The Truth About Pricing: How to Apply Behavioral Economics So Customers Buy

by Melina Palmer

The ultimate guide to pricing mastery and value-based pricing, The Truth About Pricing helps you unlock the secrets of your buyers’ minds, understand their needs, and set prices that skyrocket your business's success.

Pricing mastery made easy. A must-read for entrepreneurs seeking to determine what their customers value and set prices they want by understanding the truth about pricing—it isn’t about the price. Everything that happens before the price matters much more than the price itself. Have happier clients, boost your profits, and confidently master the pricing game with this comprehensive guide.

Boost your profits with an expert. Instructor of applied behavioral economics, marketing whiz, and best-selling author Melina Palmer provides a step-by-step guide to successful pricing strategies that resonate with your target audience, making them naturally more likely to choose you (regardless of the price). Discover the prices customers want and can't tell you, and gain an edge by understanding what your buyer values. The pricing mastery provided in The Truth About Pricing allows you to navigate pricing psychology and gain profitability, easier sales, and happier customers.

Inside, find:
The key to understanding your buyers needs and setting prices they want
What your customers—and your business—truly value
An easy to follow guide to successful pricing for entrepreneurs to boost profits and have happier clients

If you enjoy business plan books like Build, The New Model of Selling, or What Your Customer Wants and Can't Tell You, you’ll love The Truth About Pricing.

Genres: Business

329 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 9, 2024

About the author

Melina Palmer is a globally celebrated keynote speaker showing companies how they can easily get customers to buy and employees to buy in by leveraging the power of behavioral economics. She is CEO of The Brainy Business, which provides behavioral economics training and consulting to businesses of all sizes from around the world. Her podcast, The Brainy Business: Understanding the Psychology of Why People Buy, has downloads in over 170 countries and is used as a resource for teaching applied behavioral economics for many universities and businesses. Melina teaches applied behavioral economics through the Texas A&M Human Behavior Lab and obtained her master’s in behavioral economics from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. A proud member of the Global Association of Applied Behavioral Scientists, Melina has contributed research to the Association for Consumer Research, Filene Research Institute, and writes on Behavioral Economics & Business for Inc Magazine. Her first book, What Your Customer Wants and Can’t Tell You (2021), won first place in the Chanticleer International Book Awards in its category, of which her second book, What Your Employees Need and Can’t Tell You (2022), was also a finalist. Her highly anticipated third book, The Truth About Pricing, is scheduled to publish in January 2024.

Reviews

[Joris Gillet · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be honest, this one is largely on me. Based on the title I expected a general audience book on the behavioural economics of pricing. The usual pop.science-y mix of case studies and academic studies, about, I don't know, the effect of 'was/now' pricing, why lots of prices end in 9's, framing, anchoring etc. This is not such a book. It's a very practical business book; not even that much about prices. It's trying to give you advice about how to sell your good or service and the price is a factor but certainly not the only one. It's very hands on. Lots of check lists that will help you figure out if your good/service is a luxury or value type. Stuff like that. I don't plan on running a business any time soon but it looks pretty useful although, on the other hand, it also looks very very broad. The book tries to cover every potential business venture you could think of and by doing so it feels somehow a bit too general to be useful. But, as said, I don't read a lot of business books like this and maybe that's normal.

I do know quite a bit about behavioural economics and the way some of the topics are covered here is a bit iffy. There is lot of talk about priming and there's been so much discussion about that in relation to the replication crisis and questionable research practices in the last couple of years that I don't think I can take any of that literature serious anymore. The vague, unsubstantiated 'we make 35000 decision per day' statistic is trotted out multiple times. As is the classic 'more likely to run a marathon when you're 49 than when you're 50'. And the term reciprocity is interpreted in strange ways. At some point the notion that Ryanair is so cheap is framed as reciprocity; their low price is a 'gift to their customers'. I don't think commercial transactions like that can be thought of as an example of reciprocity (isn't the whole Gneezy and Rustichini study on day care centres saying that making interactions commercial will crowd out social preference motivations?). And also considering that Ryanair only advertises with the cheap price for the most basic of basic versions of their flights and charges you through the nose for every additional request - like bringing a bag with you - this example suggests that the author has never actually flown with Ryanair.

[Marcey Rader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I dove into Melina Palmer's new book, "The Truth About Pricing," the day it came out, and it is a game-changer!

This book is a must-read for anyone looking to understand pricing strategies and consumer behavior better. Melina's expertise in this field shines through every page, and her insights are nothing short of brilliant.

What I love most is how she breaks down complex pricing concepts into easily digestible nuggets of wisdom by incorporating case studies and stories.

As a productivity speaker and coach, I appreciate books that get straight to the point, and her book does it—no fluff, no wasted words, just valuable knowledge that can be applied immediately.

If you're serious about growing your business, understanding your customers, and making informed pricing decisions, this book is your golden ticket.

Get your highlighter ready!

[Peter P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book for anyone with limited exposure to Behavioral Economics. The book captures many of the main themes in BE, such as Priming, Framing, Regret Avoidance, Social Proof, etc. I expected there to be a little more on psychology of pricing, specifically, so that was a little disappointing. I have a personal distaste for low priced products being identified as "Value," as though value can only be delivered in lower priced products. That made some sections of the book a hard read for me. On the whole, however, I would recommend it.

[Amber Sutherland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was told to read this for work. At first, I was hesitant and dreading it because these aren't the type of books I normally ready. However, after reading a bit of it, I was pleasantly surprised. I loved all the examples of businesses using their pricing differently, and I would think about my bosses company (I work for) and how we can apply these tactics. A few parts were a little boring to me, but overall I enjoyed it, and learned lots along the way.

[Nuala Walsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

At last a book that is not only an entertaining and practical read about pricing but rooted in the rigour of behavioural science to make it highly useful for anyone in business. I have read the other two book by Melina Palmer and this one doesn’t disappoint. A difficult topic expertly researched and very well-articulated. A must buy.

[Dave Applegate · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's been a while since I've read a book this bad. The Truth About Pricing feels like Palmer found a mid-tier contractor on UpWork, had her read a few generic business books and slam out a few hundred pages. She then hand wrote the intro and a few pieces of copy that would drive people to her podcast.

[Antonio Villasís · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book has some helpful insights on how to use research from behavioral economics in pricing. At times there is some confusion that leads to interpreting behavioral economics as a kind of manipulation of the subconscious mind — for example, the description of the priming effect and other findings that are not robust when you try to replicate them

[Erin Laverone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Working in the behavioral science space, my business partner and I love to get meta on ourselves and apply what we are teaching our customers directly to their experience. Pricing has been something we've struggled with though as we've set out to establish ourselves in our unique niche and cover our back end costs. Pricing is very context dependent and as Melina show's in a very systematic manner in The Truth About Pricing, it's everything before, during, and after the buying experience that really matters, which is A LOT, and not the actual price. We directly applied what we learned from her book to our current sales page as well as our marketing promos for our next cohort of customers. We are loving the new look and feel of our brand and look forward to being able to help more customers as a result of more clearly communicating the value they will receive by investing in us. I highly recommend any entrepreneurs and small to midsize business owners who are struggling to figure out a good price point for your products or services to read The Truth About Pricing!
- Erin Laverone, Co-Founder, The Habit Coach Professionals

[MaryAnn · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a marketing agency founder, I don’t set my clients’ prices—but I do help them understand how those prices will shape their marketing, and how their marketing needs to support the prices they want to charge. *The Truth About Pricing* is exactly the kind of book I wish more clients would read before we talk positioning.

Melina Palmer is a clear and practical writer. She shows that pricing isn’t just a finance decision; it’s a story decision, a framing decision, and ultimately a perception decision. The number on the page only works if everything around it—offer design, messaging, brand promise, and customer experience—earns it.

From my perspective, this book gives language and structure to conversations I’m already having with founders: if you want premium pricing, your marketing, packaging, and customer journey have to signal premium; if you want “accessible but not cheap,” that has to be engineered just as intentionally. Palmer uses behavioral economics to connect those dots in a way that’s easy to share with a leadership team.

If you’re running a business or leading marketing, this is a strong, practical read. It won’t replace your pricing model, but it will absolutely change how you think about the relationship between your prices and the story your brand is telling.