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How to Set the Best Price

May 21, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Pricing a problem? Photo by luz from flickr

Is determining the best price a problem? Photo by luz from flickr

Are you having trouble determining how to set the best price for your products or services? That seems to be a common problem for owners of independent businesses.

Do it right and customers will be content, happy to pay you what you deserve, and you’ll be around. Do it wrong and you won’t. It’s that simple.

The best pricing system takes these 8 items into consideration:

  1. True total costs
  2. Profit
  3. Contingency
  4. Overhead
  5. Payback for investment
  6. Positioning
  7. Value
  8. Time

You may think you know what each of these mean.  See if you do and if you agree with me. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Growth, Business Management, Business Process, Marketing Strategy, Planning & Vision, Pricing, Vision Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Finding Platinum Prospects™; Firing Radioactive Waste Customers™

June 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Focus on Platinum Profile Prospects™

Focus on Platinum Profile Prospects™

On June 25th I’m going to be speaking at the BSC B2B Meetup in Austin about finding the best prospects and firing the worst customers. It’s one of my favorite subjects because it’s got a huge payoff.

Top 3 Savings Benefits of Focusing on Platinum Profile Prospects™

  1. Saves time; makes time available to concentrate on higher value prospects who may require more resources and effort.
  2. Saves aggravation. Even the most seasoned salesperson doesn’t like to be misled. It can really put you off your game — especially if you were counting on that sale.
  3. Saves cash. It can be very expensive to travel and spend time with the wrong prospects. Not going after “low hanging fruit” can make you money in the short term and in the long run. [Read more...]
Filed Under: Business Management, Business Process, Customer Relations, Customer Service, Resources, Sales, Sales Strategy Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

How Legacy Pricing™ Works

July 19, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Knowing where you're going is a great legacy. Image by TW Collins

There’s nothing wrong with Cost-plus or Value-based pricing when they are done right. Both are good strategies but incomplete in my opinion.

In the case of Cost-based pricing, basically you look at the costs and then add a percentage for profit on top of that number to arrive at a price.

In my experience, those who set the prices don’t know, forget, or leave out costs that they shouldn’t. Sometimes it is the cost of the salary of the principals or putting in enough for contingencies. Just as often they don’t include all the costs involved in being able to provide this product or service before and after getting customer #1. Then there are the true total costs to support and maintain this customer with this product or service. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Management, Financials, Pricing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Selective Marketing

January 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Below is a presentation I gave at a local Austin meetup. It deals with how to use sales and marketing strategies and processes to save money and increase sales.
Filed Under: Sales Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,