04 Aug 024: Understand pricing or pay the price, with acknowledged expert Per Sjöfors
“Get your pricing right and set yourself up for success. Get it wrong and you’re bound to fail”. In this episode of Hooked On Startups I meet Per Sjöfors – acknowledged expert in pricing and pricing psychology, CEO and founder of Atenga Inc and co-founder and CEO of Sales4 profit. He has managed over 500 assignments with top tier companies and by re-engineering their consumer pricing he has helped CEOs and investors often double their companies’ growth rates. Per is frequently quoted in the press including Fortune Magazine, Inc Magazine, Industry Week and the Financial Times and he regularly speaks at conferences.
1:56 – How Per views pricing and its general importance.
2:29 – Background on Per and his company, Atenga.
4:52 – Statistics on companies that get their pricing wrong and how Atenga helps with that and an example of how they can help a startup.
7:16 – Working on pricing and expenses in reverse with IKEA as an example.
9:59 – Case study on Williams-Sonoma and a bread maker they sold and how they increased the sales of the machine.
11:42 – The psychology involved in pricing and pricing as the most powerful message of quality.
15:38 – A story about the most effective price imaging Per has seen.
17:22 – Digging into more of why price is the most important value message.
19:31 – How Per approaches consulting companies on pricing; the importance of pricing power and differentiation.
23:54 – Why many prices end in 9s and 7s and price walls.
26:01 – The counter-intuitive aspects of the psychology of pricing and a big piece of advice for startups.
28:50 – The psychology and price imaging behind restaurant menus and online businesses.
31:49 – Per’s story about price imaging when looking for a haircut in Las Vegas.
33:09 – Approaching setting a price for a webinar and pursuing loyal customers rather than price sensitive ones.
35:47 – Dealing with the fears of losing customers when increasing prices and an examples from Per’s experience.
38:45 – Getting in touch with Per’s two companies, Atenga for larger companies and Sales 4 Profit for smaller companies and startups.
40:31 – Research about failed startups and pricing.
41:40 – Per’s services are not just guesswork, but they’re based on research and science.
42:46 – When these services are most useful and Per being able to explain them thoroughly.
Resources and Links Mentioned:
https://www.williams-sonoma.com/