Timber Man's Tricks
Larry, the timber man, whose stall was opposite mine, shared an interesting sales trick to me about people's perceptions on quality. At the beginning of the day, he would mark the collection of wooden wall signs, situated at the entrance of his marquee, at the price of thirty dollars each. If sales remained non-existent, he would jack the price up to forty dollars. This act caused no hindrance as in his words, "If I can't sell it at thirty bucks, I may as well not sell it at forty." Simply amplifying the value boosted his ego, and consequently that of his customers, also. Within twenty minutes, which is a short time in sales time, Larry sold two wooden slabs. "Why is that?" I asked him. He said, "Sell it cheap, people will think it's crap. Raise the price, people will think it's worth it."
He told me a story about a friend of his who started business selling antique styled wooden trunks. Each trunk costed the friend approximately twenty-five dollars to ship from Malaysia to Australia bulk-billed, and in turn, he sold for a reasonable one hundred dollars per trunk. However, sales was a struggle. Good old Larry advised him to set the cost to four hundred dollars per trunk. The friend obeyed and immediately after, thousands of dollars began to swim in daily singlehandedly.
I was at the markets* selling two racks full of dresses that I no longer wanted. At the front, I stuck two bold red handwritten signs, labelled "$10". In all that time I only sold two items. Larry, on the other hand, by the closing hour, changed his sign for those wooden slates to $25 because he really didn't feel like selling any more.
* Kelvin Grove Village Markets - Predominantly a food market, very lively and great atmosphere.