February 12, 2024

How much is flour?

If you search for flour on Walmart.com, you’ll get a list with very different prices.

Closer inspection reveals that some prices are for 1lb bags, some are for 2lb bags, some for 4lb bags, some for 5lb bags, some for 10lb bags, some for 120oz bags, some for 400oz bags, etc.

How confusing!

You might think, “So, just compare them based on the unit price!”

Good thinking!

Unfortunately, they choose to mix the unit price units as well.

Some are ounces, and some are pounds.

And since we here in the US have stubbornly resisted the metric system, the conversions are very hard to do without a calculator.

What gives?

It almost seems like Walmart is purposely making it hard to compare flour based on price.

In fact, I’d be willing to bet these products are priced this way specifically to make it harder to compare them on price.

Here’s the thing...

Whether or not you’re annoyed by Walmart’s approach to displaying flour prices, there is a useful lesson here for pricing your own services.

Price is the one marketing signal that basically everyone understands clearly.

Given a bunch of other less clear marketing signals, most people will default to price comparison shopping.

So...

If you don’t want to be treated like a commodity by price-sensitive buyers, package your expertise in ways that make it very hard to compare you with your competitors based on price.

For example...

If your competitors have hourly rates and you don’t, prospective buyers will be forced to have a value conversation with you to determine whether or not they want to work with you.

This is a lot better than being casually dismissed because your hourly rate is “too high” compared to other folks in your space.

Yours,

—J

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