Let me tell you a true story.
Way back in 2002, a month before I finally hung out my shingle as a freelance copywriter, I was still shilling slinging MLM. And I was renting mailing lists and using direct mail to send leads to a video that’d sell them on the deal I was in. And to get better at it, I had just started listening to some free weekly teleseminars put on by a brilliant marketer named Art Jonak.
One of the teleseminars was about pricing.
And, specifically, why nobody really buys on price.
Instead, they buy on:
1. Comfort
2. Quality
3. Convenience
To prove this, he asked the listeners to go to the poorest part of town on a Sunday morning and look at peoples’ garbage cans and dumpsters and notice what they see. Chances are, you’d see a lot of pizza boxes, from the lowest income people in town.
Well guess what?
Ordering a pizza is the MOST expensive way to buy it.
The least expensive way would be to spend a few dollars, but invest lots of time to grow your own ingredients and make the pizzas yourself. It’d probably cost 1/10th or less of the price as one pays by ordering a pizza – especially if delivered, adding a tip, etc.
Another example Art gave:
Look at the cars driving up and down the street.
All the cars are different.
Some are expensive, some are cheap.
But if everyone bought on price, they’d all be the same cars – and likely beaters that cost $100, that barely run, but still get them from point A to point B, with any repairs costing way less than getting a car note, paying interest, or getting something of quality that won’t need repairs or break down for years.
He also said to look in the apartments and houses.
Do they sit on lawn chairs or the floor (cheap, or free)?
Or did they buy couches, chairs, etc?
Anyway, you get the picture.
There will always be some people who have to buy 100% based on price.
Can’t help that – most everyone experiences being legitimately broke at some point. But for the most part, nobody really buys on price and price alone. And that was Art’s point: They first and foremost buy on (1) comfort, (2) quality, and (3) convenience.
But I would also add a 4th reason:
STATUS.
People will spend money they don’t have, go into lots of debt, and even resort to risking their very freedom and dignity to get something that his high Status.
So this is why I don’t listen to liars who tell you the only buy on price.
They can take that shyt to Reddit or wherever they hang out.
That said, not all price shoppers are liars. There are a ‘good’ kind. And they are the ones who buy something BECAUSE a price is high. These boys & ghouls are great. Not only are they easier to deal with, but they are far more likely to consume, apply, and benefit from what they bought.
They also value time over money.
In many cases, they use price as a curation tool to save time, if nothing else.
They also are the kind of customers I target for my own offers, including the paid Email Players newsletter, which simply is not intended for, nor does it appeal to, cheapskates.
You can learn more about the paid Email Players newsletter here:
Ben Settle
