Make Your Price Sell!, The Masters Course | Page 4

limited. Offline consultants seem to have jealously guarded this
lucrative area, charging large companies thousands of dollars to get the price right.
Remember... pricing is probably the most important marketing decision that
you’ll ever make. After all, it’s one of the 4 P’s, right?..
Any introduction level marketing course covers the Four P’s of Marketing. Yes, this
old mnemonic still holds true -- marketing basically boils down to a mix of Product,
Place, Promotion, and Price...
• Product -- the “what” that is actually being offered to the market... ex., a safe and
secure Volvo, a high-powered macho-feeling Porsche, or simply a low-priced,
“just get me there”...
... bus ticket.
What is the customer really buying?... Just the equipment of a computer system, or
a computer with all the software built in and a phone number to call if the user gets in
trouble?

Make Your Price Sell!, The Masters Course
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What are you truly selling?... A software package which the user has to install and
figure out, or an automatically updated and improved software system, which the
user rents access to, with live online help, on a month-to-month basis?
• Place -- the “where and how” that your product is being distributed. In other
words, the “distribution channel” (OK, OK... so the “Place” one was a bit of
push, to make it a “P”).
“Place” is the difference between buying a can of cola at...
• a discount store
• a fancy grocery store
• a stand at a train station ... or
• a counter on the actual train.
In each case, it’s the same can of cola, only the place changes. And, we all know that
that makes a lot of difference to the price. Have you bought a popcorn and soft drink
in a movie theater lately?
As a Web marketer, you have chosen the most dynamic and fastest growing
distribution channel in the history of the world – the Internet!
If you are using the fixed pricing model, your price has to be right the first time, or
you may simply not get a second crack at it.
• Promotion -- the means that you are using to “get the word out” about your
product and its benefits for the customer... even if the situation is as simple as “cola
vs. thirst.”
Your pitch can include online or offline advertising, personal selling, publicity, search
engines and so on. The Internet is the great communicator. It is just as much a
promotional vehicle as it is a distribution channel.
The Web, when properly used, is the ultimate niche marketing-and-
selling vehicle, the ideal situation for small business e-tailers. To
succeed online, you must build your own business... and that means
building your own traffic... your own clientele, from the ground up.
Very few people can build a business around a blog…
http://blogorbuild.sitesell.com/
Find out how you and SBI! can build a site that works for you, building
your business on a day-by-day basis. If you are selling hard goods
on the Net, find your answers here…
http://hardgoods.sitesell.com/
If you are selling e-goods, find your answers here…
http://egoods.sitesell.com/

Make Your Price Sell!, The Masters Course
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• Price -- the cost of the product being charged to the customer. The Perfect
Price is the price that meets both the buyer’s and the seller’s needs.
The buyer decides if the price is acceptable by determining benefits and by
considering the competition.
The seller prices to maximize profit, while considering the bigger picture business
model (i.e., high price/low volume or low price/high volume). The price must pay for
the cost of production, marketing and overhead costs, and still make a profit (unless
you’re a dot-com Internet stock!).
Ask yourself a few quick questions about the first three P’s...
• Product -- how can I make it better?
• Place -- how do I ship it from place A to place B to customer?
• Promotion -- how do I promote it?
What is the common thread for these three P’s? They all cost you money -- they
turn up on the expense side of the ledger.
Now ask yourself the same question for the last P...
• Price -- how much should I charge?
“Price” is the only P which brings money into your company! It’s building up the
income side of your ledger. So...
Make pricing your top priority. It makes cents, er-r-r sense, to know what Price
you should charge for your Product so that you can Promote it effectively and
Place it into the hands of your customer.
Here’s an important “foundation-building” type of exercise for you to do before we
continue with the rest of the course. Examine your business (or your business plan,
if you are not up and running yet) using a “4 P” marketing magnifying glass.
Bring into sharper focus your…
1) Product… What do you sell? What does your customer buy? What are its
major benefits? How important and unique are they?
2) Promotion… How do you promote your product or service?
3) Place… How do