So this weekend there was a community-wide yard sale in my parent’s neighborhood. The weekend previous, my sister had a yard sale with very favorable results. My mom was excited about the prospect of a similar outcome. Ugh. It didn’t happen quite the same. I think there were several contributing factors, but one was the lack of a yard sale mentality.
My mother, bless her heart, wanted to sell things for what they were worth to her. Some very nice, very expensive boots that she had bought when she lived in Philadelphia (in anticipation of blizzards) were one item that didn’t sell. She was asking $20 for these boots because she had never worn them, and they are pretty incredible. She forgot that we’re in the south (where blizzards don’t happen), and she was selling at a yard sale.
I had advised my mother to sell like-groupings of items with signs that read their prices. This way, potential customers would be intrigued by the inexpensiveness of the items being sold. She was selling these items as if they were in their original state being sold at a store. People come to yard sales and expect cheap deals–not $20 boots.
This same kind of thought process can creep in anywhere. Incorrectly evaluating who you’re selling to and what you’re actually selling (devoid of emotional attachment), can make the price of an item or service seem valuable to the one selling but not to those actually in the market. It becomes imperative for those in business to find the correct value for what they are selling and to make sure they are selling it in the right venue.
If my mother had tried to sell those boots on Craigslist, I doubt she’d have a hard time getting her price for them. In the same manner, those in business need to find the customers who want their services and understand the value of it–not just try to pawn it off on someone who didn’t want it in the first place and still doesn’t understand why they need it. Sell the appropriate services and products to the appropriate target in the right venue, and favorable results will follow.
On somewhat of a side note, I want to happily report my shopping finds. The same day of my mother’s sale, I decided to rove around the neighborhood with some pocket change. For three dollars and 25 cents, I became the proud new owner of three books that have been on my amazon shopping list for months, two Mary Kay items from someone who previously sold Mary Kay, and three candle holders. I was pretty excited having gained so much from so little. I guess those items ended up being the right price for the right venue for me.
