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The Psychology of Pricing: Why Buyers Really Say Yes [Ep. 358]
Episode 35822nd April 2026 • The REAL Truth About Business: Business Strategy for Service Based Entrepreneurs • Michelle DeNio | Business Strategist
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If you’re questioning your pricing or wondering why people hesitate to say yes, this episode is going to change how you think about your entire business strategy. In this episode of The Real Truth About Business podcast, I’m breaking down the real psychology behind pricing and why buyers actually make decisions. This is for service-based entrepreneurs who are stuck at a revenue plateau, unsure if their pricing strategy is helping or hurting their business growth. After 9 years of experience, I can tell you pricing is not just about picking a number. It’s about how that number is perceived, processed, and positioned in your sales process. Inside this episode, I walk you through nine key pricing psychology principles and how they directly impact your conversion rate, your lead generation, and your overall revenue growth. This is about aligning your pricing with how buyers actually think so your offers feel like an obvious yes.

What You'll Learn:

  • Why higher pricing can sometimes increase conversions
  • How to use pricing psychology to strengthen your business strategy
  • The role of positioning and messaging in pricing perception
  • How payment structures impact buyer decision-making
  • Why buyers hesitate and how to reduce friction in your sales process
  • How to align your pricing with your brand and ideal client

Episode Highlights:

[00:00] Introduction: Why pricing psychology matters for business growth

[03:00] Price vs. perceived value and the quality signal

[08:00] Anchoring and how buyers interpret your pricing before they see it

[13:00] Framing your price: cost vs. investment

[18:00] Payment psychology and reducing buyer resistance

[23:00] Loss aversion and the cost of staying stuck

[27:00] Tiered pricing, decoy effect, and buyer decision patterns

[31:00] Odd vs. rounded pricing and brand positioning

Key Takeaways:

Pricing Is Perception, Not Just a Number

Here’s what I see constantly. Business owners picking a price based on what feels comfortable or what others are charging. But pricing strategy is not just about math. It’s about perception.

After 9 years of working with service-based entrepreneurs, I can tell you buyers use price as a shortcut to determine value. Especially when what you sell is intangible. Strategy, expertise, transformation. There’s nothing to hold or test.

That means your pricing is signaling something before you ever get on a sales call. Whether you realize it or not, your price is part of your positioning.

Your Positioning Sets the Stage Before Price Even Matters

Inside the Focused Visionary Framework, Pricing, Pipeline, and Sales are all connected. Pricing doesn’t exist in isolation. It sits on top of your messaging and your positioning.

This is where anchoring comes in. Everything your audience sees before they ever hear your price sets the expectation. Your content, your results, your authority. That’s the anchor.

If your positioning is strong, your price feels obvious. If it’s weak, the same number feels expensive. This is why focusing only on pricing without addressing messaging rarely works.

Buyer Decisions Are Driven by Psychology, Not Logic

Buyers don’t just evaluate numbers. They react to how those numbers are presented.

Breaking a price into monthly payments reduces resistance. Framing something as an investment changes how it’s processed. Showing the cost of staying stuck can be more powerful than highlighting potential gains.

These are not manipulation tactics. This is understanding how the brain works.

When you align your sales process with these patterns, you remove friction. You make it easier for your ideal client to say yes.

Your Pricing Strategy Should Match Your Brand and Goals

One of the biggest mistakes I see is misalignment. Pricing that doesn’t match the brand, the offer, or the level of expertise.

Odd pricing can signal accessibility or discounts. Rounded pricing can signal confidence and premium positioning. Tiered pricing can guide decisions without forcing them.

But none of it works if it’s not intentional.

Your pricing strategy should support your revenue growth goals, attract the right clients, and align with how you want your business to be perceived.

That’s where real business strategy comes in. Not just picking a number. But building a system where pricing, positioning, and sales all work together.

Resources Mentioned

  1. Book a CEO Strategy Call
  2. Learn more about The Missing Piece Intensive
  3. Learn more about The Focused Visionary Accelerator
  4. Join Back Pocket Insights
  5. Download the FREE Lead and Conversion Tracker
  6. Subscribe to the Sunday Morning Brew Newsletter

About the Host:

Michelle DeNio is a business strategist based in Sarasota, Florida, specializing in helping service-based entrepreneurs break through revenue plateaus using her Focused Visionary Framework. With over 300 podcast episodes and 9 years running her consulting business, she helps coaches, consultants, and service providers scale sustainably through strategic planning, pricing optimization, and sales process development.

Connect with Michelle

  1. Website
  2. Threads
  3. Instagram
  4. LinkedIn
  5. Facebook

Transcripts

Speaker A:

Hey.

Speaker A:

Hey.

Speaker A:

All right.

Speaker A:

Today we are talking about pricing psychology.

Speaker A:

And I'm talking like the studied research backed psychology behind why buyers actually pull out their wallets.

Speaker A:

Why a higher price sometimes converts better than a lower one.

Speaker A:

Why your ideal client might be saying no, but not because they can't afford you, but because of how your price is like landing in their brain.

Speaker A:

This is something that I dove deep into when I was repositioning my offers and studying the research behind all of the different psychologies around pricing.

Speaker A:

We're talking like numbers that end in an odd number versus an even number.

Speaker A:

I mean, there's just so many.

Speaker A:

And so I want to share as many as I can with you today in this episode.

Speaker A:

So if you are ready, let's dive in.

Speaker A:

All right, so if you're new here, welcome.

Speaker A:

My name is Michelle Denio.

Speaker A:

I'm the host of the Real Truth About Business.

Speaker A:

I am a business growth strategist and I am here to help you grow and scale your business in a sustainable way that is not built on cookie cutter copy and paste frameworks.

Speaker A:

So today we're talking pricing psychology.

Speaker A:

And so if you listen to the episode I did last week around positioning, I touched on this a little bit and that is really what stemmed this, this whole research.

Speaker A:

It was a rabbit hole.

Speaker A:

This was an ADHD rabbit hole that I went down and I went down hard.

Speaker A:

Because once you get into like studying psychology, it's fascinating to me the different levels and the different like studies that have been done around pricing specifically.

Speaker A:

There's so many different pricing psychologies and I am trying to, I broke it down into like the nine that I felt were the most relevant to business owners in the online space.

Speaker A:

Service based business owners.

Speaker A:

And the ones that I just felt like people that we see that all the time.

Speaker A:

Okay.

Speaker A:

So again, I am not a psychologist by any stretch of the imagination, so I don't want you to think that I am.

Speaker A:

This is just where I did my own research.

Speaker A:

I studied them and now I want to share like how I see this show up in the online space.

Speaker A:

So I am going to be reading the definitions because I want to make sure that I'm giving you the full definition but then also talking about how this applies.

Speaker A:

So, so let's dive in because there's a lot of them.

Speaker A:

I've got nine that I want to talk about.

Speaker A:

All right, so number one is price versus quality.

Speaker A:

The high risk.

Speaker A:

This is the one that I struggle with the most, if I'm being honest.

Speaker A:

Okay.

Speaker A:

This is the cognitive shortcut buyers use when they cannot directly evaluate the quality of what they are purchasing because expertise, strategy and transformation are intangible.

Speaker A:

There is nothing to hold, test drive or return.

Speaker A:

The brain defaults to price as the most available signal of quality.

Speaker A:

A higher price does not just reflect value, but in the buyer's mind, it creates perception of value before any other information is processed.

Speaker A:

So this is what we're saying about, like, two identical offers at different price points are not perceived as equal.

Speaker A:

And I will be honest when I say, like, I, this is one I struggle with because I don't make buying decisions in this way.

Speaker A:

And this is the wonderful thing about pricing and pricing psychology is that they don't all hit every single person the same way.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

Like, I absolutely do not look at two different offers, see one priced at 5,000, and see one price at 10,000, and immediately assume the one at 10,000 is a better price or better value.

Speaker A:

I just don't.

Speaker A:

I don't do that in the store when I'm grocery shopping.

Speaker A:

I don't do it anywhere.

Speaker A:

But there are people that do.

Speaker A:

And after nine years of being in business, I have seen this play out pretty regularly, pretty consistently.

Speaker A:

I see it happen a lot.

Speaker A:

You know, I have been on the receiving end of that where people have picked a different offer because mine was lower priced.

Speaker A:

I talked about it a little bit in the episode before this about my positioning, and to me it's really more about.

Speaker A:

This is not necessarily about just picking a higher price because you want people to perceive it to be of higher value.

Speaker A:

But for me, it's more about, like, is your price signaling the level of expertise that you actually have and that you are bringing to the table?

Speaker A:

Okay, but research does back it up that people will rate identical services as higher quality when the price is higher, and that if pricing feels too accessible, that it creates an immediate doubt for people before they even get on a call with you.

Speaker A:

And again, this was extremely popular during the COVID years when a million people were jumping online.

Speaker A:

This was a topic of conversation a lot.

Speaker A:

I do think a lot of people got burned by, by making buying decisions in this way.

Speaker A:

I'm not going to sugarcoat it and say I don't think that this is why people got burned because of this exact principle in this teaching.

Speaker A:

I'm not a huge fan of this because again, I do think people get burned from this.

Speaker A:

I think people were told that, like, higher price means higher value.

Speaker A:

And so people invested in these higher price things assuming it was going to be higher value.

Speaker A:

And it wasn'.

Speaker A:

Always.

Speaker A:

I'm not saying it never is, but I'm, I'm saying it isn't always right.

Speaker A:

So again, is there psychology that backs this up?

Speaker A:

Yes.

Speaker A:

Do I think that we should put a lot of clout into this?

Speaker A:

I don't know.

Speaker A:

I'm on the fence about it.

Speaker A:

All right, so principle number two is anchoring.

Speaker A:

Anchoring is the tendency for the first piece of information encountered to disproportionately influence all subsequent judgments.

Speaker A:

So in pricing the anchor is whatever your buyer is exposed to before the price is ever revealed.

Speaker A:

So that's your positioning, your language, your results, your authority.

Speaker A:

And it lands on top of everything that came before it, you know, and so the pricing, the number just lands on top of that.

Speaker A:

And so a strong anchor makes a price feel obvious.

Speaker A:

A weak anchor makes the same price feel expensive.

Speaker A:

And so thinking about this, if like you are the anchor in every single conversation, you know, how you talk about your results, how you talk about your process, how you talk about client outcomes before the price lands sets the entire benchmark.

Speaker A:

And so we've seen this play out too of like people that are constantly posting, you know, testimonials and screenshots and client results.

Speaker A:

Like you could, you could watch this for months or weeks on end in somebody's content and have no idea what the price is, but you're already going into the like, if you are watching this and you're getting interested in working with them, you're already going in with this anchor, right?

Speaker A:

That like they bring high quality to the table regardless of the price.

Speaker A:

Now I will say that my friend Julie actually sent an email about this through the lens of the subconscious mind and how that works specifically with pricing too in the sense of like, if you're always leading with like your one off strategy sessions, right?

Speaker A:

So let's say you have a one off strategy session and then you have a six month program and your one off strategy sessions are 297, right?

Speaker A:

And so all people ever see you promoting is 297, 297, 297.

Speaker A:

And then you promote your six month program and that's $6,000.

Speaker A:

Well now that feels more expensive, right?

Speaker A:

Like that feels really expensive compared to what they're used to seeing of 2:97.

Speaker A:

pricing of like my pricing is:

Speaker A:

So that's a super interesting one and I absolutely can see how this plays out.

Speaker A:

Of like.

Speaker A:

And people doing this all the time, where they're always leading with their, like, least expensive offer, thinking that that's going to be helpful to get people in the door, but then wondering why people aren't converting to their bigger offers.

Speaker A:

And a lot of it has to do with this principle right here of this anchoring of like, you've really set the tone before you even had the chance.

Speaker A:

So be mindful of this one.

Speaker A:

The framing effect is the next one.

Speaker A:

So principle number three is the framing effect.

Speaker A:

The framing effect is the phenomenon where the same information produces a completely response depending on how it is presented.

Speaker A:

The number doesn't change, but the meaning that the brain assigns to it does.

Speaker A:

So this is the conversation around investment versus cost.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

We've heard this in the online space.

Speaker A:

You always say, like, don't say that it's going to cost somebody $9,000.

Speaker A:

It's a $9,000 investment.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

Because investment signals growth, investment signals ROI.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

Return on investment and forward momentum versus cost or expense.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

Or price.

Speaker A:

Or like, you know, like when you're on your.

Speaker A:

You see this all the time on sales pages, it'd be like, investment starts at.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

Instead of just saying pricing starts at.

Speaker A:

Because pricing, again, is associated with like a cost, it signals a loss, it signals an expense.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

And so I see this one, I see where people, like when you phrase something as an investment, it.

Speaker A:

It definitely re.

Speaker A:

You know, people relate that in their brain differently because we always assume we're going to get a return on our investment, where an expense is just like a sunk cost for most business owners, right?

Speaker A:

If it's an expense, it's like a cost of doing business.

Speaker A:

And again, like, there's certain things that are just a cost of doing business, and we still buy them all the time.

Speaker A:

So that's where I'm saying, like, all of these things, you can, you can use them.

Speaker A:

But there's also people that make decisions without these, These psychology principles as well.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

Another way the framing effect shows up is like people that say, you know, it's 750 per month versus 25 per day.

Speaker A:

There's a.

Speaker A:

A pretty big influencer.

Speaker A:

She has a podcast that I listen to and she has a membership.

Speaker A:

And I can't.

Speaker A:

I can't remember exactly what it is, but I know that when she sells her membership on her podcast, she says it's like less than a cup of coffee a day.

Speaker A:

It's $3 and 33 cents a day.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

So $3 and 33 cents a day sounds better than if you're doing 30 days yet $99, I think her membership is $99 a month or a hundred dollars a month.

Speaker A:

So $100 a month versus $3 a day, right?

Speaker A:

Same price one feels extremely manageable, right?

Speaker A:

Like oh my gosh, Everybody can spend $3 a day versus 100 bucks a month.

Speaker A:

Or same with 750 per month versus 25 per day.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

It's 25 bucks a day.

Speaker A:

And people don't do the math.

Speaker A:

Like again, this is just the framing effect of this of like how you present this.

Speaker A:

Okay, so it's the words that you're putting around the price that are doing more of the work here than the number itself.

Speaker A:

So I'm interested about this one, right.

Speaker A:

I think that this one is really about being intentional with how you set yourself up and how you say what your offers are.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

Like you can really be intentional about this so that your buyer's brain process this, this like accurately.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

So ask yourself, like, are you framing your price right now as an investment with like a result or a number, like with no context behind it?

Speaker A:

Okay, this principle number four is the pain of paying.

Speaker A:

This is where I started with like, ooh, tell me more.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

Because it was like, ooh, this one is, this one to me is fascinating.

Speaker A:

Okay, so the pain of pain comes from researcher George Lowenstein.

Speaker A:

The act of parting with money literally creates discomfort in the brain.

Speaker A:

A large lump sum triggers a sharp, intense pain response.

Speaker A:

The same amount broken into smaller payments creates a duller, more spread out sensation.

Speaker A:

It's not about affordability, it's about how the brain neurologically processes the transaction.

Speaker A:

So I actually, I actually like pressure tested this one on threads when I was pricing my offer or like doing my website.

Speaker A:

I was like, when you're making a buying decision, which one feels, which one are you more likely or more drawn to?

Speaker A:

Like it's $9,000 for 12 months or, or 750 per month.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

Almost everybody that responded on threads said the 7:50 felt far more accessible and it, it was a much easier yes than the $9,000 per for 12 months.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

So even if you do the math, the math comes out the same.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

And somebody did comment about how she normally does the math.

Speaker A:

But the point here, the research is, is that paying all at once is like this sharp and intense pain.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

Because it's like, oof, that's a big number versus paying over time.

Speaker A:

It's a distributed expense.

Speaker A:

Like it's distributed pain.

Speaker A:

If they call it that pain.

Speaker A:

I don't Know that it's really pain, but it's like it's distributed over time.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

And that's why subscriptions and payment plans feel easier to say yes to for some people.

Speaker A:

But it's also like on the flip side of this is that payment plans and subscriptions and installments.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

Are a little bit easier to undervalue and because over time they start to lose their.

Speaker A:

The way they talk about it is like they start to lose their value because we start to just mentally dismiss it over time.

Speaker A:

Like the longer we're paying for some things anyways, I thought, you know, so they're basically saying like your delivery has to stay high, touch and high.

Speaker A:

Like enough to justify the ongoing investments.

Speaker A:

Again, like that's more on like the subscription based model, I think, versus like a payment plan.

Speaker A:

But I thought that that was so interesting about like, you know, it's, it's really about that like paying all at once.

Speaker A:

Is that like sharp and intense pain?

Speaker A:

But then on the flip side of this, there's another one called loss aversion.

Speaker A:

Aversion, which is also very similar in the sense of loss aversion comes from the Nobel prize winning behavioral economist Daniel K. Man Kahneman.

Speaker A:

K A H N E M A N. His research demonstrated that people are approximately twice as motivated by the prospect of losing something as they are by the prospect of gaining something of equivalent value.

Speaker A:

So the fear of losing a thousand dollars is neurologically about twice as powerful as the desire to gain a thousand dollars.

Speaker A:

So they're saying like this one is on the loss aversion side.

Speaker A:

So there is another one that comes back to that like 950 or $9,000 versus 750.

Speaker A:

So my bad on that.

Speaker A:

I'll, I'll get to it.

Speaker A:

I got them all here in a list.

Speaker A:

All right, so most service providers here with this loss aversion 1 lead exclusively with the gain.

Speaker A:

Here's what you're going to get.

Speaker A:

Here is what becomes possible.

Speaker A:

Now they're saying to flip the script.

Speaker A:

And you've seen this.

Speaker A:

This is more on the pain point marketing, which can be done with integrity.

Speaker A:

Don't get me wrong, pain point marketing can be done very much with integrity.

Speaker A:

And this is about loss aversion.

Speaker A:

Says the more compelling frame is here's what staying stuck is actually costing you.

Speaker A:

So not like it's all about like the revenue not generated, the time wasted, the opportunities missed, the compounding cost of another year sitting at the same revenue number.

Speaker A:

This one is very big, especially with bigger companies and corporations.

Speaker A:

They want to see what it's costing them to not do the thing.

Speaker A:

I know that anytime I was working, when I worked in corporate, this was always the big thing, like, okay, we could spend this amount of money and we're going to gain this.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

You know, it's easy for them.

Speaker A:

I know my boss was always the one that's like, it's easy for them to say, we're going to gain all this, blah, blah, blah.

Speaker A:

But when you start, when they can point out the facts of, like, if you spend XYZ number of hours doing this, you just lost this amount of money.

Speaker A:

If you missed out on this, this and this opportunity, you just lost out on this amount of money.

Speaker A:

And that's more than what it costs to invest into this thing.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

So the cost of inaction is very real and it's calculatable.

Speaker A:

Like, right.

Speaker A:

You can, you can put calculations to that.

Speaker A:

And so this is not, like, about manipulating your buyer.

Speaker A:

This is about shifting.

Speaker A:

Again, this is all about psychology.

Speaker A:

Every single one of these is all about psychology.

Speaker A:

So this is about shifting the way your buyer is thinking to really sit there and go, okay, if I don't do this, what is that actually going to cost me?

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

It's not necessarily about, like, the cost of the money that they're investing, but it's like, what are you going to.

Speaker A:

You've already been trying to do this on your own and you haven't gotten where you want to go.

Speaker A:

So what's going to change if you don't make the investment?

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

You've been sitting at the same revenue number for six months now.

Speaker A:

If you knew how to change that, you could change it.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

But if you don't invest, you could potentially be sitting there versus if you do invest and we get you past this revenue plateau.

Speaker A:

So let's say you're, you know, you're going from 5,000 to 10,000.

Speaker A:

Well, now you just gained $5,000 times, what, six months, that's, you know, $30,000.

Speaker A:

But you also lost 30,000.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

You could have the potential to lose $30,000 in revenue by simply staying stuck.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

So that's kind of the shift.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

It's like, oh, you could potentially gain $30,000, but it's like, gain.

Speaker A:

Okay, yeah.

Speaker A:

Can I see it?

Speaker A:

But if you shift it and switch the, the, the framing and around, this is like, what is this actually going to cost you?

Speaker A:

Let's look at it.

Speaker A:

If you sit at 5,000 when you know you want to get to 10,000, that's $5,000 a month.

Speaker A:

You're potentially losing out on times six months.

Speaker A:

That's $30,000.

Speaker A:

Well, $30,000 lost on a $9,000 investment.

Speaker A:

Now it makes it a little bit more obvious for the buyer to say yes, right?

Speaker A:

I think that one is.

Speaker A:

That one's good when used with integrity and not with manipulation.

Speaker A:

Okay.

Speaker A:

Okay.

Speaker A:

Number six, Relativity relativity is the principle that people do not know what something is worth in isolation.

Speaker A:

The brain requires a comparison point to assign value.

Speaker A:

So without context, a price feels random.

Speaker A:

With the right context, the same price feels completely justified.

Speaker A:

So again, this one sits very similarly to loss aversion.

Speaker A:

Of you can say like let's compare this to doing nothing, right?

Speaker A:

What is another year at this revenue level actually costing you?

Speaker A:

You can compare it to hiring a full time team.

Speaker A:

What would it cost you to get this result through employees or contractors comparing it to lost revenue?

Speaker A:

What does one more quarter without a strategy cost you?

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

So your price needs a reference point or the buyer has nothing to measure it against.

Speaker A:

Okay.

Speaker A:

So that's really what you're trying to do is you're trying to measure your price against something so you want to compare so that they can have context around it.

Speaker A:

Again, when you.

Speaker A:

It's the same as that loss aversion, right?

Speaker A:

Of like, this is very similar in the same principle of like what are you could spend this or you could potentially lose this compared to.

Speaker A:

Because this, this and this, right?

Speaker A:

So I think if are you giving your buyers a comparison point for your price or are you just kind of letting the numbers sit there without anything against it to meas against.

Speaker A:

So again, look at it like what have you already been doing, right?

Speaker A:

How much is it actually costing you?

Speaker A:

How much time have you spent?

Speaker A:

I think honestly the time piece is the biggest one, right?

Speaker A:

Because at the end of the day, most people want more time, more money, right?

Speaker A:

They're either.

Speaker A:

That's where they're usually capped.

Speaker A:

That's what's usually keeping them stuck, right?

Speaker A:

And so they want more time, more money, right?

Speaker A:

So if you're showing them how to make more money, then you've got to compare that to what it's costing them in time, right?

Speaker A:

Because a lot of people don't value the time that they put into something or they don't take into consideration the amount of time that they're putting into it.

Speaker A:

So if you can compare it to their time that they're spending, right?

Speaker A:

So especially if you're like a designer or freelancer, so like in Canva or a graphic designer, like how much time is that costing you?

Speaker A:

To sit there and try and figure out how to do it yourself, right?

Speaker A:

Like, I did this today.

Speaker A:

I purchased some.

Speaker A:

I, you know, I reached out to a friend of mine who's a designer, and I was like, listen, I need these carousel posts created.

Speaker A:

Can you help me out?

Speaker A:

Because even though I bought a template and I could do it, it would have taken me a good several hours in.

Speaker A:

In Canva to do that.

Speaker A:

And I had so many other things I needed to be doing.

Speaker A:

And because I outsourced that, I ended up making my money back because I was able to set up an event that I am working on and sell tickets to.

Speaker A:

And so I sold the tickets enough to pay for what I put.

Speaker A:

I. I paid her, right?

Speaker A:

Because that kept me in my zone of genius.

Speaker A:

So that's another good way to use this one, right?

Speaker A:

Of relativity, of like, listen, where's your time better spent?

Speaker A:

Okay?

Speaker A:

And then moving on, principle number seven, the decoy effect.

Speaker A:

This one is.

Speaker A:

This is.

Speaker A:

You'll recognize this one, okay?

Speaker A:

So the decoy effect is the phenomenon where introducing a third strategically positioned option changes which of the other two options people choo without forcing a decision.

Speaker A:

You're not manipulating the choice.

Speaker A:

You're just designing the path of least resistance.

Speaker A:

So a good example of this is like, if you have tiered offers, right?

Speaker A:

So if you have package A, package B, package C, or tier 1, tier 2, tier 3 type of thing you've got option A is like, oh, this is just your basic standard service.

Speaker A:

You get X, Y, Z, 1, 2, 3 items, right?

Speaker A:

Then you've got option B, which is the standard.

Speaker A:

This is the, you know, the one that is your standard offer.

Speaker A:

And so it's like.

Speaker A:

And that's price.

Speaker A:

Let's say option A is 500, option B is 750, right?

Speaker A:

And so that includes this, this, this.

Speaker A:

Now you've got six things, and then you've got option C, which is $780 or more, whatever it is.

Speaker A:

So it's like $800, and it only includes one or two more things, right?

Speaker A:

So it doesn't make sense for somebody to pick option C because it really isn't that much more value.

Speaker A:

It's actually worse value than what they're paying for with option B.

Speaker A:

And so that's how you can utilize that.

Speaker A:

Especially if you have tiered offers where you want everybody to kind of funnel into tier 2.

Speaker A:

This is also where you can use, like, most popular, you know, where people say, like, you know, they put that on the tag.

Speaker A:

This is also where you people tend to always pick the middle one.

Speaker A:

I think there's a separate principle around that, but I didn't, I didn't talk about that one.

Speaker A:

But basically like this is exactly it, right?

Speaker A:

Like if you have tiered offers, you always put your best offer in the middle because that's what people typically pick.

Speaker A:

They don't necessarily always want the lowest one, but they always want the highest offer either.

Speaker A:

So you go in the middle and you kind of put that like most popular makes, you know, option B look like the most obvious choice.

Speaker A:

It makes, you know, choice B look just like the smartest decision, right?

Speaker A:

It's not just about it being cheaper.

Speaker A:

It's like this is the best value for what you're paying for.

Speaker A:

And so that's why like if you have only two options, A and B, it's like, which one do I choose where?

Speaker A:

If it's like A, B and C and C is of not great value, that makes choice B obvious, right?

Speaker A:

Again, it's all, it's so fascinating when you start to think about this is like this is not really, it's not really about tricking people.

Speaker A:

Again, I think people don't like to talk about pricing and sales psychology because they feel like they're tricking people.

Speaker A:

But it's not, it's just the way our brains naturally work, right?

Speaker A:

So you're, you, you're working with the brain's natural decision making process, right?

Speaker A:

And so giving the buyer's brain the contrast it needs to make that confident decision, right?

Speaker A:

When you have A or B, it's like, oh geez, they all kind of seem the same, like they're really close in value where it's like abc.

Speaker A:

Well, C doesn't make any sense like that.

Speaker A:

Why would we pick that one?

Speaker A:

That one's like, it's an easy no brainer, right?

Speaker A:

And so then that also makes sense, makes option A not near as great of a value.

Speaker A:

And so it makes it obvious that option B is the best one.

Speaker A:

So I think that, that, that one works really well.

Speaker A:

Really well.

Speaker A:

I have seen that one play out for years and years and years.

Speaker A:

And I think that it really, it really drives a lot of results.

Speaker A:

And that's principle number eight as well, is called the compromise effect.

Speaker A:

So this is a little bit of a different take on it.

Speaker A:

But what we were talking about is like the compromise effect is a well documented tendency for people to avoid extremes when presented with multiple options.

Speaker A:

So when three tiers exist, buyers will gravitate towards the middle because it feels the most balanced.

Speaker A:

So neither the risk of going too Cheap nor the discomfort of going all in on the highest price.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

So too cheap signals the risk of like what is wrong with this?

Speaker A:

Am I really going to get what I'm paying for versus too expensive?

Speaker A:

Is this like the right time?

Speaker A:

People are like, I don't think I need that.

Speaker A:

Especially if it's like a tiered offer where like option three is like like all in.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

Like I've seen this before, especially with a lot of like freelancer, freelance type business owners of like option three is like literally everything.

Speaker A:

It's like the entire bag of tricks, right?

Speaker A:

And it's like, oh geez, I don't really need all of that.

Speaker A:

And so option B again becomes like the safest, smartest, most reasonable choice.

Speaker A:

And so that's again why you want to put it in the middle.

Speaker A:

So these two kind of work really well together.

Speaker A:

This like compromise effect versus the decoy effect of like, like decoy or I mean not decoy.

Speaker A:

The.

Speaker A:

Yeah, oh, it was the decoy.

Speaker A:

The decoy effect is like making one choice like well that doesn't make any sense because this one is way better value where compromise effect is like giving them the middle choice which makes it the most reasonable.

Speaker A:

And it feels like the safest choice because it's in the middle.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

They're splitting the difference type of thing.

Speaker A:

So if you are somebody that offers tiered services, this is a great way to get people to into the offer that you want them to simply by just tearing your offers and making like like the middle option.

Speaker A:

That option be the most obvious choice.

Speaker A:

Okay, and now principle number nine.

Speaker A:

The ever famous odd pricing versus rounded pricing.

Speaker A:

and a price like:

Speaker A:

It's a brand signal.

Speaker A:

Odd pricing ending in sevens, nines or fives is associated with deals counts.

Speaker A:

In tactical marketing, rounded pricing signals confidence, premium positioning and decisiveness.

Speaker A:

The number you choose sends a message about the kind of business you're running before a single word is read.

Speaker A:

I have never heard it presented in that true definition.

Speaker A:

Okay.

Speaker A:

A lot of people say like sevens make people make it easier to for people to decide.

Speaker A:

But nobody ever really explained why.

Speaker A:

Again, the 997 reads like I'm trying to stay under a thousand dollars.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

Psychology sounds like it's easier to say like oh, it's less than a thousand dollars.

Speaker A:

I understand that because I'm kind of like that with a.

Speaker A:

As a buyer, like it was like 900.

Speaker A:

Well no, it was 997.

Speaker A:

That's a thousand Dollars, Right.

Speaker A:

But a thousand dollars reads like, no, I know what this is worth and I'm gonna pay it.

Speaker A:

And I, I kind of love the round numbers.

Speaker A:

I've always been.

Speaker A:

I, I do things like I just put up a offer at 77, right.

Speaker A:

So I'm not opposed to using the sevens.

Speaker A:

I think it's just become the norm because we're so programmed to.

Speaker A:

But when you think about it that, or when you read the real definition about it, this is more about like associating it as a deal or associating it as a discount.

Speaker A:

And this probably comes back years on years on years in the retail space where things started to be like 14.99.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

Again, because 14.99 felt like a deal compared to $15.

Speaker A:

And so we've kind of just adapted that into the online space.

Speaker A:

But there's still like, I love that they said that there is power in a nice round number and that signals confidence and premium positioning.

Speaker A:

Odd pricing can work very well for lower ticket high volume offers.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

Where the discount perception is truly appropriate.

Speaker A:

Like my, my events that convert workshop that I'm hosting is 77.

Speaker A:

That's a lower ticket high volume offer versus rounded pricing tends to align better with premium high touch service offers where confidence is part of the positioning.

Speaker A:

Again, we talked about positioning in the last episode, but this is where like FVA is $9,000 for the year or 750amonth.

Speaker A:

There's no discounting in there, right?

Speaker A:

Like, I could have done 747 per month, but I didn't want to.

Speaker A:

It was like it's 750 per month done, end of story.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

That's a very confident.

Speaker A:

It's a very decisive.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

It's a very decisive pricing.

Speaker A:

So anyways, this one is really interesting about like, it's not just about choosing the number, it's about choosing like the vibe in which you want your offer to be presented at.

Speaker A:

So what are your offers and your current pricing like, signaling about your brand?

Speaker A:

Is it more of like that confident premium positioning or is it discounted, tactical, more accessible?

Speaker A:

Okay, so anyway, that's the nine different principles in pricing.

Speaker A:

I think that there's a lot here that you can take into consideration when you're thinking about your pricing your offers in ways.

Speaker A:

Again, this is not about manipulating anybody.

Speaker A:

This is not about going out of integrity.

Speaker A:

Every single one of these principles can be like, used and applied with integrity.

Speaker A:

Okay?

Speaker A:

The psychology is the psychology.

Speaker A:

We all make buying decisions based on how our brain is processing information, right?

Speaker A:

So this just gives you Ways to think about how your potential buyers are processing information.

Speaker A:

And again, everybody's brain processes information differently.

Speaker A:

So there's absolutely no way that we could ever apply all of these principles and hit every single person.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

Like, like I said in the beginning, like that very first principle I don't partake in.

Speaker A:

Like I do not make buying decisions in that way.

Speaker A:

My brain does not process it in that way.

Speaker A:

Like there's zero psychology around that to me.

Speaker A:

So again, but I do see where like the 997, like you feel like you're getting a little bit of a deal.

Speaker A:

I get that.

Speaker A:

Right.

Speaker A:

Like my brain does do some of that.

Speaker A:

Same with like the subscription price versus like pay in full.

Speaker A:

I've, I've caught myself doing the math on this.

Speaker A:

Like when you present an offer, I've seen an offer and they're like, oh, it's $12,000, but $12,000 is like like immediately my brain's like, holy, that's a lot.

Speaker A:

That was expensive.

Speaker A:

Like that was a big investment.

Speaker A:

But when you break it down, if it's a 12 month investment, it's a thousand dollars a month.

Speaker A:

Like that doesn't feel like near as big of an investment to me.

Speaker A:

I've done it before, I've done it in my business multiple times, right.

Speaker A:

Like I've, I've spent a thousand dollars a month on multiple different things.

Speaker A:

So.

Speaker A:

But again, a thousand dollars a month versus $12,000 for a year, like $12,000 offer, right?

Speaker A:

Like, because that's the thing is usually if we're presenting like a full price, there's no time associated with it.

Speaker A:

We don't, you know what, don't do the math.

Speaker A:

So again, there's so many ways that you can utilize these in your business and really, really think about like do you have anywhere in your, in your pricing where you are selling yourself a little bit short or where you could use some of these principles to help make the buying decision a little bit faster?

Speaker A:

You know, are you giving by, you know, if you wanted, I'll give you a question for each of the nine.

Speaker A:

Okay, so price quality, high risk.

Speaker A:

Does your price signal expertise and quality or does it accidentally signal budget?

Speaker A:

Okay, anchoring, what is your, what are you doing to establish the anchor before your price lands?

Speaker A:

Or on the flip side of this, are you leading with your low ticket offer and then wondering why people don't convert into your higher ticket?

Speaker A:

Are you framing your prices and investment in a result or letting it sit is just a number or an expense sense?

Speaker A:

Are your payment options Reducing buyer friction, right?

Speaker A:

The pain of paying.

Speaker A:

Are you helping buyers calculate the cost of inaction or only selling the upside loss aversion?

Speaker A:

Are you giving buyers a meaningful comparison point for your price Relativity time, right?

Speaker A:

How much time are you spending on something?

Speaker A:

Does your offer suite create enough contrast for buyers to make a confident decision?

Speaker A:

This was that decoy effect, right?

Speaker A:

Big contrast best, easier decision is your middle offer position to feel like the obvious and safe choice.

Speaker A:

That's the compromise effect.

Speaker A:

And then does your pricing style, odd or rounded, match the brand that you are building?

Speaker A:

Okay, so anyways, I thought this was absolutely fascinating.

Speaker A:

You can dive deeper into it, do more research on it.

Speaker A:

Just look them all up.

Speaker A:

You can look them up.

Speaker A:

I will even put some of them in the ones that I have, like the names, I can put those in the show notes.

Speaker A:

But I just think it is so fascinating when you really start to dive in and look at the psychology around pricing because there's so much noise in online space that pricing should just be like, pick this number because this means this.

Speaker A:

Pick this number because this means this.

Speaker A:

Right?

Speaker A:

And like at the end of the day none of it means shit because we all interpret things differently, right?

Speaker A:

So at the end of the day, we need to be pricing the offers based on how we want to be perceived, how we want our brand to to be perceived, how we are, you know, working with our clients and what type of clients are we trying to attract.

Speaker A:

And these psychology principles can play a role in that in addition to making sure that your pricing is set up and in alignment with your revenue goals.

Speaker A:

So anywho, if you are listening to this and you're feeling like, man, my pricing is a shit show of a mess.

Speaker A:

Not only is it like not priced with any type of psychology, I don't have any of these things in play and, or you're sitting at a revenue plateau, you're not hitting any of your goals.

Speaker A:

That is where the revenue intervention offer was born from.

Speaker A:

And that is a 90 minute working session where you would literally like, if you wanted to dive deep into one of these, we will create the strategy on that call and get you basically implementing it.

Speaker A:

So again, this is not just about learning more and having more conversation.

Speaker A:

This is like, okay, this is what we're working on.

Speaker A:

We're going to dive into this, we're going to look at your offers, we're going to look at the psychology around them, we're going to look at how they're planning are positioned and whatnot, and we are going to solve it and start implementing it.

Speaker A:

Okay, so the revenue intervention offer is for this exact, like, one immediate, like, holy shit moment.

Speaker A:

Okay.

Speaker A:

All right, this one's getting long, so I'm going to wrap it up.

Speaker A:

Until next time.

Speaker A:

I love you, I believe in you, and I will talk to you soon.

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