Last week I spent six days at an Aikido camp in Narrabeen, on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. We stayed and trained at the Sydney Academy of Sport – great facilities, great food, great accommodation, awesome training … but very ordinary coffee. Fortunately Scotty had leant me his Million Dollar Hyundai (that's a story for another day), so I was able to head out in search of decent cup of coffee.

I headed North up the coast and at Newport saw a sign out of the corner of my eye saying "great coffee". I always like to see a big claim, so I figured I had found my spot. I pulled a U-turn (I believe it's legal for Victorians in NSW to do that) and parked.

Right next to where I parked was another café that looked pretty good. And I didn't have to walk across four lanes of traffic. But no, I remembered the great coffee claim, so I braved the highway and stuck to my initial plan.

When I got across the road I could also see the bottom half of the sign.

Great coffee, great price. And while they said great coffee, great price, I read ordinary coffee really cheap. I don't shop on price for coffee. And the fact they were marketing their coffee on price actually turned me off.

I turned around and went back to the café on the other side of the road, where I spent 30c more for my cappuccino. And I was glad I did. Mark was a coffee nut – when I explained I was from Melbourne and a bit of a coffee snob and complimented him on a great coffee, he told me that he was happy to pay a bit extra to get the premium Grinder beans because he can tell the difference (although he agreed that a lousy Barista can still screw up great coffee beans).

It's the same in your practice. You don't want to be marketing to people who shop on price. And the danger of pricing yourself too low is that not only are you attracting the wrong clients, you are also turning off the right ones.

Is there any part of your practice that looks a bit like "Great coffee, great price"?