77. What do you say to "I don’t care about anything but price?"
Don't back down when your customer complains about price.
Here is a lesson I learned over 25 years ago that I have never forgot.
Many years ago in a small New England town I owned a meat processing company. I was replacing the freezer compressor and wanted to have a new one installed. I called the top company in the state and a sales person gave me a price.
Then a rival sales person called and offered to do the job for half as much. I phoned the first sales person and told him about the incredible difference in price, and asked how come.
And he told me:
"Many people have gotten into this field recently, They rebuild compressors as a sideline over in the corner of the factory, or in someone's backyard garage. They're cheap all right-and 'cheap' is the word. These cheap ones don't run efficiently."
"Your saving in the purchase price would be used up in the first two or three years in the cost of additional electricity. But that's not the half of it. "These half-price compressors keep breaking down-and these companies don't service their products. They don't have the staff to do It. It's disastrous to have your freezer go out in summer weather."
"When you buy a compressor for your company, you've got to buy reliability. Our company is called on to service these cheap compressors . We do what we can with them after we take care of our regular customers. Many of the buyers of these cheap compressors, after a couple of years of headaches, switch over to one of our systems."
"Why not start with one of our compressors? You'll be ahead in actual costs in no time at all. You'll be ahead In having an efficient and virtually trouble-free system. You'll have a top cooling system by a top company that serves 80% of the people in this area-and we're known for our fast response to every call for help."
I bought the higher priced compressor from this "Cutting Edge" sales person who told me with irrefutable logic why I should buy from him, and I was never sorry. I needed one repair in 5 years and the repair man was there in half an hour.
You can do the same thing when a customer tells you that your price is too high, or a competitor called and said they could it for much less. The key is to know your product inside and out. Know the business environment that you work in and continuously be on the lookout for points of interest and points of difference that will keep you in tune with what's going on in your marketing area.
Comments:
Many times it is the new business owner who goes for the lowest price. I try to give them names and numbers of our established customers that have tried the lowball outfit and experienced the difference in quality and service. Once again, an unbiased opinion can make a deal work for you.
Crocker Smith
The lesson, again, is that “you get what you pay for” …. We have a couple competitors in town who like to purport that they are less expensive than us. They obviously don’t know how we bill our clients. We have an all inclusive rate. If there was a situation that required us to have add-on charges, we make it absolutely clear to our clients up front.
One of our competitors undercut our markups at one of our clients. They said they could offer a lower rate than we charged. Our client took the bait, only to find out when they received the invoice that there were several extraneous fees, to include a mysterious “administration fee” and mailing fees and they billed extra for drug screens. All in all our customer would have gotten better, more honest service from us. We didn’t need to tell them that, they vowed never to use the competition again. The fact of the matter is that we are worth it.
If a customer simply won’t budge on your lowest acceptable rate, well, on to the next! No point in lowering your price to put yourself in a position where you might lose money.
Marquesa Ortega
People that say all they care about is price must have a fleet of people ready to help for free! The fact is, once we find them a top grade product with top grade performance, our clients will certainly expect top grade service if and when this time comes - and why not, they paid for it. If they buy bargains, they get bargains, and bargain service to go along with it.
I know of some DIY kind of proprietors here in town, and they claim to be able to fix, repair, install, and operate everything in their establishment. This certainly is a point of pride for many owners. In practice - these same people are very overworked, and it shows when it comes to PR related issues. Spread yourself too thin, and you burn out.
When you buy the top grade from us, you get our team's knowledge, expertise, and we will ensure your service needs are met. By realizing better efficiency in electrical power, smoother operation at all times, and higher resale values of the equipment, the upfront costs are quickly offset, and once the clients get a taste of the performance and service, they don't go back to entry level - I'd ask the price client - EVER WONDER WHY??
Wendy Parrott
"You might be tempted to lower your price, instead, call their bluff. "Okay, here's what I can do. Find the best price you can and I'll beat it by at least 10 percent! But I get to choose when we deliver." “I get to select the quality that we ship."