Raising Your Reg Price?

Best-selling author, entrepreneur, and marketing expert Seth Godin’s insights on pricing can help event organizers put the question of whether to increase registration costs in a new light.

Author: Michelle Russell       

Yellow brick road that looks golden, surrounded by flower is leading to a big city on a summer day

‘Price is a story, price is a signal, and price is a symptom of your strategy,’ writes Seth Godin in his new book, This Is Strategy: Make Better Plans.

When we asked meeting planners to share with us in Convene’s most recent Meetings Market Survey the measures they’re taking to offset rising costs, around half said they have increased registration fees. It’s easy to understand why the other half of event organizers are hesitant to price their event out of the market, especially when their audience has other options in their competitive conference set.

Marketing guru Seth Godin’s new book, This Is Strategy: Make Better Plans, offers a different way to look at pricing that could help make organizers more confident in a decision to increase the cost to attend.

Here is an excerpt from his book with his thoughts on pricing, which could easily be applied to events:

Price is a story, price is a signal, and price is a symptom of your strategy.

Cheaper might not be better. There’s a bias in marketplace economics toward cheaper. Supply and demand curves show us that when the price goes down, demand goes up. And all other things being equal, this is true for commodities.

But all other things aren’t equal. Something is only a commodity if the seller treats it that way.

Customers need a story to tell the boss and their friends. “It’s like last time but cheaper” is compelling and tempting. It’s easy to sell and easy to tell. “You pick anyone, and we’re anyone, but cheaper.”

But low price is the last refuge of a marketer who has run out of things to say.

It turns out that there are lots of demands on the products or services we sell, and the system might require a different sort of better.

Generous doesn’t mean free. Generous work requires emotional labor. It means looking at the problem instead of looking away. Leaning in when we feel like hiding.

Generous work puts us on the hook, because it amplifies connection, it doesn’t diminish it.

Generous work is more insightful than people expect, or more urgent or selfless. Generous work makes a difference, and often it’s okay if that generous work is expensive.

The slogan of generous work can be, “You’ll pay a lot but you’ll get more than you paid for.” And the tag line is, “I see you. And I care.”

Ongoing costs are easier to ignore than the immediate price. How much does it cost to adopt a puppy at the shelter?

Perhaps it’s the $400 you put on your credit card. But that doesn’t count 14 years of food, replacing the chewed-up cashmere duster, getting the carpets cleaned, the dog sitters, and more.

Organizations and families make decisions based on price all the time. Thoughtful managers look at the cost.

At a certain point, a person’s story about money is far more important than money itself. Successful strategies seek to find customers who are eager to pay money to solve their problems. If you want to find a lousy customer, find someone who has a scarcity mindset, or is more comfortable with their problem than they are in spending to make it go away.

How did Dorothy persuade the Lion, Tin Man, and Scarecrow to join her on the trip to see the Wizard? Did she make a case about how much she missed home?

The lesson here is worth remembering. She created the conditions where others could get what they wanted by joining her. 

They got to move closer to their stated goals of courage, compassion, and smarts. But more than that, she offered them status and affiliation.

The Wizard was simply a stepping-stone on the way to where they were hoping to go.

Michelle Russell is editor in chief of Convene.

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