In pricing, many people obsess over the number. They debate whether the product should be N9,999 or N10,499, $99 or $109. That debate is often misplaced. The number itself is largely inconsequential. What truly matters is how the customer perceives that number. This is where pricing stops being an social science and enters into the domain of natural philosophy.
Two salespeople can present the same product, at the same price, to the same customer, and produce two very different outcomes. One walks away with a sale; the other walks away with objections. The price did not change. What changed was perception.
This is the essence of pricing power: not the ability to raise or lower prices, but the ability to shape perception such that customers move, without touching the price. The goal is not merely to make a product appear “cheap.” Cheap is easy. Affordable is harder. Something can be cheap and still feel unaffordable if perception has not been properly engineered.
At Tekedia Institute, I often explain pricing through the lens of inertia. In physics, inertia is the tendency of matter to remain in its current state unless acted upon by an external force. Customers behave the same way. Left alone, they remain in the state of not buying. “Not sure” is their natural equilibrium. To move them from “Not Sure” to “Paid,” you must apply energy.
That energy is not discounts. It is communication, at a higher level. It is framing value, reducing cognitive friction, and helping customers mentally justify the purchase. In a Harvard Business Review article (read at Harvard here ), I used the iPhone as a case study. Apple rarely competes on price. Instead, it competes on perception, applying just enough energy to overcome spending inertia. Once inertia is broken, the wallet opens.
You learned Newton’s laws in junior secondary school: an object at rest remains at rest unless acted upon by a force. Markets obey the same laws. Sales happen when sufficient energy is applied to overcome inertia. Premium market share is won not just by changing prices, but by mastering the physics of perception.
Simply put, pricing is not about numbers; it is about motion. The firm that understands how to move customers, without moving the price, has discovered real pricing power.
At Tekedia Institute, over the years, I have taught thousands of co-learners on how to deploy that pricing power. Join us as we begin the next edition of Tekedia Mini-MBA on Feb 9 here.
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