When you buy something expensive, what are you really buying?

It was Christmas.

We’d been in the bosom of our family for several days.
We exchanged that look that said, “Let’s escape!”
He said, “Where do you want to go?”
I said, “Somewhere that sells extravagantly expensive cocktails.”

We’d just left a house with a well stocked bar and a cocktail was hardly a novelty or an imperative but off we went into the cold to find the sort of place I had in mind.

After rejecting several bars we found the place and this is what happened ….

We sank into sumptuous sofas.
An impeccably dressed waiter took our order for Manhattans with an understanding smile and placed olives, nuts and cocktail napkins on our table.

We watched as the bar tender took her time measuring Canadian Club and vermouth into a cocktail shaker and adding ice, then carefully placed just the right amount of orange zest into two very beautiful glasses.

Cocktails shaken, poured and delivered with aplomb, we settled into our sofas and sighed. We had no idea how much they were going to cost but that really, really, wasn’t the point.

The cocktails weren’t the point. The price wasn’t the point. What we were buying was the feeling of escaping the everyday, of indulgence, of hedonism, of being spoiled, of a little luxury – of feeling special.

Do you know what your customers are REALLY buying from you?
What feeling do they get – and could it be a very different feeling?
If you put your prices up, packaged things a little differently could you give your customers that feeling every time they buy?

If you’d like to get some tips on pricing and how to sell with integrity, send me an email and ask me a question.