo, whether it's pinterest or whether it's, facebook or whether it's, twitter or whether it's going to a craft show or a fine art fair and observing people that's what I do, I do a lot of people watching, I'm an introvert, it's very helpful, actually, right now I'm trying to figure out, why are people doing things that they're doing? Why are they talking about the things that they're doing? What is this conversation representing in terms of a misconception or an assumption that people have maybe they're missing something that I have the answer to? Maybe they're asking a question that I have the answer, sir. Two so that's, what I'm looking for when I'm on social media when I'm out and about in person, I mean, even you know, you guys have questions I'm listening in on those I want to know, right? And you can kind of create systems for yourself in social media to make that a lot easier. One of my favorite ones is twitter list I think I've shared the tip every single time I've guessed it on it's great of life, but it it's like such a great thing, the good thing is you could do it in just about any other social media platform to khun do something similar pinterest you could do something similar on facebook, so what I do on twitter is a different list so that I can listen in on kind of friends and colleagues I can listen in on ideal customers and then I can listen in on the industry as a whole as well, so I have like an influencer lift and I thought that all up on hoot suite so that instead of looking at this long, convoluted feed of things that is meaning less, I can look very quickly a lot of different things that are very meaning full to me and very quickly I can get an idea of what bothering people right now, what their current successes are, what they're excited about, andi, I can incorporate that into my work, and the way I incorporate that into my work is through content marketing primarily, so block posts the social media that I do broadcast, so facebook updates or tweets instagrams on dh, then I kind of played with that content marketing so that I make sure that it resonates with what people are putting out there, and resonance is kind of a really big theme for me right now, and this idea of markets, those conversations is key for creating residence when you know what people are talking about, and you can talk about it with them instead of telling them about your product instead of promoting your business, but actually have a conversation with them about what's important to them. What matters right now, you can create residence when once you've got residence, then you can tell them about your product, and then they're really excited about it. Awesome! And I want to add teo, you twitter is your jam, you know, it doesn't have to know what my thing is, pinterest and I'm doing the same thing, you know, slightly different methods, but at the same all the same things I'm paying attention, I know what's going on, you know, I just did a photo shoot with a model of my new rings, and people were like, oh, I love the white nail polish it so on trend yeah, I actually knew that was coming, like, six months ago because I'm paying attention on pinterest and seeing what's happening right? And so was that teeny tiny detail, right? She created all of that resonance so that that image wass not just a great image, but something that people wanted to share, something that I felt really meaning for it to them and that's, exactly what's missing from most marketing. So if you feel like you're marketing it's really missing the mark it's, probably because you're not creating resonance and if you want to create residents, look to the conversation, see what people are talking about, see what speaking their interest and laid to that don't just try and put your product out there and latest greatest way really play into that and you started mentioned this, but I just want to reiterate it because I know that there are so many makers who are listening in there like I don't have time to hang out on social media all day. Yeah, so yeah, I know, but I think it's really important because you know, how do you balance, especially if you're someone who has to spend a lot of time in your studio making product? Do you have any tips? Just let you go if I know you're allowed to say, well, I think you know, one no don't spend all day on social media and in time you can't not pay attention if you're not paying attention, you can't create marketing the resonate yeah, period so you've gotto find systems for paying attention on dh then I think it comes down to efficient see, so it comes down to picking one platform maybe I'm really focusing on that one platform see what people are paying attention to their see what matters to them there and then create media or create marketing collateral that matches that so that it feels like it fits right into that. It feels like it's on trend esso I think narrowing your focus when it comes to social media is probably best way to avoid getting sucked into the vortex so instead trying to be everything and everywhere to everyone pick one platform really figure that out really work that over so that, you know, you know you're always on top of things there is a lot easier than trying to be everywhere I tried to be everywhere for a long time not it's, not fun. It's, not fun, it's. Not helpful, it's, not efficient and it's, you know, if I want anything for my business, its efficiency, awesome. So, you know, if you're not sure conversations your customers air having, which I think is really true for a lot of makers, because you're going to get stuck in our process maker bubble. And so if you have no idea what conversations their customers are having, how do you start? Where do you start? You can't google for a conversation that you don't know exist, no this's true. So I think the easiest place to start is probably like at the magazine rack. If you're making products that people are either putting on them, selves are putting on their homes or using on a day to day basis, there's, probably a magazine that it would fit into take that magazine. Go buy it, it's a business expense on and start paging through it. And the cool thing about magazines now is that they also showcased digital media at the same time, so start following those rabbit holes, you know, open up to a product selection page and then find out where they've posted mohr on instagram or pinterest or facebook because I guarantee you that they are then start looking like, would it look for patterns? Understanding the conversation that you're in is all about looking for patterns, patterns of people's needs patterns of people's wants patterns of people's questions. So if the product spread that you're looking at is all about gift ideas for dad's, you know, that's that's, part that's, a voice in the conversation, right and that's a pattern that's, a question that people are asking right, probably around the middle of june or early june, and so you can go and kind of take that and then follow where that leaves. Where else are people asking for these things? What else are people recommending and so just start looking for those threads. Those patterns that tell you this is something that people are interested in? Same thing with the white nail polish right it's about looking for that looking and noticing that pattern? If you're looking for patterns and then you can make some of your details, some of your marketing match those patterns, then you know you're going to be creating residents there that's awesome, and I think it's also really important to point out to that I know there are a lot of maker's, myself included, who as a for the design of my practice, I don't follow trends, but I also have to be aware of them and understand the conversations my customers they're having so that I can be there, otherwise they're not paying attention at all. No, no, they're not paying attention to you at all, and also it's really expensive to try to go on your own? Sure, you could get someone's attention if you've got a million dollar marketing budget, if you don't want to pay attention to the trend, or if you don't want to pay attention to what people are really caring about right now, but when you tap into something that's already hot, when you tap into something that people already want, it can cost you nothing to create amazing amounts of of residents of, you know, draw for your product, awesome, so thank you so much, that was incredible, but where else besides, you're amazing classes on creative life where else can we find you if you can find me at terry gentilly dot com you can find me on twitter at terra gentilly and pretty much everywhere at terry gentilly on dh then on this very topic, I have a new mini book called the observation engine that's all about understanding how tio observe the market that you're in and work that into marketing that creates residents and ultimately sales I had a fantastic thank you tara thank you, thank you so you guys think any major in I think I was a lot of insights I saw a lot of writing and a lot of nodding so who wants a share in it? Eight in sight big breakthrough but yeah, I thought it was just great how she talked about stick to one social media site getting spread thin between print ten travis, facebook, instagram, twitter it's just it's all overwhelming and you never have enough going on and all of them exactly and one of the things to is that you may end up posting to multiple ones but you really want to pick the one where you're paying attention those conversations where you're observing the customers because that's what's going to lead you this insights for terra its twitter for me it's pinterest, you know, I'm also posting the instagram and facebook but I'm spending my time doing my mike his visual research on pinterest because that's where I know my customers air hanging out the most so what other insights you, michelle, that my stuff isn't trendy either? I don't really follow trends, but like you said, if you made the photo shoot look trendy, right? And then my jewelry was in it they're kind of like piggybacks on that exactly. Yeah, I think that's really, really important is that even people who and this is for anyone makes wearables even people who say they don't follow trends and I'm not talking about you I'm talking about customers, even customers who say they don't follow trends everybody is influenced by trends because they shop in stores and stores are influenced by trends. Some of those stores are further behind some parts of the country maybe further behind or some parts of the world will be further behind, but no one is immune to trends because we live in a world that is run by, you know business is they're trying to make money basically so no one is immune to that, so it doesn't mean right changing your product, but it might be changing contacts that your product is in what most helpful was where do I begin to find the conversations? Yeah, that was one of the things I'm struggling with the mouse is how to get myself into that yeah, and I love that she said magazines climbs such a magazine reader like my airplane guilty pleasure. So I love it. Is it's still a great way to start? Especially for all of us? You're doing such visual things, you know, go to those visual mediums. Look at what's going on on your home that I was going to tell you so much awesome. All right, so now I want to dive into our first exercise for the day, which is to define your market using the customer conversation and remember, we're keeping it broad, right? I'm not having a ring conversation. I'm having a personal style conversation, right? So what conversations are your products? A part of what? You think I'm just gonna go down the line? Monica what conversations? Broad keep abroad, baby baby, right? And mom, mother let motherhood is really your thing luxury gifts I would say right, so gift and I think in your case, this idea of memory, right memory that's all that's really important paper gosh, memory it's like they're not right memory thing the same answer. Yeah, your people yes, they are having a conversation, but why avery doing it? They're trying to preserve everything right? Personal expression, personal expression, personal style, yeah, we definitely personal style, yeah and for years you know, so you're doing the bag so is there any part of like a utility conversation there were in a tech conversation computers uh especially this area that I'm in that's awesome yeah so that's the other thing too is that you may find that you're hitting very different conversations and that may put you in two different places so you may sell to someone that you know featuring laptop bags but then you also might sell the really trendy boutique a couple of blocks over so don't limit yourself if there's more than one conversation happening most personal stars style yeah and there's nothing wrong with that took me a long time to be like right it's cool I like close it's fine that's the conversation that I'm having on dso then where are your customers having these conversations? So monica where where your mother's having conversations about the joys and stresses of motherhood? I thought originally facebook but I'm finding that instagram actually is a really strong one I would definitely believe that that you're hits you right in that market there yeah are your customers I'm not sure all right? So you're going on about that? Yeah say instagram awesome okay, I'm not sure about mine so years is probably case where you're going and you're looking at you go back to the magazine example that and figure out because it's it's, probably that could be pinterest, you know, it could be instagram, their style conversations happening there, too, and I think would with people who are in that personal style sphere figuring out, you know, what kinds of conversations are they having? Is it like I really like shoes? Or is it I need something for a specific event? Or is it I'm interested in the way these things are made? You know, there's a lot of different conversations within the style piece then, and that might lead you to where they're having the conversation definitely twitter because there's a lot of tech writer, but for the style parts, instagram is the thing I thought originally it was gonna be facebook, but this book is flat faras having those kinds of conversations, people to start talking, right like that about that, right? There seems to be more of the interaction happening on instrument and something else to me pay attention to depending on the age that your customer skew is that I'm noticing that a lot of the fashion conversations that have been happening on instagram are starting to shift to snapchat, so you keep keep in mind, you know what? What people write, you always know, when you're on a platform of people are saying, go visit me at this platform that's a good indication that the conversation is starting to shift right mostly instagram pinterest awesome okay, so now what I want you guys to dio is make a list of the conversations your products and customers participate in and then lists places specifically where your customers air having these conversations, and I want you to go beyond social media. So we just did the really, really obvious one for everyone, which is kind of like what's your social media platform, but there's, those are the only places you know, for me, my customers looking for something specific to where they're walking into a store, right? And they're asking the store owner or maybe they're going to a craft show, or maybe they're not on social media, but they're on a different website or different platform, maybe they're watching t v I r I know some people still do that, right? So maybe they're doing that. So I want you to sit down and figure out where all these places are, and if you're coming back to social media that I also want you to start to figure out where where are those people who are having the conversations on social media, then going to buy right? So are they going? Teo, the website of the style blogger? Are they clicking on somebody else's link, you know? It's tricky you're going to have to spend a little time hanging out in their right but that's what I want you kind of figure out where they're going they're going to make a purchase so we won't hot you guys since we just made everyone kind of kind of share that but I want you to sit down and really think about making that list that's actually in your workbook, what are the conversations where they having them where they where they ending up to make the purchasing decision right? And it may be that that purchasing decision is a product completely unrelated to yours, right? So we're shell they're looking for unique gifts that kind of show loved ones and they may be something that's totally different than your so like, what else might they buy? I always think of my competition is pandora or origami owl where it's like components that you put together to make a personal piece of jewelry, but maybe that is why I don't know it might not be because maybe they're not buying that they're buying something else with photo, right? Where are they going? Teo the website and I don't know that it is any of them or you can get the image you know, put on campus are they getting, uh, you know, arguing like artifact, uprising and getting the memory book think about those things because I thinking your case it's not do I want a piece of jewelry and let's be honest, the person who's going to cancel your work is not considering pandora it's a completely different aesthetic match and I think that's also something really important to think about when you're thinking about your competitors is that if it's a very different aesthetic match, they're not going to that it's not there, not comparing between you and pandora, right? They're probably comparing between you and write some league artifact uprising or something like that I think that's more what they're comparing too, so that might be a better indicator of kind of who your competition is and what the conversation is yes awesome so then the other thing that I want you to do this now or an exercise to so once we've established what our markets are, what our conversations are, I want you to go find the high end of the pricing spectrum I do not care about the low end it does not matter sitting at the low end of the pricing spectrum does not matter because you cannot win there you can't even compete there right? I did a little quick search on target for statement necklaces I can't compete at sixteen, ninety nine right? But I don't care I don't care this is what target cells for I also don't care that when I search statement necklaces on etc the average selling prices like somewhere around forty bucks right? I don't care about that either because I can't compete I don't want to compete I don't want to sell for you how many forty dollar necklace says I would have to sell to hit my revenue goal there's a lot of necklaces right? A lot of work so I don't care about that we want the high end because the high end shows you what's possible nothing that you have to live at the high end I would at least like youto live above the middle quite frankly not but I don't think you killed in there but it shows you what's possible my favorite example some of us have seen this before because I love it so much when I search david necklaces on neiman marcus is website I think there's one there's a tory burch for two sixty five but there's a lot of things over a thousand dollars my favorite lan lan rafiah plastic necklace one thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars it's plastic I love that because somebody is buying that right so I'm probably not I'm not charging nine hundred dollars for my necklace but I know that they're people spending that on a necklace and I also know because I'm looking these other price points that there are people consistently spending four hundred two hundred I know that there's some price points happening that's what I want to know I want to know the possibility does for me when I see a nineteen hundred dollar plastic necklace that's good news that means there's some potential for me right? So what I want you guys to do is for each marketplace you identified an exercise one I want you to find the average and the highest selling price for comparable or competitive products and some of you may have to shift what those comparable products are so shall you may not be looking at hand or anymore you might find all of the different things that people can personalize with pictures of their loved ones and figure out what's the most the people are spending I'm guessing that there's some products out there that are much higher though when you're charging is good news right? So that's what we want to find out what are those high price points and how did those prices compare with your prices? Where do you fall now? Because we also want to know where we fall in the spectrum and sometimes being in the middle doesn't always work just for the record middle is really hard, right? So if you're finding prices that are way higher and way lower and you're not seeing anything in the middle that's really worth noting because putting yourself in the middle isn't actually probably going to you don't it will be like oh opportunity right wasteland that's what it really is right and we don't want to go down there so we want to go up so that may just give you that motivation to raise your prices right away and if you're looking at marketplaces and the cops so the comparable prices in that marketplace are lower than your adjusted prices so when you did all those pricing exercises when you set your new hourly rage wage when you figured out where you need to be to make a living if the price is in the marketplace are lower consistently across the board or even the majority are lower take that market off your list yes people are on etsy having personal style conversations looking for jewellery looking for things to wear. But when I searched statement nickel says the majority of prices are consistently lower than where I know my prices need to be that market's out I'm not worried about that because I know there are tons of other marketplaces right? So you can mourn for a minute if you need teo it's fine it's obama and move on but that's fine you have to move on right? So take it off your list so that's what we're going to do in the next lesson so in the next lesson we're going to set the value based prices for your products so that you can maximize your profit so we've done our work now so we have figured out what you're making make a living number is we have figured out how much you need to pay yourself in our now we looked at your customers and we found what they're willing to pay, so we're going to put that all together and set new prices for your products and I bet for some of you they're going to be a lot higher than when we started maybe not monica because we already worked on that with her and put it for a lot of you and I think a lot of you watching online, we're going to bring that up so that's in the next lesson but before we go let's look at your homework for less than five so I want you to identify three to five conversations those big picture conversations that your products in your customers participate in get creative here, don't limit yourself. Are there those other opportunity issue? Is it not just the personal style, but is it the tech right? Is it not just jewelry, but it's? You know, personalized memories? Look for those big conversations and then I want you to list for each conversation list all the places your customers are having these conversations right really dive in and find it no use the advice that terrorists start with magazines that you think might hold your products and then start to follow and get those conversations in this might take you some time, but it's really important don't skimp on this homework because if you don't have this right, you could do all of the great flashy marketing strategy is going to be talking to the wrong people about the wrong things, right? So take the time to do this and then for each market place I want you to find the average and the high price point for comparable products. Take a screen grab, put it on your wall. Do you gotta do celebrate, find your nineteen hundred dollar plastic necklace and be excited about that? That shows you the potential and then finally and I know this is gonna be a little scary for some of you. I want you to pick one product and adjust the price ideally up based on your new market com and I want you to share links that product on social media with our hashtag make love cell and like to wear it could be purchased. Go ahead and put that product out there with the new price. Don't shy away from it celebrate the fact that you know that your customers are willing to pay more, alright that's it and I'll see you guys in the next lesson.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Class Workbook
Private Facebook Group Invite
MAL in Detail - Numbers Template
Editable Bootcamp Workbook in Pages Format
Editable Bootcamp Workbook in Doc Format
Cost Plus Pricing Elements Bonus Video
How to Talk About Your Products Bonus Video
Trade Show Traffic Flow Bonus Video
Visual Branding Basics Bonus Video
MAL in Detail - Excel Template

Ratings and Reviews

user a03f28
 

Love the shorter and longer format to this class. It keeps me interested and I don't have to schedule a whole day at once, during the free play. Well worth the money if you pay for the class too. Megan is amazing! She really knows business, marketing and has strategies which apply to all kinds of businesses. The work book is 150 pages long and breaks everything down into small bits and teaches you to really think about all aspects of your business. Where you were, are now and best of all where you want to be and how to get there. Highly recommend any of her classes. Thank you so much Megan and Creative Live for bringing us such wonderful content!

user-e2bf69
 

This course was totally awesome!!! I cannot express enough how fantastic Megan Auman is, what a great teacher she is, and am so thankful she offered it for FREE!!! Wow!!! It was exactly where I was at, stuck and frustrated. Exactly what I needed to begin to get my business off the ground. I am currently implementing all I have learned from her. Rebranding my self, rebuilding my website, new product shots, model shots, list building, etc., etc. I am still connected with the Facebook group, and that is awesome we have that connection to continue helping each other out and using each other as a sounding board. I plan on purchasing the course as soon as I can. I HIGHLY, HIGHLY recommend this course to anyone who is struggling to get their business off the ground and going!!!

user-3f5a23
 

Thank you Megan for this opportunity. I really liked the first classes. You indicated interesting directions to think about. Even though life verifies the rest it is still worth to become smarter. Great Work! Best regards from Poland. Ewa

Student Work

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