What is psychological pricing?

Posted on June 30, 2023November 7, 2025 by stagiaire

What is psychological pricing?

Psychological pricing is a method by which companies manipulate the perception of prices to boost sales. The concept of psychological pricing is based on the theory that certain prices have a greater psychological impact on consumers than others.

Why is psychological pricing important?

Psychological pricing is important because it can change the way consumers perceive the value of a product. If you start introducing psychological pricing, you will find that consumers are more likely to buy and spend more money.

Psychological pricing example

Let's look at an example of psychological pricing. Imagine a product priced at €9.99 instead of €10.00. Even though the price difference is barely noticeable, the lower price can make the product more attractive to potential customers. The consumer sees the first lower figure and subconsciously thinks it is a better deal.

What are the pricing strategies?

Price anchoring: Use a more expensive product as a comparison

By using a more expensive product or service as a reference, the perceived value can be increased. For example, a company can offer a 'premium' package with a higher price to make the standard package more attractive.

Product bundling: offering more for less money

By selling multiple products or services together at a lower price than the individual items, a company can increase perceived value. This can entice the consumer to buy more than originally planned. The psychological effect here is: suddenly, the customer is going to see many more benefits in buying.

Charm Pricing: rounding prices

We gave this example above and it is the standard example of a psychological price. Using prices ending in .99 or .95, such as €9.99 instead of a round €10, can create the feeling that the price is lower. This can increase the attractiveness of the product and encourage customers to buy.

Price differentiation

This is offering different price points for different segments of customers. Do you serve sole traders as well as larger companies? Then it might be an idea to provide lower prices for small sole traders.

Temporary offers

Creating a sense of urgency and scarcity through temporary discounts, limited offers or flash sales. This can encourage customers to buy faster and increase the perception of value.

Free product

Offering free products can also be part of psychological pricing strategies. Offering a free product with the purchase of another product can make consumers feel they are getting a good deal, which can influence their buying decision.

In doubt about a particular price?

In an increasingly competitive market, it is vital for companies to use their pricing strategies effectively to boost sales. Want to strategically increase your sales and sell more? I am happy to look at how we can make this happen and conduct my consumer research each time.

Kurt Vervloet

Kurt Vervloet is a business coach, blogger and speaker. Since 2017, he has been coaching businesses around the world, ranging from solo entrepreneurs, SME companies to executive management teams at large organisations. His clients choose to work with him because of my proven, no-nonsense approach to optimising and scaling businesses. By achieving great results with his clients, he has already been rewarded with several Awards.

Inform customers announce price increase

Posted on June 1, 2023November 7, 2025 by stagiaire

Inform customers announce price increase

As a company, if you want to announce a price increase to your customers, it is important to inform them clearly. Honesty is key here. Customers also know that you do not announce price increases for your pleasure. Explain to them why the price increase is necessary and emphasise the benefits they will get, such as a larger product range or improved services. Also use the Unique Selling Propositions you have defined.

Use every conversation to your advantage

Customer is king, that's obvious. So take the time to address all your customers' questions and concerns. Announcing a price increase will often cause many customers to request a call. Use this to your advantage: emphasise how good your services are, take the time for each client, and possibly suggest new services to further increase revenue per client.

Defer price increase for existing customers

Communicate the increase in new, higher prices that apply immediately to new customers. For existing customers, in turn, you can say that they will get preferential treatment and the new prices will only take effect in 3 months. This way, existing customers actually get preferential treatment.

Personalise the message

Every contact likes to feel respected and appreciated. So if you send a generic message to every customer, it will come across worse than if you personalise the message. So use the contact's company name and first name in the message.

Example inform customers - announce price increase

"Dear [First name],

We value our cooperation and pride ourselves on the quality of our services. Our goal has always been to provide the best value and we obviously remain focused on that.

However, due to a number of factors, including rising operating costs, we find it necessary to make an adjustment to our pricing structure. This adjustment is a necessary step to maintain the quality and level of service you have come to expect from us.

We understand that a price increase is never pleasant news. Therefore, we have taken an approach that takes into account our loyal customers like [Company Name Customer] as much as possible. While the new prices will apply immediately to new customers, they will not take effect for you until three months from now.

We hope you understand that this price increase allows us to further invest in our services to even better meet your needs. Also in the future, we want to continue to surprise you with improvements in our product range and services.

We value your opinion immensely. If you have any questions or concerns, or would like to talk about how we can further help you get the most out of our products and services, please do not hesitate to contact us. We are always ready to answer any questions you may have.

Sincerely,

Kurt"

Kurt Vervloet

Financial plan example Excel

Posted on June 1, 2023July 22, 2025 by stagiaire

Financial plan example Excel

It is crucial for any business to have a well thought out financial plan. Your business will simply not succeed if there is no money and a clear revenue forecast. In fact, based on fixed and variable costs, you can start calculating how much turnover you need to turn over to break even. This way, you know in advance how much turnover you need to turn over each month to get out of costs. Our Excel financial plan example will help you with this.

Download our financial plan sample

You can access a Google Sheet of our financial plan example via the Google Drive link above. You can also copy this to your own Google Drive, share it with others or download it as Excel.

Download fincancial plan example excel

Why is it important to have a financial plan?

A financial plan ensures that you think about your costs, product and services. Based on this, you can also adjust your asking price to still break even. When starting a company or to get loans, it is often also mandatory to present a financial plan.

Why is breaking even a must?

The break-even point is the point at which total revenues equal total costs. In other words, it is the point at which you make no profit or loss. Calculating the break-even point is important to determine when a business will become profitable. In your financial plan, this calculation helps you set realistic goals and develop strategies to reach those goals.

What's in a financial plan?

A financial plan is divided into the following aspects:

Investments

Funding

Under the funding section, enter your own input. Can't get there with your own contribution? Then you can also take out a loan and mention this below.

Turnover forecast

In sales forecasting, you predict how much turnover you will make per product or service you offer. Try to base this on a normal year.

Break-even turnover

After all the previous steps, we have a view of the expected turnover and all the costs needed for your business. Our excel now simply calculates how much turnover you actually need to break even.

How does our excel example work?

You can use our 'financial plan excel example' here download with a simple click and start filling in.

If you would like help or advice on filling it out, you can always contact me without obligation.

Kurt Vervloet

How to recruit staff?

Posted on June 1, 2023November 7, 2025 by webit

How to recruit staff?

If you want to build a successful business, it is also essential to have an engaged and committed team. A motivated and passionate team will work more efficiently, ensure better results and therefore ensure satisfied customers. Below we describe some ways to recruit staff.

How to recruit staff in Flanders?

Use of job boards

You can consult the largest job board for free: that of the VDAB. Here you can publish your vacancy free of charge. In the vacancy text, try to highlight the enthusiasm, plus points and core values of your company in advance

LinkedIn is also popular as a job board, but did you know that on LinkedIn you can also just search for people with a particular job title? You can simply add them and send them a message. Beware: there is currently a limit on this, though. With the free version of LinkedIn, you can only invite about 100 people to connect each week.

Networking

Go to events and talk to like-minded souls - they can take your business to the next level too! Do you already have an extensive network? Contact them to ask if they know anyone for the job. You can also always post a job description via your LinkedIn or Facebook.

Recruitment and selection agencies

Does it involve a hard-to-find profile? It might be interesting to contact a recruitment agency specialising in your niche. In doing so, try to negotiate and pay the recruitment fee over several months: if the staff then end up not being suitable and leave after a few months, you will end up paying much less.

Many recruitment agencies also operate as employment agencies. This way, you can also test an employee to see if they ultimately meet your expectations.

Persuading trainees

How often do you hear that a student intern ends up working at their internship site? Maybe this is a good idea for your business too. This is a win-win situation: the intern learns from and also gets to know your company, and you know what kind of meat you have in the hen.

As you can see, there are several ways to recruit suitable staff. It can be a challenging process, but it is crucial for the growth of your business.