The reason it seems that price is all your customers care about, is that you haven't given them anything else to care about.
This quote from Seth Godin is inspiring to always be thinking about how we should be adding as much value as possible. One thing we can give our customers that will add tremendous value is a memorable experience. This is where I think about a winery my wife and I only go to when we visit the Hunter Valley wine region, Scarborough Wine Co 😍
You are sat at a table in their little cottage house on a hill looking out to the surrounding winery’s. You’re then taken through each of their wines by the family of owners and offered a cheese board to compliment the tasting. It’s so simple but it’s memorable and delightful. You could even walk out of there without paying a cent… but why would you!? We’re out of there with a case every time and telling everyone we know🍷
But at the end of the day we’d be getting the same basic outcome as we’d get from any other winery in the region - the difference is in the experience...and I kind of reckon its also why it tastes better too. This is also why we go to luxury hotels, buy expensive cars or go to fancy restaurants - for an experience unlike the norm because for many of us, we see great value in a heightened experience of what we already have on a day to day.
We only need a reliable car to get us from point A to B but a luxury vehicle is an experience to be earned. Just the same as an accomodation at any hotel - all you need is a decent place like home to sleep and bathe, but we're happy to pay for that next level experience of opulence or delight that becomes memorable. So if our customers haggle, negotiate or scoff at our price - we’ve either: (a) set it too high for that customer - which means we might be targeting the wrong audience. Some people just don't need or see the value in what you do and that's something we have to be ok with, rather than take it to heart. OR most likely (b) we’ve neglected to think about what would truely delight and offer an experience our customer will tell five of their friends about and will keep coming back for.
In essence value is found in memorable delight 🙌