How to Triple Your Products Price With a Good Story

Telling a story is a good way to relax prospects, engage their full attention, drive home the selling points in a memorable way, and overcome objections and price resistance.

One fine California day two decades ago, I arrived at my karate school armed with a dozen new patches I had purchased from a martial arts supply store. The students sewed patches on their uniforms to personalize them, and the patches were always especially popular with the children.

These particular patches featured a green dragon on a black background and were about the size of a dinner plate, much larger than the majority of patches we sold. Ron, my assistant instructor, asked how much the retail price would be, to which I replied off the top of my head, “Fifteen dollars.”

He asked how much I had paid for them. I told him they had cost me three dollars and sixty-five cents each. He shook his head and clucked. Then he informed me that no one was going to pay fifteen dollars for a three-dollar patch no matter how large it was! Now that’s just the type of challenge I happen to thrive on, and I quickly picked up the gauntlet. I made a small wager with Ron that all twelve would be sold by that very evening.

I put the patches up on the lobby wall where they would have maximum visibility to the students as they…