Most buyer and seller companies misunderstand price. Buyers, because they want the lowest price (price is all), and sellers because they do not understand the value of price. I am going to discuss Price as a business improvement tool and Price as an investment, for all companies. Companies are sometimes sellers and sometimes buyers.
Have you ever in your planning process thought of improving your business (read profits)? What do you think about first? You think about increasing market share or of cutting costs. How many have your prime strategy of increasing price. How many think of adding value and price, or differentiating and price, or telling a better story to skew the price in your favour? I’ll warrant, very few!
And when buying or selling do you ever think of price as an investment rather than a cost? How do you talk about value and the value of your product as an investment? You will buy this suit and use it for 5 years, versus this one which is a throwaway? Or this car will cost me less because maintenance is less and resale value is high? Or this car will be worthwhile because it enhances my image and self esteem?
So, rethink and use price as a prime strategy for improving business and profits, and for thinking of what you are buying and selling as an investment.
If you do this, you can graduate to thinking beyond price as the only way to sell, and think Customer value and value creation.
