The 7m eBay Seller Secret About Pricing And Negotiation

Lots of aspirational PR accompanies the current 20th anniversary of eBay.

One such ‘success’ caught my eye.

The rather ingenious why-didn’t-I-think-of-that London duo who sell for you all those belongings of irritation you encounter when moving house.

Seven million quid’s worth shifted later, one co-founder shared key wisdom.

“If you think something’s worth £100, start the bidding at £100.”

This instantly struck a chord with me.

Whilst solution selling thankfully no longer sees the misguided trauma that was the e-auction reverse-bid process, this knocked my open door in two ways.

As I gravitate towards the higher ends of marketplaces, I often find myself stressing that you should be proud of your price. If buyers want lower, then what are they prepared to dictate that their users give up from your wonderful surround sound offering to gain pennies saved from elsewhere. Buy on price, pay twice…

A flip to this is that your product/service (and you) must be able to articulate why such fantastic extras command a worthy price premium.

If something is worth a ton, why would you start off talking about it for less?

Then there’s the split-the-difference, come-on-me-old-mate, jam-tomorrow nonsense.

Why is it in negotiation that a buyer expects a reduction? You’re not selling your last lonely fish from a marketstall at teatime. What you have delivers. And that’s what you pay for. The price is the price.

As on eBay, as in our solutions world.