The 4 Types of Buyers
Mar 19, 2019I’m going to share with you the 4 types of buyers.
Once you understand their characteristics it will help you with your pricing.
If you want the full details, you can watch the video here.
#1 - The price buyer
The price buyer is the person that shops based on price. Price is the most important thing they are looking for.
They are price sensitive.
Thankfully, research shows there aren’t many of these types of buyers in society. It’s typically estimated this group make 15-20% of buyers.
These people aren’t entrepreneurs, they aren’t high net worth individuals.
They’re not the sort of people you might have in your client base.
#2 - The value buyer
The value buyer buys based on value.
Price is still important, but the value of what they get is of even more importance.
When we think about the value equation, it’s essentially made up of the benefits someone gets when they buy minus the cost or price. A value buyer is looking to maximise that gap.
It doesn’t really matter so much what the price is as long as the value - or their perception of value - is much greater.
That’s most people. That’s your clients.
If they were price buyers, they’d be buying cheaper alternatives.
#3 - The relationship buyer
This buyer values the relationship the most.
This is great in our profession because we are in the relationship business. We are selling an ongoing, recurring service.
We build up relationships with our clients and so the relationship buyer will be our best clients.
They are the people who really value you. They enjoy spending time with you and coming in for meetings. They value your help.
These are the buyers that will pay you a premium price because they truly value what you do.
#4 - The Poker Face Buyer
These buyers are the most annoying types of buyers you can get.
These are the buyers that seem to be price buyers, but they are actually value or relationship buyers.
The customer’s ‘job’ is to get the best possible price. Customers will always talk about price. They want the best deal.
That doesn’t mean they are a price buyer though.
Let me give you a quick example:
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I bought a car a few years ago, and when I bought the car, I knew exactly what I wanted. I was very specific. I had one in mind, but when I shopped around on the internet, I found two different car dealers had exactly the same car, the one I wanted. I decided to email them both. I ended up getting them to compete with each other. I saved over £10,000 on the price of that car because we went backwards and forwards with emails. I wasn’t a price buyer. I would have paid full price, but they let me play that game. They let me compete with them and keep reducing the price bit by bit. |
If you found this valuable and would like to learn more about value pricing, I run a free live online training session every month with a topic chosen by you. Attend live and you can ask me any questions you have. Click here to register and I will send you an invitation to the next session.
Wishing you every success on your pricing journey
Mark Wickersham
Chartered Accountant, Public Speaker and Author of Amazon No.1 Best Seller “Effective Pricing for Accountants”