[5 Min Friday] Drop these 2 symbols for higher sales

I want to talk to you about psychology today.

Psychologist? No no, I am not…though I did take Psych 101 in college as a senior, the only thing I remember is Pavlov’s Dogs…

….Bell ringing….dog salivating…..like Homer Simpson dreaming of Duff beer….mmmmm…..beer…..

Ok back to reality….

…Science fanatic when it can back up marketing and sales strategies?

Yes sir & madam!

…because for ME I want to have a little bit of proof…

…a little bit of meat I can sink my incisors into…

PROOF that a tweak, trick, “hack” if you will, is FOR REAL and not MADE UP…

…and things like psychology and brain science? Like actual studies done in labs and obnoxiously boring reports are written and published in journals and books?

 

To ME, that’ something solid.

OK.

You’re sitting here like, “LISA GET TO THE POINT!!!”

OK…I Get it 🙂

But let me ask you a question first…then I’ll tell you the answer and go into the psychology behind it.

Which price format do you think would get the highest sales?

And do you think it even matters?

 

Seventy Dollars

70

$70.00

 

Whadaya think?

…

…

Don’t peek below until you guess….

…seriously…

 

The answer?

70

“Contrary to expectations, guests given the numeral-only menu spent significantly more than those who received a menu with prices showing a dollar sign or those whose menus had prices written out in words.” — $ or Dollars: Effects of Menu-price Formats on Restaurant Checks by Cornell University.

Full disclosure here…this study was done on a restaurant menu, NOT a photography price menu…but I’m guessing the results would be similar.

 

So how can we apply this?

We need to remove TWO symbols…

The “$” and the “.” with the two zero’s after….I suspect we should eliminate all commas in our over $1,000 range as well.

Lets swap your $185.000 session fee for “85”

Lets swap your $1,500.00 package to “1500”

Now…when you look at the $1,500.00 vs 1500, doesn’t it just FEEL smaller?

 

Even $1,500 vs 1500 feels smaller…less…

It’s this thing called “money cues.” Basically, the actual dollar sign ($) and visuals of dollar bills, etc, give these “money cues.”

You can learn more about that in the book “Brainfluence.”  I don’t want to get too in-depth on the research, you can read it for yourself if you want to learn more…

…if you’re nerdy like me…

…if you want the real meat to sink your insiors into instead of just hearing about theory with no evidence whatsoever…

 

Cheers!

Lisa “I’m so nerdy I coded an RPG game at age 10” Edwards…for real though, not kidding.

 

P.S. Want MORE 5 minute Friday’s and other blog posts with brain science, psychology, and REAL evidence to sink your teeth into?

I’m into it…

But honestly?

I don’t know if YOU are into it…

Reply in the comments and say, “I’m into it!” if you want more science-backed info in the future.

 

P.P.S. You might be thinking, “will this REALLY make much of a difference? I mean…just dropping those two symbols?”

I get it…I TOTALLY get it…

But what harm can it do to implement?

What if you even make $20 more per session…. And you do 50 sessions per year…If you could make an extra $1,000.00 in a year would it be worth it? (See what I did there? YEAH, I’m clever….made that thousand dollars seem EXTRA BIG!)

 

But what if you made MORE than an extra K per year on it…What if you averaged a 10% higher sale across the board?

100k in sales now adds another 10k…50k in sales adds another 5k….

This could be the difference in adding a LOT to your bottom line! Or just a little…or none…who knows until you try!