This week, we present our fourth homeowner buying persona, the Price Monster. If you missed any of the personas I’ve already written about, you can read them here.
All home improvement companies secretly loathe prospects who think price first. They’re difficult to set appointments with, difficult to sell and difficult to close. But with the economy what it is, Price Monsters are everywhere.
Your print and broadcast efforts may get Price Monsters interested what you offer. However, you can bet that they’ll do everything they can to understand pricing and potential cost savings before they let you in their homes.
Your hidden challenge with Price Monsters is not tied to your products or your sales techniques. Rather, it comes from Google, which now displays its Retail Listings high on its search results pages. Among its retail listings, Google shows search results for behemoths like Home Depot, Lowe’s, Overstock.com and Amazon – at deceptively low prices.
Among these retail listings, Price Monsters will see that they can get a walk-in tub for $1,600! But of course what they don’t see is the low quality that necessarily comes with that low price. They also don’t see there any reference to installation.
And they don’t see they’ll have to hire a plumber to connect up the unit. But unfortunately, it’s that low price that invariably sticks in their heads.
Some tips for succeeding with Price Monsters. Don’t price over the phone. Don’t fall for their persistent requests for a ballpark price. And DO make strong offers on your Web site.
Price Monsters love saving money, whether via coupon, a posted discount, or as a carryover from your offline advertising. These hooks grab Price Monsters and get them to raise their hands.
Next Week: The Wired Homeowner