Price testing

THE CHALLENGE

You’re chatting to a new trialist in the early stages of their trial / intro and…

1. You start digging into their background and current/past training habits and

start to get the feeling that your price point could be a big adjustment for them.

2. They start asking you about price before they’ve had a chance to feel the value of your service. You don’t feel like it’s the right time to be led into a pricing discussion, but you can sense their frustration if you just keep deflecting or avoiding the question.

3. They don’t seem driven by price, they have a good job, they seem interested, they probably have the budget. But your past experience has taught you not to be drawn into this false sense of security. You’ve gone skipping down this path of blind faith before. You know you need to set an accurate cost benchmark now, but you’re not sure how to tactfully weave it into this great conversations you’re having. 

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There is an age-old debate about when to price-present to a new prospect. We’re not attempting to solve this here (this is ultimately down to what works for you). BUT, avoiding price altogether can lead to problems and frustration both ways further down the line. Here’s a few you might recognise...

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▪ Your prospect feels frustrated that the price seems hidden and loses trust

▪ They use your intro price as the marker and spend the whole trial / intro period measuring your value against the wrong price point.

▪ They think the price might be negotiable, so spend time thinking of ways they can ‘haggle’.

▪ The longer you avoid a commercial discussion and move into ‘friend zone’ the harder this discussion becomes.

▪ They can’t afford it or not willing to pay full price, but they will play along for as long as you let them.

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THE SOLUTION – A ‘PRICE TEST’

A ‘PRICE-TEST’ is a carefully engineered statement, that benchmarks your price point early in the process, whilst cleverly positioning the value you offer, without the need to go into a full price presentation. 

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A good, well practised Price Test will help you:

✓ Address or overcome price questions without being led into a full pricing discussion.

✓ Benchmark your price whilst highlighting your value in a way that feels natural.

✓ Start your relationship with a clear understanding of your price point, reducing frustration

Here are a few example price tests to get you started...

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THE ‘BAD HABITS’ PRICE TEST

“We can go into more detail about prices of course, but first let me ask you a question. How much do you spend on take aways, fast food, nights out in a month without even thinking? How much is that serving your long term health and happiness? Ok, well we are not the cheapest gym around and we don’t want to be, but we are 100% committed to getting you results. For about half / twice / the same amount as you spend on take aways and nights out a month, we will give you a completely new relationship with fitness, a whole new group of friends, support and motivation like you’ve never experienced, the body you’ve always dreamed of and a level of fitness you’ve never managed to reach on your own.”

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THE ‘PT’ PRICE TEST

“We can go into more detail about our prices whenever you want to, first it’s really important you understand what we’re about. Have you ever had a PT session?

What you get with us is much more like having a personal trainer than joining a gym. We get to know you, we support you and coach you, we hold you accountable and we work closely with you as you progress towards your results. A decent PT session it will cost you about £50 for a session right? Even doing that once a week would be about £200 a month. Well with us you get all those same benefits plus more, and you can train every day, for about half of that cost. You’re also joining a close community of people all working towards the same thing that will motivate you to turn up and not let yourself down. Once you see the difference you’ll never want to pay £20 a month for a normal gym again."

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THE ‘PER SESSION’ PRICE TEST

“We will go fully into price properly when you’re ready as there are a few different options. Where do you currently train? What have you tried in the past? This is a bit different to a gym, we offer premium group based workouts with dedicated coaches,

nutritional guidance and personal support. It’s very different to a normal gym or classes. As a guideline, any good quality team based workout is about £25-£30 for a drop in session. However, most people here are on a membership and come 4-5 times a week which works out about £XX per session or £XX per week. That’s usually less than people spend on coffee. If you want to train less than that we have plenty of options to suit pretty much anyone.”

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THE ‘MAGIC SPELL’ PRICE TEST

“We can go into more detail about prices of course, but first it’s important you understand what it is we do here, because it’s very different from a normal gym or classes. 

How much have you spent on fitness in your life? What if I had a magic spell that meant tomorrow you could wake up in peak physical condition, full of energy, you have more friends, more confidence and you are mentally sharper and healthier? 

What would you be willing to pay? 5k? 10k? 100k?"

I’d say 5k would be a bargain.

"There is no magic spell, it will take some time and commitment, but that is EXACTLY what we will give you and it will cost you less than half of that. You just pay us over a year".

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THE ‘RELATABLE MEMBER’ PRICE TEST

“We can go fully into membership options / prices when you’re ready.

Your situation reminds me a lot of one of our members, Georgia. When she came to us she’d been at GloboGym for 3 years. Didn’t enjoy working out, never saw the results she wanted, struggled to be consistent, no support or accountability and didn’t really get anything from it.

When you think about it, yes it’s £20 a month, but in 3 years she had spent £720 and got nowhere. She has been with us 5-6 months now so she’s invested around the same, but she’s transformed her life. She’s loving training, she’s lost the weight, feeling amazing and just wishes she hadn’t wasted those 3 years of her life.”

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