If you were asked today how much you’d pay for a pair of comfortable, black, flip flops from a name brand you trust, you might say, “$20.” And you’d probably provide a different number if someone gave you a range of numbers from which to choose. 

But when it comes down to it, when you are at the store tomorrow, and you pass by a nice pair of flip flops – fitting the same description – you may or may not buy them even if the price was in fact $20. When it comes down to it, you may not be in the market at all for the flip flops. No matter the price. 

That – among many other issues – is the problem with so-called pricing studies.

We at The Small Business Marketer are just not fans of them. 

Because when real money and real transactions are in play, people behave differently. And the questions they answer in a survey are different than the questions they ask themselves in the moment of purchase. Those questions cannot be covered by surveys. 

It’s possible that surveys can give you ballpark figures. But it’s much more likely that you can figure this out more precisely by simply asking people to buy your product or service. 

If you are at a place where you are considering an additional product or service for your lineup, we recommend testing it as soon as it’s a viable product or service. “Viable” of course means that there is use to the consumer. It may not have all of the use that the consumer would love just yet, but it’s still useful. 

Let’s say your customer will pay you for the product or service – and that payment is enough to make your efforts worth it. Looks like you’ve established a baseline for your pricing. 

If you want to see if more people would buy the product if the price was lowered, give it a shot! If you want to see if you could make more money selling at a higher price, try it out! Repeat those steps in the direction you desire to move your brand and customers, and you’ll create a solid sample size and a proven track record. And, you’ll be making money instead of spending it on a survey. 

Sure, some of this requires significant time and energy, but so do complicated pricing surveys. And at the end of the day, those surveys will still be missing hundreds of nuances that make up a real buying decision. 

We’ve seen money wasted here, friends. As a small business, that isn’t competing nationwide on store shelves, we’d recommend staying away from engaging in a pricing survey. 

Instead, it’s much more likely that you need to address how your product should be positioned against competitors. Now that’s a strategy exercise worth engaging in before you launch your next big thing.