Comments on: Poop on the Shelves

By: Colin Weaver

Colin Weaver — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 06:20:18 +0000

Nick, thanks for commenting.

For me to get caught up in the “what if” scenarios of every customer going on to be a huge word of mouth advocate is a gateway to being able to rationalize anything and everything solely on what might be. That’s too slippery a slope for me. If I lamented the missed “what if’s” I would soon find myself stressing over every lottery ticket I didn’t buy and perhaps worse still, buying every lottery ticket without thinking of the consequences.

Colin

By: nick

nick — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:08:09 +0000

I’m making the assumption if you are a paid public speaker, then you have some sort of products; i.e. books, underlying business opportunities etc. What if that person goes on to be a huge success because of something he gained in your seminar. Well, surely he will be the biggest advocate of your products, and when word of mouth is so important, he or she could be an impetus to future and greater successes. Many of these types of seminars are paid for by corporations and they are mandatory for a few of the executives to meet their required yearly hours of continuing education.
If the above is correct, then the majority of the people in the seminar are less likely to get something out of it then a small business man paying the $550 out of his pocket. All that being said, I do agree that consistently offering deep-discount could be detrimental in the long-run.

With the scenario of lowering your prices at a show, this is very different, because you have spent X amount of dollars to produce that product. While marking things down 5-10% may be a good marketing strategy, any thing more than that would in fact be very short sided and hurt you in the long-run.

I consider myself a very ethical person, and I do believe in win-win, but there are many variables to consider when making these types of decisions.

As always, thanks for the articles and the general insight into the breeding business.

By: Colin Weaver

Colin Weaver — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:29:41 +0000

J-nice,
Kinda’ like dropping your prices at the end of a trade show. People wait until the end of the show and try low-ball pricing. Guess I can’t blame them because it works all too often.

Colin

By: J-Nic

J-Nic — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 13:36:52 +0000

I wouldn’t have take the 550 either but not cause it’s ethic etc….
It’s cause in the long run, the 550 would have cost you way more.
If you do another conference, who will want to pay 2000$ ? Won’t they try and wait at the last minute to get in for a 75% discount ? Will you really be able to get them to join after that ?
Meaning 12 x 1450 = 17,400$ loss.

Doesn’t make sens in the long run.

I think it more depends if you think of the short / medium / long time to make profit.