directedfocus

When I was a kid, an ordinary bike cost around $25 (I know I had one) and a great bike, a really great bike, a really cool great bike cost around $120.

Looking back I figure an adult who wanted to spend heaps on a bike could have spent $250.

The premium ratio was therefore around 10:1

What about today?

Today, a bad bike costs around $20. A really great cool bike could cost you around $4,000 and the extreme bike may require $10,000 or so.

Go figure … the premium for the best is up from 10:1 to 200:1.

Same thing is true for cars, coaching, consulting, wine, clothes you name it!

The gap is getting wider and wider and in many instances the bottom has disappeared ... to free.

Now the range can be from zero to whatever and in the process many business owners figure that they must begin with free, in the hope that someone will see the value in the “freeness”.

The problem with so many of these people giving away free stuff is that they have no value pathway. The leeches hold onto their every word and then when anything about paying for value based services arises … they run like scared cats.

Price and associated value sets the scene.

In a past life I delivered a number of government training workshops and follow up assistance. The participants paid 10% of the actual cost. When they wanted to continue the service and they were greeted with the reality of the investment required, they vaporised.

They were lead to believe that a two day workshop and a one day one on one follow up cost hour per hour around the same as the hourly rate of their average unskilled employee.

Their expectations were built up and then discarded. Our work was interacting with business owners who saw little value in what we were delivering as the price they paid taught them that.

Shopping for products and services online is largely the same.

Much of what is occurring is at the edges.

The zero stuff and the premium stuff.

If you can create the pathway that the people you interact with feel comfortable with, they will respond to the initial “free” content and in many cases actually jump some steps to the higher value services you offer.

Is your premium 10:1, 100:1 or 200:1?

I’d be pretty sure in stating that you actually prohibit people from interacting at the 200:1 level and beyond?